Bought this SIG P 220-1 army yesterday. It’s the 1811th made for the Swiss army contract in 1949, so a first year delivery model, a true P49 pistol. 3200 were made and delivered that year.







Took it straight to the 25 m indoor range

Arguably the finest 9mm service pistol ever made.

I couldn’t agree more... so I got a few of them

That is a beautiful pistol, all of the ones pictured here.

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KM
S&WCA 3110 S&WHF 625

Is this one a new acquisition? How do you find all these cool P210s where you live?

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Having been bit by the P210 bug all I can do while looking at your collection is remind myself that, "thou shalt not covet..."

I have a -6, a German stainless target model, and one of the new American made ones. Of those three, I have to say that German version is the sweetest shooting pistol I have ever had in my hand. Of course, there are a multitude of great pistols I have never had in my hand!

Like I said, bought yesterday. Bought three this month, gotta cool down.

I live in Switzerland so they are plentiful here. One came from a private sale and two from two different LGS.

One of the LGS just acquired a nice private collection

Don’t hesitate to show them

Ian’s very good video on the P49

YouTube

Very nice SIG!
The original from Neuhausen.

Very good video referenced above.

For good detailed info, I can recommend the book:
"Begegnungen mit Einer Legende" by Armbruster and Kessler.

PS: glad to see that you shoot yours!

Jim

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Thanks for sharing, that first year is a work of art.

I have no words...just perfection!

It would also be difficult to go into your local gun shop without purchasing something...we definitely do not see that selection in our area, ever.

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Rather be outdoors

Outstanding pistol! This is one of those models that are on my dream collection, but one which I would likely not shoot that much. In terms of price, I've missed the boat here in the US, and for the time being, have no interest in an American-made "inspired" copy.

Thank you for posting!

My P210 is also an Army model. Also a first year delivery. Also from 1949.

But... it went to the Danish Army.

Originally it was just like yours Oliver. Highly polished bright blue and similar grip panels. But it was on Danish service too long(I believe that some are still in service there). It was refurbished and the grip panels were changed. But I cannot complain. And it is the only one I have. And I will shamelessly show it every chance I get.

At least all the numbers match and the bore is like new.

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Expect the unexpected

Beautiful pistol Kurusu, and you have a good reason to be proud. Even though I like the grip panels on the OP's pistol, I tend to find the checkered plastic grips aesthetically more pleasing, even if not "correct", on the matte finished pistols. Also, I may not represent the majority, but I do not look down on armory, or even factory, refurbishments.

Congrats on the find. I suspect arms collecting in Portugal may not be that simple.

210s are SWEEeeeeeeeet

Don't think I've ever seen one for sale here in W Pennsylvania USA........ love the full size single stack 9mm concept............ closest I've come is the Beretta 92 Compact (4.25" barrel) Type-M single stack (8+1) also had a Sig 225 for a while but prefered the Beretta.

Stumbled across 5 of the Berettas over the years .... two of which are S models w/ bright blue finish and walnut grips and one is actually a
Type-M D....... DAO....... the last two are FSs but with the rounded trigger guard!

Anything gun related in Portugal is not exactly simple. It is doable, but one must really be commited. Because beaurocracy and rules are plenty.

On a side note. My P210 is not registered in my collector permit but on my competition permit. This is a "working gun"

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Expect the unexpected

Nice way around the permitting! I hope it doesn't have to stay locked up at the club. Unfortunately, I'm very familiar with this type bureaucracy, including in Portuguese, albeit in the Southern hemisphere.

Guns don't stay locked up in clubs around here. But I got a vault at home. It's mandatory for collectors and for anyone above 25 guns.

Guilty of both.

I got four gun permits albeit they are now all on the same card(it used to be 4 different documents).

1 concealed carry
2 competition
3 hunting (both rifled and smoothbore). It is possible to have an hunting gun permit for smoothbore only.
4 collector

Edit. Brazil is far worse. And I don't know how the situation is in our ex colonies in Africa.

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Expect the unexpected

[QUOTE=Kurusu;141125849]

But I got a vault at home. It's mandatory for collectors and for anyone above 25 guns.

Guilty of both.

/QUOTE]

It probably would be hard to find someone on this forum who isn't.

Have an original Danish one with the box. A number of them were imported years ago, and were not too expensive. Also have a new A version.

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Actually it’s probably the most precise service pistol ever made, so once you realise how well you can score with it, you’ll shoot it more.

Here is a famous target showing 80 shots from 10 pistols in a rest at 50 meters (almost 55 yards)



And they’re built like tanks, super durable, stories here in Switzerland of guns with 100’000 rounds without loss of accuracy or play.

I recently asked my LGS if there was any chance to find a 210 frame to put my .22 lr conversion on it, and have a permanent P210 .22 lr. He said are you kidding, these things don’t break and you can only find small parts, but not frames or slides.

Still a nice gun and it seems the refinish was done professionally

There are quite a few Danish army 210 that came back to Switzerland

Either the Danish military themselves or Sig did the job. Don't know which one.

Edit. I am leaning on the Danish doing the job. Because the pistol has little blemishes on the finish consistent with a pistol that remained in military service.

Edit 2. Indeed they returned to Switzerland. The Danish surplussed many of their pistols directly to Sig. Who revised and resold them.

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Expect the unexpected

I hadn't seen that target or document; impressive, to say the least! Being a Swiss made, and adopted, pistol, I've always assumed that it was accurate, and reliable, even before reading all the "magazine" articles, but I've never had the opportunity to even handle one; much less shoot it. Perhaps, if I had, then I would have one in my humble collection. With all that said, and not knowing the type of maintenance these pistols require, I've always been cautious about buying guns that may eventually need parts, and parts that may need fitting (hence, a used part may not be suitable for a particular fix), that aren't always easy to source.

Not being a man of means, however, still having discerning tastes...not a very good combination...I've always been careful with my discretionary spending. I don't remember exactly when the Danish surplus P210s came in to the US, or how much they cost, but I think they were in the $1500-$2000 range. For that kind of money, I could've bought a handful of surplus pistols, such as Walther PPs, or used police trade-in guns, such as SigSauer P226s, P220s in .45acp, P230/232, various S&W trade-in revolvers and 2nd and 3rd Gen pistols, Gen3 Glocks, and even Ruger GP100s and the occasional Speed and Security Six. Likewise, for the price of a Sako TRG-21, I could have bought two heavy barreled Remington 700s, aftermarket stocks/triggers/bases and rings, and had money left over.

If the prices of the above weren't so reasonable, or if the government restrictions were such that it would've been prohibitively expensive to buy the number that I was able to, then chances are I'd have a lot fewer pieces of better quality and/or condition, even though much of what I do have is as good as I'd ever buy, regardless of my purchasing power.

I love seeing posts such as yours, the P210 and the TRG are still on my list, but for now, I'll have to continue to make do with what I have.

Btw, in terms of accuracy and function, how does the Sig P210 .22LR conversion compare to a CZ75 Kadet?

Cheers

Wonderful guns! Love 'em!
Mine is ex-military from the 60's.
Still had a hand written paper with a name inside the grip.

When the Swiss decided to replace the Lugers. They wanted the replacement to have at least similar accuracy, but contrary to the Luger all parts should be interchangeable without fitting.

If you ever handled one your doubts would vanish. the precision of the interacting parts is amazing. The movement of the slide over the frame can only be described as silky smooth.

The precision of the P210 is in fact on par with the Luger which is outstanding for a military pistol

Proof:

25 meters competition target with a P.08. Note that the Swiss Lugers in .30 Luger, with a slightly longer barrel and a better front sight can group even better.

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Expect the unexpected

I have not tried a CZ 75 Kadet conversion

But the Sig one, which prefers high velocity ammo (I use CCI minimag) functions fine and is accurate

Well. I have tried more than one CZ 75 conversions. I have even tried several CZ 75 Kadet(basically it's a CZ 75 without the 9mm barrel and slide). And I have mixed feelings. The CZ 75 Kadets were all very accurate. The 9mm 75s with a conversion bought afterwards varied from X ring accuraccy to 3 1/2 to 4 inch groups.

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Expect the unexpected

Very nice! I didn't know that the P210 was not hand fitted. From the date of the design, I was sure it was.

I'm fortunate to have a 1936 DWM P08, armory refurbished. The magazine is not matching, the grips are replacement Bakelites, but it has history, waffenamts, and is mine. At the time, I had to decide between it, a VIS-35, or a M1912 Steyr-Hahn. Here in the US, I believe the Radom is worth more these days, but I don't regret my decision one bit.

Beauty of a kit! I appreciate the fact that it has polished bluing, and retains the fixed sight, similar to the original centerfire model. That is one fine training aid!

Thanks for posting!

I had both, but sold my First Generation Kadet kit to a friend (I think the only difference is it did not work with the Omega triggers which came out subsequently) because I always ended up just grabbing the Kadet pistol, which I am fond of.

I helped him fit the slide of the kit to his frame (Sp01?), and he has not complained of any problems with it, and shoots it more than the 9mm top end. I've seen him firing it, and don't remember the groups being overly large, but then he's always had shaky hands.

That gun shop pic of all the 210's made me whimper.

A Sig210 has always been one of my grail guns. I missed out on the 210's that were imported here years ago. They all practically disappeared overnight. I did look at one at a gun show, it was excellent mechanically but was severely cosmetically challenged. It had been refinished at one time but even that was about 50% gone. Seller wanted 800 for it but I just couldn't do it knowing what they were supposed to look like.

A little over a year ago I had just left the lgs and was almost home when my friend that works there called and said they just got a 210 in on consignment. I asked him to hold off on putting it out until I could take a look at it. I already knew it would probably come home with me the next day since it was in 7.65mm Luger, one of my all time favorite calibers.

It's an early one, probably 1950, and came with a 22 cal conversion unit and 500 rds of 7.65mm Luger. All of this made the whole thing even better. I would have liked an early contract model, liked the one mentioned above, but over here beggars can't be choosers and I think the 20 year or so wait was worth it.

Very nice Sigs, always thought that it would be fun to own one but sadly between my poor eyesight and shaky hands my accuracy would likely not improve much over what I can produce with my SW Model 52.

On a side note I did a quick conversion ofvSwiss Francs which equals about $2600 USD.
Brought back fond memories of my visit to CH many years ago to visit my friend Mike who at that time was a policeman in Canton Bern, He brought me to a few Swiss gun stores, the two things I never forgot were the variety of machine guns and silencers there for regular purchase and that Swiss made Sig handguns cost more there than in the USA in 2005.
The other cool thing was whenever we visited his friends I would ask to see their "Army Gun" and from a bedroom closet would come a select fire Sig assault rifle or HK Mp5 submachine gun.
Good memories.

I first shot one almost 40 years ago when I first started shooting competitively and had lusted after one since. Seldom saw them for sale and when I did they were always out of my price range.

I picked up a P210A right after they released the target model a few years back. I really enjoyed it and only changed the grips to the standard grips when Hogue started making those. I have really enjoyed it but still wanted a “real” one.

Finally found one a couple years ago and managed some creative sell and scrape maneuvers in time to get it. Then recently picked up a real nice 22 unit for it as well. Now just looking for spare mags. The pistol came with 2 9mm mags and the original flap holster but the conversion unit naturally came with only one mag. I have never seen a 22 mag for sale by itself but I’m still looking.

The pistol is the most common last variation from the early 70s based on a the serial number. All original finish in 95%-ish condition outside and 99 inside when I got it. “P” marked as it should be when released from service with some paperwork from the release.

The conversion unit is bright blue with bright mag that appears to be in the white. Original Sig marked box with foam and sales receipt from 1987. It MIGHT have been unfired based on the condition but who knows.

I have owned and fired a lot of 9s over the years shooting bullseye matches then IPSC and some PPC and finally IDPA until a few years ago but this is the most accurate 9 I have ever owned. After getting my hold off dialed in first time out with it I set up an empty 20oz plastic bottle up at 100 yds based on a laser rangefinder. We were out in the boonies at the end of a shift and I am glad I had two other coworkers with me. I laid my forearms across the top of my car and fired 8 rounds at it holding off for the range and it jumped 8 times. One of the guys went and got the bottle and brought it back and it had 6 holes.

They both shot it after me and now they are both looking for one. I think the trigger on the American is a tad better but I still group better at distance with the Swiss.

This one will be passed down to which ever of my sons wins the fight. I have begun selling stuff off as I near retirement but this one is on the keep list.

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BT
EGO VOLUNTAS HAUD OBEDIO