These days, Sig Sauer is one of the largest and most highly regarded firearms company in the world. They sell handguns and rifles in all different shapes, sizes, and calibers, with countless names and color schemes. They introduce new models on a yearly basis and sell many thousands of guns in the US every season. While I’m not a big fan of the current company or the pistols they produce, there is no denying the success they have found among the masses.
All this success started somewhere. Travel back in time to about 1970 when Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) of Switzerland was fast advancing their manufacturing processes with new state of the art machinery. This would enable them to develop a new pistol at greatly reduced manufacturing costs. At the time, the extraordinarily accurate, tough, dependable, and super high quality P210 had been the adopted pistol of the Swiss army since replacing the Luger over two decades earlier. The drawback of the P210 was cost. It was very expensive to manufacture, resulting in sagging commercial sales and army orders. Furthermore, its single action design was aging a bit as a military sidearm. Finally, both the Swiss military and police forces all but demanded a lower cost replacement.
The P210 was the only handgun Sig had ever built and was now faced with a big challenge and needed some help. Sig wanted this new pistol to gain worldwide fanfare. Hampered by the Swiss law prohibiting exportation of firearms, Sig sought to bypass this law by joining forces with a foreign gun firm. J.P.Sauer & Sohn of Germany was just the sort of company Sig was looking to merge with. Sig wanted the new handgun to be of a double action design and configuration. During the early 1970's, double action autos were very quickly rising in popularity and preference over older single action designs. Being that Sig’s only handgun was the P210, they had very little to no experience with the double action designs. Sauer, on the other hand, had extensive experience with producing double action pistols, such as the 38H. Combining Sig’s new manufacturing technology and Sauer’s experience was a match made in heaven for both of the companies.
Once this great partnership was established, it did not take long before a new pistol was launched in 1975. It was quickly adopted by the Swiss army and called the Pistole 75 or P75. Commercially the gun was known as the Sig-Sauer P220. The chambering did not change from the P210, which was 9mm Parabellum. This pistol was wildly different from the legendary sidearm it replaced. Gone was the dense and costly forged steel slide and frame of the Sig P210. Instead the P220 had a heavy sheet metal welded stamping for a slide, coupled with a lightweight aluminum alloy frame. This greatly reduced the manufacturing cost while still giving the P220 outstanding reliability, very good accuracy, and acceptable durability.
The design of the P220 is that of the common Browning locked breech. It differed from many before it and since to include the P210, 1911, Browning Hi Power, S&W 39, CZ 75, etc. The difference was that the P220 did not have barrel lugs or matching recesses in the slide to lock the barrel and slide together. Instead it used a large section of the breech end of the barrel to lock into the ejection port. Many pistols have used this system since, to include Glock. The P220 also included a hammer drop (decocker) on the left side of the frame much like the old Sauer 38H.
This new pistol was very well received in several markets. In the United States, the P220 was imported under the name of the Browning BDA starting in 1977 and continuing until 1980. After that, Sig Sauer was finally able to import it under its own name. All of these early guns had heel mag releases. In addition to 9mm, the early heel release P220 became available in 30 Luger and 38 Super.
To follow up on the P220, Sig Sauer developed a compact version of the gun for the German police in 1978, called the P225. Germany designated this pistol the P6 and adopted it along with the Walther P5 and HK P7. During the 1980‘s, Sig Sauer introduced the double stack P226 and P228 to keep up with popular demand for higher capacity pistols. Once these were in place, the old warhorse P220 more or less became designated for the 45ACP round.
This example is very early. The date code is “HG” for 1976. With the pistol being introduced during 1975, this would be its first full year of production. This gun is even earlier than the first Browning BDA’s imported to the States in 1977. Early Sig Sauer pistols like this were all privately imported. Accompanying it is its original box and extra magazine. The early boxes are just like that of the Sig P210 of the same period, which makes perfect sense. Looks closely at this gun and you’ll notice the different shape of the early slides compared to P220’s just a newer years newer. The slide serrations are also different.
Condition is very good. The outside shows some minor handling marks. Unfortunately, the finish on the West German Sigs was notorious for clearly showing wear, dings, and scratches. However, its in great shape for 40+ years old. Internally, the gun is very clean. I honestly don’t think it was shot a whole lot over the decades in Germany. This is certainly a classic among classic 9mm Sig P220 pistols.
Anyone have an early Sig Sauer like this?
Thanks for reading and please enjoy the pics.
Here it is with my 1983 9mm P220 so you can see the differences...
...some macro pics
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All this success started somewhere. Travel back in time to about 1970 when Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) of Switzerland was fast advancing their manufacturing processes with new state of the art machinery. This would enable them to develop a new pistol at greatly reduced manufacturing costs. At the time, the extraordinarily accurate, tough, dependable, and super high quality P210 had been the adopted pistol of the Swiss army since replacing the Luger over two decades earlier. The drawback of the P210 was cost. It was very expensive to manufacture, resulting in sagging commercial sales and army orders. Furthermore, its single action design was aging a bit as a military sidearm. Finally, both the Swiss military and police forces all but demanded a lower cost replacement.
The P210 was the only handgun Sig had ever built and was now faced with a big challenge and needed some help. Sig wanted this new pistol to gain worldwide fanfare. Hampered by the Swiss law prohibiting exportation of firearms, Sig sought to bypass this law by joining forces with a foreign gun firm. J.P.Sauer & Sohn of Germany was just the sort of company Sig was looking to merge with. Sig wanted the new handgun to be of a double action design and configuration. During the early 1970's, double action autos were very quickly rising in popularity and preference over older single action designs. Being that Sig’s only handgun was the P210, they had very little to no experience with the double action designs. Sauer, on the other hand, had extensive experience with producing double action pistols, such as the 38H. Combining Sig’s new manufacturing technology and Sauer’s experience was a match made in heaven for both of the companies.
Once this great partnership was established, it did not take long before a new pistol was launched in 1975. It was quickly adopted by the Swiss army and called the Pistole 75 or P75. Commercially the gun was known as the Sig-Sauer P220. The chambering did not change from the P210, which was 9mm Parabellum. This pistol was wildly different from the legendary sidearm it replaced. Gone was the dense and costly forged steel slide and frame of the Sig P210. Instead the P220 had a heavy sheet metal welded stamping for a slide, coupled with a lightweight aluminum alloy frame. This greatly reduced the manufacturing cost while still giving the P220 outstanding reliability, very good accuracy, and acceptable durability.
The design of the P220 is that of the common Browning locked breech. It differed from many before it and since to include the P210, 1911, Browning Hi Power, S&W 39, CZ 75, etc. The difference was that the P220 did not have barrel lugs or matching recesses in the slide to lock the barrel and slide together. Instead it used a large section of the breech end of the barrel to lock into the ejection port. Many pistols have used this system since, to include Glock. The P220 also included a hammer drop (decocker) on the left side of the frame much like the old Sauer 38H.
This new pistol was very well received in several markets. In the United States, the P220 was imported under the name of the Browning BDA starting in 1977 and continuing until 1980. After that, Sig Sauer was finally able to import it under its own name. All of these early guns had heel mag releases. In addition to 9mm, the early heel release P220 became available in 30 Luger and 38 Super.
To follow up on the P220, Sig Sauer developed a compact version of the gun for the German police in 1978, called the P225. Germany designated this pistol the P6 and adopted it along with the Walther P5 and HK P7. During the 1980‘s, Sig Sauer introduced the double stack P226 and P228 to keep up with popular demand for higher capacity pistols. Once these were in place, the old warhorse P220 more or less became designated for the 45ACP round.
This example is very early. The date code is “HG” for 1976. With the pistol being introduced during 1975, this would be its first full year of production. This gun is even earlier than the first Browning BDA’s imported to the States in 1977. Early Sig Sauer pistols like this were all privately imported. Accompanying it is its original box and extra magazine. The early boxes are just like that of the Sig P210 of the same period, which makes perfect sense. Looks closely at this gun and you’ll notice the different shape of the early slides compared to P220’s just a newer years newer. The slide serrations are also different.
Condition is very good. The outside shows some minor handling marks. Unfortunately, the finish on the West German Sigs was notorious for clearly showing wear, dings, and scratches. However, its in great shape for 40+ years old. Internally, the gun is very clean. I honestly don’t think it was shot a whole lot over the decades in Germany. This is certainly a classic among classic 9mm Sig P220 pistols.
Anyone have an early Sig Sauer like this?
Thanks for reading and please enjoy the pics.
Here it is with my 1983 9mm P220 so you can see the differences...
...some macro pics
