a little surprise

[jdinevens]

so i was taking apart my handgun today because i've got nothing else to do at the moment and i start looking over my weapon. on the slide i knowtice that it says it was made in W Germany. i think to myself hmm if the wall came down in 1989 than this is a lot older than i thought it was. btw i own a sig 226 and i bought it used, i guess it is a little more used than i thought. is there any way to check/verify how old the weapon is?

[universal]

From what I hear, the "made in West Germany" Sigs are worth hanging on to. I am not 100% sure, but I would think that Sigarms here in the U.S. could help you out with the age of your P226. Most gunmakers have a service like that. There might even be someone here with info you need. I only have it for S&W products.

[Jim Keenan]

Well, West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) lasted for 41 years, 1949-1990, and there were a whole lot of guns made there in that period. I don't see any mad collector's rush for "West Germany" marked guns.

Jim

[Ala Dan]

Contrary too what my friend Jim says, the West German marked SIG's
are highly sought after by collector's; at least in my neck of these ole' woods.

[10-Ring]

If it's stamped MADE IN W. GERMANY, snatch it up! :cool:

[Gaucho Gringo]

I have a fishing reel kind of like that. It was bought in the early 1950's by my father, but it says Made in Germany, not West Germany. It had me baffled for a while so I found a group that is into fishing reels and posed the question. The answer was that the parts for the reel were made before WWII. When the war came the parts were put in storage and after the war were retreived and used. It is kind of weird that a whole bunch of fishing reel parts survived the war. I guess bombing fishing reel factories were not a high priority for the Allies. I also have one of the later ones and it says Made in West Germany. The reels were Quick Finessa's made by Dam. I guess when something came from Germany after WWII you never can be too sure as to when it was made.

[sig228]

Look on the frame under the barrel. There might be a two letter date code and proof markings.

The date codes can be interpreted as follows:

A = 0
B = 1
C = 2
D = 3
E = 4
F = 5
G = 6
H = 7
J = 8
K = 9

In other words, KC = 1992

There is no I.

Your gun IS worth a little more, but not enough to retire on. Enjoy the gun. A lot more specific SIG info can be found at:

http://www.sigforum.com/

You can also learn about your proof markings if there are any.

Shoot safe.