[Spanky McFly]

I bought a USP40 about 6 mo. ago. I have been able to determine the year by its markings. It has a KD on the slide meaning '93. I believe they had only been making them about 2 years when this one was made. It has what looks like a stag horn to the right of the KD. This is supposed to be a German UL listing. The S/N is 22-3300 on the barrel and frame. This seems like a really low serial number. Does anyone know if the 22 means anything? Most of the others I have seen have a 22 or maybe a 25 and then a 5 or 6 digit serial number. Anyone got a lower S/N that 3300?

[BADSBSNF81]

The "antler" is the proof house mark for the city of Ulm in Germany. It has been in use since 1968.

[warrior23]

You can visit www.hkpro.com go to the world of HK and they can give ya some history on the born on date and how many were produced.

[10-Ring]

Yeah, that -3300 does seem kinda low. I wouldn't worry about it tho. That USP has many many many years & rounds ahead of her! Enjoy!

[hksw]

22-3300

Wow, you have a REALLY early one. When the first USP9s came out (regular land/groove) I picked up a couple and they had 24- prefixes and 6 digit like yours. If you can find some old gun rag photos of the (then new) USPs, you'll find that 22- is a very early model. That's the lowest prefix I've ever seen for a USP in both .40 and 9, at least from the photos I've seen with 22- guns.

I know the 9s had regular rifling but don't know if the .40s had. Does yours have land/groove as opposed to polygonal? It should have a non-captured recoil spring.

[Extremist]

The "22" prefix has nothing to do with the age of the firearm, it is simply HK's designated prefix for the USP 40 full size framed pistols. See: http://www.hkpro.com/symbols.htm for more details under "Serial Number Prefix".

The numbers after the prefix give an indication of the manufacture date based on how low they are, as well as the most important Date Code of KD ('93).

The S/N on 9mm and 40 Full size pistols are important in one aspect - the early ones below certain S/N cannot have the "Match Trigger Kit" installed on them:

Match Trigger Kit Upgrade:
USP9 (SN: 24-21515 and higher), USP40 (SN: 22-36242 and higher)

3000 is very low....

Regards,
James

[hksw]

Whoops. I correct myself on the prefix.

Also, the USP9s are 5 digits not 6.

Posting from work hammerbites me again.

[Spanky McFly]

hksw,
Mine does have the "land grooves". I noticed they looked very wide and flat. I think mine does have a captured spring. When I take the recoil spring out and the rod they stay together, if that is what you mean?

Thanks for the info.

[hksw]

Yeah, if the recoils spring assembly come out in one piece. For the earlier ones like my 5 digit USP9s, the guide rod and main spring are seperate. You might have either a model that had a slight ugrade as HK production went along or the original seperate spring/rod recoil assembly was replaced with a more current one.

A benefit of the land/grooved barrels is that you can shoot all lead bullets through them without any problems. Another plus for the early guns was that they came with full capacity mags.