I rescued an old P226 magazine out of a LGS bin this past weekend. I'm not sure about its date of manufacture. It's an old 'zipper back' 15rnd magazine and the interesting part, at least to me, are the stampings on the forward edge.

The magazine seems a bit older than the 1994/2004 bans, how long were the zipper back mags made?

I've also seen "Law Enforcement Only" marked mags before but I've never seen a P226 mags with all of these markings and what I think is a serial number. The markings all appear to be factory and done at the same time

Please, if you have any info about mags like these let us all know.

Sorry, my picture isn't the greatest so I'll say what's on it first.

Basically 4 areas of stampings.
Upper left, 2 lines

J.P. Sauer & Sohn GmoH
Germany


Upper middle, appears to me to be a serial number.

091494


Upper right, 2 lines.

SIGARMS INC.
Exeter, NH


Lower line.

RESTRICTED LAW ENFORCEMENT/GOV'T USE ONLY

It's not a serial number, it's a date. September 14, 1994 - the effective date of the infamous Clinton "Crime Bill". Is the mag a zipper back or dovetailed? Some folks use these terms interchangeably. Here's a photo of a couple of P220 zipper backs for comparison.

I don't think there is a zipper back P226 mag. Dovetail, yes. Zipper, no.

If it was during the AWB era, then, it's going to be 1994 - 2004. Nothing special about it.

quote:

Originally posted by hjs157:
It's not a serial number - it's a date. September 14, 1994. The effective date of the now infamous Clinton "Crime Bill".

Ah yes, I didn't look at the number as a whole. I believe you could be right although I'm a bit surprised that they would use that format, MMDDYY, instead of YYMMDD. That would hint to me that the mag was stamped here in the states but I could be wrong. Perhaps the format of the date code was set by the "Crime Bill".

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I don't think there is a zipper back P226 mag. Dovetail, yes. Zipper, no.

If it was during the AWB era, then, it's going to be 1994 - 2004. Nothing special about it.

I've seen the term "zipper back" used on this sight several times but dove tail is obviously more correct for what I showed above. That's what I've always called them too. I've never actually handled a true zipper back like you show in your picture but I've had several of the dovetail mags over the years.

There appears to be at least 2 different "Dovetail" patterns as well. The dovetails on the above magazine are smaller than some of my other dovetail P226 15rnd magazines.

Does anyone have dates on when the different magazines were produced?

quote:

Originally posted by John3200:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I don't think there is a zipper back P226 mag. Dovetail, yes. Zipper, no.

If it was during the AWB era, then, it's going to be 1994 - 2004. Nothing special about it.

I've seen the term "zipper back" used on this sight several times but dove tail is obviously more correct for what I showed above. That's what I've always called them too. I've never actually handled a true zipper back like you show in your picture but I've had several of the dovetail mags over the years.

Does anyone have dates on when the different magazines were produced?

Never seen a zipper back P226 mag. They were all dovetail, when they were German made.

quote:

Originally posted by John3200:
Perhaps the format of the date code was set by the "Crime Bill".

Without making the effort to check, I suspect that was the case.

I suspect 091494 was SIG's format. Glock used a different format and a different date.


Trio of P228 LEO mags from my collection.



Glock 19 mag - internet photo.

quote:

Originally posted by hjs157:
I suspect 091494 was SIG's format. Glock used a different format and a different date.


Trio of P228 LEO mags from my collection.



Glock 19 mag - internet photo.

Thanks, the P228 mags in your picture looks identical to the P226 mag I picked up. Same markings. Same vintage, same dovetail, same other markings on the mag with the obvious differences between a P228 vs P226 magazines.

quote:

I'm a bit surprised that they would use that format, MMDDYY, instead of YYMMDD.

Considering on which side of the Atlantic whose authorities would be checking the legality of the magazines back in their day, MMDDYY makes the most sense.