Years ago I purchased a P220 as satin chrome only to find out recently most likely it is nickel. The owner told me he purchased is factory chrome. Obviously at this point is is not. I do not have the original box, so I do not know anything historical about it.

However after some research I found that there were Sig nickel that were factory and Sigs that were outsourced to Klein Plating. Another individual reached out to me and told me that he thought mine came from a distributor who made a large purchase from Sig and then had them nickeled.


I am trying to find out as much history as I can on this beautiful firearm





I appreciate any help !

There are no factory chrome plated SIGs. Yours, if it were factory original, is Nickel plated. Through 1987, Nickel SIGs were plated in West Germany. These Ni guns were plated all over.

From the late 80s through the late 90s, Nickel SIGs were plated at Klein in Erie, PA. Klein plated SIGs tend to have the frame, slide, controls and the guide rod only plated. The barrel, breech block and internals are left black. Klein stopped the firearm plating business at the end of the 20th century and turned in their FFL.

I did call Sig and they have no records of anything prior to 2005. Would additional photos help to determine if this was factory nickel? According to your reply, the timing is right based on the date.

Additional photos

quote:

Originally posted by Mytmoss:
I did call Sig and they have no records of anything prior to 2005. Would additional photos help to determine if this was factory nickel? According to your reply, the timing is right based on the date.

Without the original confirming box and labels, or confirmation from SIG, anything is a guessing game, unfortunately. Yours does appear factory original, and that's all I can say. I can lay out my case as to why I think it is, but that opinion is about as valid as one that the next person who says it's not.

So far most of the comments I have had here and elsewhere think its original. However as mentioned, it means less without the box.

Nice piece. Was 1985 or 1986 the first year for the button magazine release on P220s? Mine from 1984 has the older heel-style one.

I wish I could tell you the first year. Hopefully someone much smarter than I can answer that question.

However I did google 1985 P220 Tyson and the photos I found related to that query show a standard bullet button as it is today.

I was able to find a P220 from 1985 with the American style mag release. Not sure what they had going on back then, but it doesn't work with any magazines other than the one that came with it.

When that slide was put back together after it was plated it was not done to factory specs as far as the double retaining pins orientation are concerned. Factory guns have the outer diameter pin with the open edge facing the 12 o’clock position and the smaller inner pin’s open edge facing 6 o’clock. This is a good way to tell if a non factory trained person re-assembled the slide. These pins are to be replaced with new ones if they were ever removed for service. On a new gun that was taken apart, then plated, then put back together you can probably get away with reusing them as no stress from firing has been placed on them, but then again you would like to think that they would be put back in according to factory specs like all non plated nib items.