quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
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No chances your 1994 P226 would have the mud rails. Mud rails only appeared on the 1986 and the early 1987 P226s.

Read this article here from the Wayback Machine regarding the "Chicago Mod". Here are the couple of pics from that article showing the Chicago Mod vs the unmod breech block.

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Doh...you are correct sir and I am wrong. I was reading "KE" but was thinking "JE" so I was thinking about the design nuances from the wrong decade...I shoulda picked up on the difference and the only pathetic excuse I can offer is that between the time change, sleep deficit, and the fact that I am on day 7+ of an extended fast, I'm a little fuzzy-headed.

Many years ago there was a member who reported that their mud rail gun fell outside the generally accepted S/N range, leading to speculation that it was either a one-off anomaly with a left over frame, or possibly a second production run and S/N range. He never posted a photo and it's likely he was mistaken or confusing mud rails with scallops but, in trying to keep an open mind, I've left open the possibility that some of the early P226s (post Interarms) may have been mud rail guns.

As far as I know, both the mud rail and the pre-Chicago Mod design guns would've been discontinued long before the "KE" series.

^^^^ I've been known to get the decades mixed up myself, also. Sometimes, our brains just play tricks on us. Lol.

Regarding the mud rails, my take is, until someone proves otherwise with real pics, they only exist on the 1986 and early 1987 P226s. And yes, some folks do get confused between scallops and mud rails. Mud rails have scallops, but a single scallop itself doesn't mean mud rails. Here are pics of true mud rails on a 1987 Tysons Corner P226 I used to own.



Here is pic of just scallops on a 1991 P226:




Regarding the Chicago Mod, for the P228, 1996 (KG) appears to be the transition year from unmod to mod on the breech block. My pictorial records show B259108 has no mod, and B262121 has the mod. Don't know when they changed over for the P226, however.

If I was keeping a pistol solely for the value, I’d keep the folded slide Sig. For a frequent shooter, the milled slide version. The milled slide 9mm guns are very soft shooting and plenty accurate.

There is a nice JH P226 at a local shop. The serial number starts with U163XXX, but I can't tell if it has the scallops without completely removing the slide.