Originally posted by OTD:
That’s OK bac.

My prefered P210 is a Swiss Army model from the late 50’s which I transformed into a competition gun similar to a -6 except for the trigger stop. It’s probably the roughest “plow” SIG ever made because it looks like the monday work of an unmotivated trainee, but I’m attached to it because I went through several competition with it for the last 25 years but I would not claim it to be better or worse then anything else made before or later. Others, infact all others are much nicer made, but not really better but I still prefer mine for emotional reasons and the success I had with it. So there is nothing wrong with a preference.
Here is a general thought. Annoying is the word “better” in connection with a production date a P210 was made. “Better” means that it would be possible increase an annual scoring average by 1 score point in sanctioned matches, just with a random pistol made in a certain period. This is a hocus pocus for the motivation of the relegations league but really difficult to achieve when somebody has an established score already.
If you want to have a real result for “better”, one has to compare the deviation of the measured real tolerances for every production lot made. For one frame alone it’s 247 operations not only slide to frame fit or a trigger pull that can be adjusted anyway. These area nice feature for repeatable performance but not the key feature since muzzle lock, battery fit and impact bearing, transfer plate and most importantly the tension of the recoil spring have an identical importance which cannot be tested with gut feeling, especially not on pistol which are kept untouched for pride and pleasure.
What we are doing is judging “better” based on the pattern of the depth of roughness in the finis or the way a radius was cut which can be best compared to a women’s make up skills. The fact that she is can apply it well does not mean she has good qualities regardless of her age. So if you have a nicely made, vintage P210 in your closet and are proud of it does not mean the pistol would outperform the Legend of the guy next to your lane. This performance is all that matters in shooting.