Hello Everyone,

I was giving my new to me P226 two tone a little TLC last night, and noticed that the hammer has a seam down the middle. The serial number dates it to 2000/2001. I thought MIM parts were used a few years later than that. Does anyone know when SIG started using MIM parts?

I don't recall exactly, but I knew at one time. I remember it being talked about on the "internet" and it was well before my time joining here. The internet was still new-ish. Most older folks didn't even use the internet then, so it was harder to get good information. It was just slightly before your 2000 gun. I wanna say like 1998-ish?

I don't recall it being a major issue or pitchfork fest, but I for certain remember parts being different. I don't really recall if people referred to it as MIM then or not. Maybe we just called it "cast" or something generic like that. It was more of an observation than an uproar or complaint...at least that's my experience with it.

I'm sure someone remembers it more clearly.

Around 2000 would be right.
I bought a JK (1989) P228 a few years ago that came with a MIM hammer. But, I have no doubt some previous owner had swapped out the original non-MIM one for whatever reason.

That was my concern. I don't remember my old 2003 P226 having the seam in the hammer. I don't see any reason why the previous owner would have swapped it out though.

I had thought my '97ish two-tone P226's hammer was investment cast, not MIM. At least that's the story my 'rents would say in the evening around the camp fire.

H&K-Guy

I also believe it was sometime around year 2000 but there never was a hard date and varied by models.

My late 90s US made P226 with German frame without rail has no MIM while my about year 2001 P229 does have MIM hammer. My year 2000 German proofed P228 has no MIM.

I have a P229 .40 made in 1998 that has a hammer that’s MIM.

I'm not going to google it, I'm just going to ask straight out and point out some of us are not as up on gun lingo and abbreviations and others"

What does MIM mean?

(Maybe it's just me because I just got through studding and taking a FAA test that had so many abbreviation it was totally mind boggling..)

Likely my P238 has a MIM hammer. Don’t know about the hammer of my P226 X5, but there’s no visible seam on either of them.

MIM can be a superior choice for some parts. The take-down lever of older SIG pistols was two forged steel parts: shaft and thumb lever, joined by a rivet head. Sometimes the rivet head would loosen with the result that the thumb lever would scratch the frame. That doesn’t happen with the one-piece MIM take-down lever of newer SIG pistols.

ETA – I find it amusing that SIG put a faux rivet head on the MIM take-down lever. To give it That Old Tyme Look.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pipe Smoker,

MIM= Metal Injection Molding; AKA "cast parts."

My first Sig had a cast hammer and it was a 2001 P226 in 40.

Tony.

I bought a new P239 SAS right when they came out. About a year later, my buddy bought a new 9mm P239 DAK.

Mine has regular hammer and trigger, his has MIM parts.

I can’t remember exactly when we bought them but, that was the transition time.

Anyone remember when the P239,SAS Gen 1 was released?

These are kind of fun threads. We lived through a full generation of them with Smit and westerns.

And its hard to be revelant on this discussion. I can say my P210-7 doesn't have them (built in the late 1960s), nor does my P210-2 have them (early 1970s). But then my P938 does, Current production. How's that for a 50 year window?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rburg,

I don't think MIM is so bad as an industrial process. It's been around for a long time and there are people who know how to do it right.

Trouble is, I'm not confident that someone who is new to MIM,..... and is interested in cutting costs,....is going to do the right thing by their customers.

For me, that means that there's a date range that I would avoid.

V.

A known all-original circa 1997 P239 has a trigger that appears to be an investment casting (not MIM), as it has no shrinkage-control voids.

For what it’s worth, current factory “superfinish” parts in the P-series are excellent, even if many are MIM.