Were heel-release magazines for the old Swiss P210s ever made in Germany or only in Switzerland?

Since the heel mag release P210s were made only in Switzerland, I’ll go out on a limb and say the corresponding mags were also exclusively made there. Bet OTD will have the definitive answer.

Thanks, Q. Currently, that is my thinking also. The reason I ask though is that I just recently received one of the old heel-release mags in trade. It’s very similar to the mags for my German P210 Legend Target. There are some differences, but the construction (dovetail pattern, dimpling, follower, locking plate) is identical. So it makes me wonder if the Germans made their mags from old Swiss tooling when they started the Legend series, or if the Swiss had the Germans start making mags for Swiss P210s sometime after establishing SIG Sauer with them in the 1970s.

You can convert a German 210 mag for heel catch use with a 225 baseplate and some fitting. Is that what you have?

No, I’m not trying to convert anything. I was more just curious about the manufacturing history of the Swiss P210 mags because I noticed more similarities than I expected to the German P210 mags.

When the German made Legend was released, German made mags made for thumb release could be converted by swapping the baseplate. Given $50 for the German mags and $150 for the Swiss, this was a common thing to do.

What Voshterkoff is suggesting is that the previous owner could have done this mod. Does it have a cut in the side for a US style mag release?

I see now what Voshterkoff meant by his post. Thanks for clarifying. To answer your question, my heel-release mag is definitely all-original and wrapped in the factory bag. The part number (“Bezeichnung” is German for “Designation”) is 34216001 and it does not have any button release cuts. It has no markings of any kind either, unlike my German P210 mags, which actually say “P210 9mm” underneath the last witness hole on the left side. Click here for pictures.

Shackelford is right about what I was trying to get at. Converted German magazines were about a third of the cost of used Swiss magazines. The lack of a button magazine catch slot is interesting. I only have one Swiss magazine, but after looking around at pictures online, they all appear to be smooth spines. I have two theories. One is that they were made some time ago for the German border guard 210 pistols. Two is that if they are making magazines for Legend, it doesn’t take much to make brand new magazines for the Swiss market.

I’d agree with all of that as being possible except for the last part. If you look at the bag in the pictures, it makes no mention of “SIG Sauer Inc.”, rather it says “SIG Arms Inc.”, which wound indicate that it predates the Legend.