Have a bunch of 229 mags and am wondering which are considered the best? Some are polished and say Italy LEO only and are 12 round and the others are phosphate coated and zipper back, also 12 rounds. All mags say Sig on them,Looking to sell a P229 and rather not sell away what may be my best mags.

As long as they have "Made In Italy" stamped on them which is "Made by Mec-Gar I am happy and personally prefer the phosphate finish over the blued.

I think functionally they are all the same. Me personally I'd ditch the LEO marked ones as I hate that stamp.

Zipper-back & dovetail-back mags are vintage and were made in Germany. They have long been out of production and appeal to those w/ old Sigs who prefer period-correct mags.

I bought my Sig from a police supply store and LEO mags were the only show in town at the time, latter on factory fresh mag could then be found.

I think the phosphate mags look nicer, but the blued actually drop better. The phosphates eject noticeably slower due to the rougher finish. However, I've heard that newer phosphate mags have a smoother finish, so maybe OK if true.

These mags are not the same as the new 229-1 mags.

quote:

Originally posted by Carolinakid:
These mags are not the same as the new 229-1 mags.

I could be wrong, but I presume he's referring to .40/357SIG 12 round magazines, which have never changed.

No one has mentioned caliber in this thread, but I'm not aware of a 12 round 9mm magazine for either iteration of the P229/P229-1...

Good point! Sorry for leaving out the "Facts" and just the "Facts" just kidding! Both of my Sig P229's are 1 .357 Sig and it's twin is .40 S&W. Looking to get rid of one and was wondering which mag to let go of.Thanks

Keep the phosphate mags.