SIG P210
Swiss precision pistol adopted by armies and police for decades.
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The SIG P210 is a locked-breech semi-automatic pistol designed and manufactured by SIG in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, from 1948 to 2006. It served as the Swiss Army's Pistole 49 from 1949 to 1975 and was also adopted by Denmark and the German Bundespolizei. Known for its all-steel construction, it was chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum and 7.65×21mm Parabellum.
History
The design of the SIG P210 originated from Charles Petter's Modèle 1935A pistol. In 1937, Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) obtained a license for the Petter–Browning system from SACM to develop a successor to the Luger Parabellum 06/29, which had been in Swiss service since 1900. Unsatisfied with the Petter Browning design or their own modifications, SIG evaluated at least 11 prototypes between 1942 and 1944. Production of the Selbstladepistole Neuhausen model 44/16 began in 1944, retaining the self-contained firing and recoil systems of the original Petter Browning, and featuring a 16-round magazine.
Development was delayed by the Second World War. After testing experimental models including the 44/16 with a double-column magazine, the 47/8 model was adopted in October 1948 as the Pistole Modell 1949 (P49), with the civilian designation SP47/8. Earlier series were tested by Swedish sport shooters and the Danish army, which adopted it as the Pistol M/1949. The 47/8 model allowed easy barrel changes between 7.65mm and 9mm Parabellum, and a conversion kit for .22 caliber.
The Danish military issued the M/1949, stamped "P m/49" and also known as P210-DK, to officers, military police, special forces, and tank crews. First issued in 1950 to the Danish Army Technical Corps, it remained the standard sidearm for 60 years, replaced in the 2010s by the SIG Sauer P320 X-5 Carry. In 1957, the civilian designation SP47/8 was changed to P210 per company policy. Model P210-1 covers all models produced until 1965; P210-2 refers to the standard model from 1966.
P210-3 was a police version produced from 1951 to 1964 in limited numbers for the cantonal police of Basel, Lausanne, and Glarus. P210-4 was made for the German border guard. P210-5 and P210-6 were civilian target shooting models from the 1980s and 1990s. P210-7 was a rarely produced .22 LR rimfire model from the 1950s and 1960s.
Serial numbers
Serial numbers beginning with A denote Swiss army ordnance models, ranging from A 100001 to A 213110. Those with a P added after the A serial number were sold by the Swiss army to civilians; a stamped "P" on the front of the trigger guard indicates a weapon left as a gift upon leaving the armed services. Prototypes made between 1938 and 1947 carry serial numbers 6001 to 6028. Early SP47/8 models from 1947 are numbered 6033 to 6406.
Police and private use pistols have serial numbers with a P, running from P 8001 to P 8250 (1951) and P 50004 (1949) to P 79150 (1975). Private models made by SIG Sauer, Switzerland, from 1976 to 1984 are numbered P 79600 to P 97950, and those from 1983 to 2006 are P 300001 to P 331536, the jump to the 300000s marking the shift from forged frames to CNC production. Between 1966 and 1969, SIG produced 46 special heavy-frame P210-5 models for the National Match team.
In the 1970s, 100 heavy-frame P210-6 pistols (P 76521 to P 76620) were made in 1979, and 50 more (P 79101 to 79150) for Hofmann & Reinhart of Zürich. A 1978 anniversary edition is numbered JP 1 to JP 500. A special collectors' edition of 555 sets of five chromed pistols with gilded controls (P210, P220, P225, P226, P230) is numbered P 555001 to P 555555, made for Vonbank AG from 1987 to 1990.
A 1991 edition commemorating 700 years of Swiss Confederation is numbered 0001 to 1991. Bundesgrenzschutz pistols have serial numbers D 1 to D 6500. Danish m/49 pistols have serial numbers without a leading letter, engraved on the right side of the slide, from 7695 (1951) to 35383 (1962). The rare P210-7 .22 LR versions range from 40501 (1957) to 41762 (1968).
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: SIG P210 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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