If you’re gonna date a Sig you have to know where to look, it’s not under the dressy dustcover or a hidden acrostic in the Serial Number – but you do have to look up underneath.
So mine’s from 1989, the first Presidential Year of Bush ’41 – the youngest pilot then in the Navy when he received his commission in 1943 – and who flew a TBM Avenger off the carrier deck of USS San Jacinto during WWII, flew 58 combat missions, received the Distinguished Flying Cross, and got three Air Medals for his efforts.
And later he didn’t totally suck as a President nor was he in the Johnson Administration. But he’s almost my dad’s age.
Hell, he could have owned one of these. 
The year is 2009 now, so it’s an old gun – there are kids who were born and damn near finished College already – and girls-gone-wild who got pregnant and had kids since this was made.
Damn I’m startin’ to feel all creeky-old.
Zum Vergrößern anklicken Bitte!
Not Clauswitz 
Never knew there was so much to a gun.
LikeLike
FWM – Excellent Snark!! Maybe it has something to do with old Hanseatic League, Germanic craftsman stamping their tribal proof-mark wherever they go?
LikeLike
If they are going to stamp a “JK” onto it, why not just stamp “89”? Did the German plant manager get hired in 1936 or something and its an old habit?
LikeLike
“To put it in perspective, I was seven when that firearm was produced, more or less. “Yup. My oldest Sig was manufactured in 79′, so it’s quite a bit older than me. I’ve put over 1K rounds through it without a problem.Dirtcrashr – Any idea who chromed the barrel? I’ve gotta send out a few Sig barrels to be nickeled soon (since Virgil Tripp is no longer in the hard chrome business)
LikeLike
Linoge you old Shellback! 😉 It reminds me I’m a stick-in-the-mud, that’s when we moved here and bought this home.
LikeLike
To put it in perspective, I was seven when that firearm was produced, more or less. I think it is holding up better than I am… (Mighty fine piece of hardware you have yourself, there :).)
LikeLike
Yes Tweety, the chrome plated barrel is especially easy to clean off.MikeW – Aren’t the US built ones pretty recent? Maybe they figure if it’s less than five years old it’s as good as New!? 🙂
LikeLike
Tweetey – It’s really not too hard to clean. Disassembly as shown in these pics literally takes maybe a minute and a basic cleaning doesnt take more than 5-10 minutes more.Dirtcrashr – Figures I’d have to call and pay them. I wonder why they stopped just stamping date codes on the slide?
LikeLike
Never knew there was so much to a gun. Yikes.. And you have to clean all that or just parts of a gun?? I have no idea really..
LikeLike
From a Googlie that put me at Arfcom it’s a Sig Customer Service thing: <>“Actually, SIG only charges $12.95 to tell you when your SIG was made. They also mail you a Certificate of Manufacture. Call SIG Customer Service to order yours. You will need to know the model number (e.g., P226) and the serial number of the weapon to order this certificate.”<>
LikeLike
Question – How the hell do you find out the date of manufacturer on newer Sigs? All of my older West German Sigs have the date code as shown in your pics, but my P229R DAK doesn’t have one.
LikeLike