sig p210: adorned, revived, fortified

An Austrian branch of the Italian gun dealer Waffenamt recently advertised a SIG P210-6 customized by Seidler Waffen. In addition to such conventional embellishments as custom sights, an oversize safety lever, a squared trigger guard, a hard-chromed frame, and a Magnaported barrel, the pistol sports a sliding lever magazine release of an unusual design that dispenses with unsightly frame modifications. Seidler’s device consists of a steel bar of a rectangular cross-section, sliding alongside the frame in a channel inletted into the left pistol grip, emerging at and passing through the lanyard loop. Its bottom end consists of an inclined plane that impinges onto a roller built into the thumbpiece of the massive magazine retainer clip milled out of a steel bar. In this way, the magazine release may be operated either with a sliding button located the upper side of the left pistol grip, or with the traditionally located bottom retainer. As of this writing, the gun, priced at € 3,800.00, is listed on hold. High resolution photos of the Seidler SIG P210 are posted here.

Another Teutonic upstart has attempted to reproduce Swiss magic in Eckenförde, Germany:

SIG P210 Legend

Specifications

Of special interest are the claims of an internal drop safety and a new slide design. While it is regrettable that manufacture by SIG Sauer is likely to preempt the long planned revival of the P210 by Waffenfabrik Neuhausen AG, it is good to see the P210 back in production on any reasonable terms.


It is tempting to speculate what the future may hold for this venerable sidearm. One suggestion has already been floated by its original makers shortly before the end of its production in Switzerland. Austrian arms dealer Horst Grillmayer is known for two things: supplying the gun that was used by Mehmet Ali Agca, responsible for the in his 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, and designing the 9x22mm caliber that was shown at the IWA 1992 in Nuremberg by the Hungarian factory Matravideki Femmuvek Sirok or MFS2000. The 9x22mm case is a necked down, rimless .40 S&W case with 19.1 grains internal capacity, as against 10.8 grains of 9x19mm Parabellum, 13.7 grains of .38 Super, and 20.7 grains of the late, straight-walled 9x29mm Winchester Magnum. Today, this caliber is better known as the dimensionally and ballistically identical .357 SIG cartridge, chambered in pistols manufactured by SIG-Sauer and Glock. The January issue of the Schweizer Waffen-Magazin, forming part of Visier, has published a feature dedicated to the SIG factory prototype of the P210 chambered in .357 SIG, scaled up from its original chambering in 7.65 Para. Built on the standard P210 frame fitted with a magazine that had its width expanded by 0.8mm, the gun delivers impressive ballistics from its ported 150mm barrel with good accuracy observed at a 25 meter range out of a machine rest:



A transcript of the SWJ article is available to the friends of this journal here. Reciprocal friendship is available on request to all sane, sound, and disinterested LiveJournal personae.

— The author thanks Paul Kümin for sharing the publications cited above.

motivation

Fuck ’em all and sleep till noon, Grisha!



Update: stalking the genius.