Well I wasn’t planning on buying another P210, but a really nice deal came to me at my local shop. I don’t own a P210–2 and these later –2 commercial variants are a bit rare. They were only built for a very short time, as far as I know. Not many were manufactured.
Here's a basic breakdown of its history. The Sig P210 was originally a military pistol. It was introduced in 1947 after being in development for a number of years (delayed by WWII). It was adopted by the Swiss army in 1949, finally replacing the Luger. While it doesn't quite have the service pedigree of, say, the Browning Hi Power, the P210 has a storied past and has been used by a number of countries for various functions over the years. From a quality and accuracy standpoint, the Sig always had the Browning beat by a landslide. The accuracy of the Sig is legendary and the Swiss army routinely used them out to 100 yards. These pistols were basically entirely hand built in Switzerland, starting from slides and frames that are machined from solid carbon steel forgings. All these fine materials and precision craftsmanship made the P210 a very expensive gun to build, which helped lead to its replacement by the P220 in the mid 1970’s.
Once replaced in its service life, the P210 lived on in a sporting role, with the target variants like the P210-6 and P210-5 becoming more popular. Production ended in 2005, primarily due to manufacturing costs. In 2010, Sig reintroduced the P210, as the German P210 Legend. The German models were very high quality and great shooting pistols. The Legend was built for a number of years. Now a more economical version of the P210 is being built at Sig USA. However, I’ll always prefer the old Swiss examples for their incredible old world build quality and durability.
As for the pistol itself, the Sig P210 is basically peerless. To me, the Swiss made Sig P210 ranks as the very finest handgun ever produced. In my carefully thought out opinion, no other automatic pistol ever constructed during any time period has combined the build quality, durability, accuracy, and service pedigree to the degree of this Sig. There are pistols that can match or maybe even exceed it in a one category or another, but when combined, nothing else comes close, as far as I’m concerned. In fact, the only handgun that can come close to matching it in all these criteria is a revolver, the Manurhin MR 73.
Changes happened through the years of Swiss P210 development. Forged frames and slides went away in the early to mid 1980’s in favor of being machined from bar stock via CNC. This happened just before the serial numbers switched to the 300xxx series. Due to the incredible precision of the equipment, these CNC P210’s required much less hand fitting than the earlier forged models. The forged models were always my favorites, because I value old world craftsmanship. However, I’ve never seen a reason to think the CNC models weren’t just as refined or as accurate. In fact, I know some folks prefer the CNC made P210’s. To the untrained eye, they look identical.
The P210-2 is basically the old military version, but sold to the public. The originals had black plastic grips and a Swiss Shield in front of the rear sight. It was basically the commercial P210-1 without the polished bluing or wood grips. This example is not one of those early P210-2 models. Instead it’s a later commercial model built just after Sig of Switzerland changed to Swiss Arms Neuhausen (SAN). Swiss Arms built the –2 variant for only a short period of time, possibly just 2002. Just about all Swiss Arms P210’s were built on the CNC Heavy Frame. I believe this short run of –2 models were the only standard frames used by Swiss Arms. I also believe this very short run of –2 variants are the only examples actually stamped as such. The original –2 models were not. I have attached a 2003 catalog of Swiss Arms, which does not include the –2. My thinking is that they saw no reason to continue producing it and instead just stuck with the target models. The uniqueness of it, coupled with the price is why I added it to my collection. I highly doubt more than a few hundred were made. It’s the first one I’ve ever seen.
This example (serial # P323219) was built in 2002 and remains in great condition. Handling marks are very few and the matte bluing shows no wear whatsoever. I tried by best to show the amazing precision of this pistol, right down to the roll markings. The –2 lacks the target sights that most –6 models have. It also lacks the target trigger and serrations on the front strap. It is good to see that it was built to the specs of the earlier P210-2, other than the plastic grips. Its also complete with the box, manual, and 50 meter test target. Incidentally, the 6-shot group is just 2” at that long distance. Not bad for a milspec model. At $2400 OTD, I did great!
Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts.
Here it is with my others.
Left to right: 1954 P210-1, 1967 P210-6, 1975 P210-6HF, 2002 P210-2, and 2003 P210-6HF
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