Looking for lineage info on mecgar magazines for SIG

[jobowker]

I realize that mecgar at some point became the OEM for SIG magazines. Unlike the older preban German mags with the seam that looks like a zipper, the Mecgar ones have a smooth sanded looking finish on them. So if I see an older German made one, (for a p229) there's a good change that it's a preban. If it says "LE only", then it was produced during the ban. If it has the SIG logo, but was made by mecgar, then I'm pretty sure it was post ban.

But what if there is no SIG logo and it only says Mecgar? Did mecgar make aftermarket mags for SIG prior to becoming an OEM vendor for them? I tried searching, but anything close was stuck on when OEM mags changed from Germany to Italy, not whether or not Mecgar made any prepan aftermarket mags for the 229.

 

[drgrant]

The problem is there are some preban Mecgars out there, too.... so good luck with that line of reasoning. IMO the only thing that's
really conclusive is LE Markings, in that regard. There are also captain obvious ones, like P250 mags.

Mecgar still makes aftermarket sig mags, as of today. The Sig factory ones are basically their product with their logo/branding on it. Some of the mags are only available through one distribution channel and not the other. For example if I get a 13 round P228/P229 9mm mag that is Sig OEM, even though those mags are manufactured by Mecgar, you can't get them as a Mecgar item.... the closest thing MecGar has is the 15 round Flush Fit they sell for the same gun.

To make things even more confusing- Some sigs came with mecgar mags that weren't marked with the typical "Sig Sauer" marked
mags.

-Mike

 

[jobowker]

So if I understand correctly, if I saw an 19 round 9mm mecgar p229 with no "SIG Sauer" marking on it and no "LE only" marking on it, there is no way to tell whether or not it's ok.

Does that sound right?

 

[drgrant]

So if I understand correctly, if I saw an 19 round 9mm mecgar p229 with no "SIG Sauer" marking on it and no "LE only" marking on it, there is no way to tell whether or not it's ok.

Does that sound right?

19 round would be kind of odd, unless it had some kind of baseplate on it (For example, the P226 X5 comes with a 17 rnd mag that has a +2 basepad on it, nominally).

Then again, I can also take a 15 round SigSauer factory mag, change the spring follower and basepad, and probably "make" a 19 round mag out of an existing 15 round one.

The problem is there is no definitive guide to mag provenance. The only things that I "know" is that newer magazines tend to have the witness holes on the sides of the mag body and not the back of the body.... but this still is NOT really a 100% indicator of provenance because who knows the precise time when they went to that. Also further confusing the issue is some LE marked mags that have holes in the back. Those definitely aren't preban, but they still have holes in the back and not the sides. Then there are the "zipper" mags which are known to be really old, and the zig zag dovetail mags, can exist during preban and ban era... although I am unsure if they made any zigzags AFTER the ban or if they just went straight to the mecgar side-hole design.

-Mike

 

[jobowker]

Your posts tend to have a lot of meat in them. I find that I need to read them carefully, and often more than once. By 19 I meant that 19 rounds fit in it, so for all I know it could be 18 or 20. This one has the holes on the side and a plastic floorplate with no markings. If I could be sure that magazines existed in this configuration prior to 1994, and that there were no distinguishing characteristics (like a date or LE only marking) then I would feel better using something like that in Massachusetts.

 

[drgrant]

Your posts tend to have a lot of meat in them. I find that I need to read them carefully, and often more than once. By 19 I meant that 19 rounds fit in it, so for all I know it could be 18 or 20. This one has the holes on the side and a plastic floorplate with no markings. If I could be sure that magazines existed in this configuration prior to 1994, and that there were no distinguishing characteristics (like a date or LE only marking) then I would feel better using something like that in Massachusetts.

FWIW Sig made SWAT mags which held 20 rounds and had witness holes going down the back, typically. These were all metal though, no plastic baseplates. These are relatively hard to find, though.

I haven't seen a Sig mag that went over 17 rounds without either having an enlarged body (like the SWAT mag) or a +2 basepad on the bottom of it.

Course there is also promag. ramline and a bunch of other generics... but who knows with that stuff when it was made, etc. I know some of the ramline sig mags were preban, but not sure if they were worth a crap or not.

-Mike

 

[jobowker]

I went to go look at the mags in question again. The older 228 mags fit perfectly in the p229, but this one is actually a 226 mag that I was putting in the 229. The 226 is full size, so it makes sense that the 226 mag sticks out 1/4 inch or so, but still works. That would explain the ability to fit more rounds, although I'm not sure if I'm sticking in one extra round, or if it's a 20 rounder and I'm having difficulty with the last round. But the basepad is a small flat piece of plastic, and doesn't extend the capacity.

So I guess my new question is whether or not mecgar made any 18 or 20 round non-sig branded magazines. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

 

[Grimlock]

Every time I read this thread line I read it as "Lingerie".

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

Mecgar made 17 rnd P226 mags and currently makes 18 rnd mags for the P226. But those also fit the P228 and P229, they just hang out lower. Given all the permutations drgrant outlined plus the base plates that can add rounds, you really have an infinite number of permutations available.

 

[jobowker]

So, then there's a reasonable chance then that this could be a preban?

 

[Smash05]

How about calling up mec gar and asking them how what configuration 9mm magazines they made preban for the p226 and p228. I have a pre-ban mec-gar 15 round p228 mag, other than its well used look, I am not sure it could be distinguished from one of the newer ones. All my other mags are pre-ban German.

 

[drgrant]

So, then there's a reasonable chance then that this could be a preban?

I've never seen a preban 18 rounder, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist, or that you couldn't build one out of mostly preban components.




FWIW somewhere at home I have a pic of the X5 mags which are basically 17 round flushfits with a +2 pad on them... those look considerably different than the ones in this video, as they have a silver aluminum (or is it plastic? I forget) basepad on them.

 

[drgrant]

How about calling up mec gar and asking them how what configuration 9mm magazines they made preban for the p226 and p228. I have a pre-ban mec-gar 15 round p228 mag, other than its well used look, I am not sure it could be distinguished from one of the newer ones. All my other mags are pre-ban German.

I hope he speaks italian.

I'll bet pretty much anything the factory doesn't know or doesn't care, or sends him on a side trip into telephone hell.

-Mike

 

[Smash05]

US Distributor is located in CT.

http://www.mec-gar.com/Contact-us

 

[jobowker]

I sent them an email, but I'm not holding any high hopes on a definitive answer. The magazines in question look a lot like this:

http://www.mec-gar.com/Magazines/Sig-Sauer/MGP22618

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

I sent them an email, but I'm not holding any high hopes on a definitive answer. The magazines in question look a lot like this:

http://www.mec-gar.com/Magazines/Sig-Sauer/MGP22618

Good. Maybe if you can't get a definitive answer a District Attorney won't be able to either.

 

[jobowker]

To my surprise I got a pretty good answer in trading a few emails with Mecgar. The short paraphrased version. Preban high capacity magazines were 17 rounds, older style tube, and metal buttplate. Post ban magazines were 18 rounds, redesigned tube, plastic buttplate, and interlinked internal components. It's when they started becoming an OEM that they redesigned the magazines and moved up to 18 rounds.

Of course, if I lived in a free state, I could swap out the butt plate for a +2 adapter, and have 20 rounders.