I see people in ban states post WTB adds for pre-ban P228 mags occasionally. How can you tell if they really are? Some of my 228 mags don't have any date wheel on their base plate so there is no way to really know. Not trolling. Just curious.

I've seen P228 mags made during the ban that have the "LEO/Military Only" billboard on them. I guess mag bodies without that marking and with unmarked baseplates could be preban?

Is it possible the mag body is marked inside, like some GI mags for the AR-15? I've never looked when I disassembled my magazines.

Mine have date stamps on the floor plate I think?

I've been searching for an answer, and find several different ideas as to what qualifies. From what I have read, anything with the date clock on the magazine floor plate is post-ban. Other people write that floor plates can be updated, so anything with a triple-j stamp on the back of the magazine is pre-ban. I have a few with the dovetail seam and triple j stamp. They also have date clocks indicating they were made after the 1994 ban. Who do you believe?



I also have a few with the zipper back seam on the magazine body. These also have the small triple j stamp, but the base plates doesn't any markings. These are what I think would most likely be able to pass the test for pre-ban. Maybe someone who has had to deal with this in a ban state would care to comment. Just good information to know if things go really bad in November 2016.

My experience has been that the zipper back mags are all preban. Sig went from them to the dovetail back mags, before the ban, because some of the zipper backs started to come apart at that seam.

The dovetail backs may or may not be preban. If they don't have the LEO/ Mil stamp, they are preban. If they have the restricted to LEO/ Mil stamp, they were made after the start of the ban.

This makes a lot of sense.