How do you know when your Walther P22 was made?

Answer 1

Unless Walther marked the P22 with a date of manufacture or other marking indicating the day, there may not be a way to tell by simply examining the gun. Narrowing the date to a timeframe by determining what years the model was in manufacture and by determining what features your particular model has and when certain features were introduced may help, but an exact date will likely not be possible. There is no requirement in the federal law which mandates that manufacturers mark a firearm with a date of manufacture. Importation records will contain the day the firearm came into U.S. commerce, but not the D.O.M.

However, the federal law requires U.S. manufacturers to keep dates of manufacture on record for examination by ATF and for tax purposes. If you want to determine the exact date your firearm was manufactured, contact the manufacturer directly and ask to have it researched. They are under no obligation to do it on request, and may not do it. However, if you can persuade them to do it, they will have the record of the exact "born on date" for your firearm.

If the firearm was imported, you may have to check regulations in the country of manufacture to determine their record keeping scheme. This task may be more difficult than if the firearm was manufactured in the U.S.