I'm going to go with October '43. No matter what date I pick there will be disputes but for absolute certain, they were not in use 1942 and yes maybe some trickled to the front in time for Kursk but adding units in just to give them a couple of rounds is a waste of time and I would suggest even *if* they were available then the most likely units to be issued something that scarce and specialized would be AT guns or Tank destroyers.
Thanks for digging around for info. I am well aware of how difficult some of this is to sift through
This
http://ww2data.blogspot.com/2015/07/...e-76mm_27.html
gives just about every detail including packaging but no dates but it would seem that for sure by the fall of 1943 there were enough to go around. I have also adjusted slightly their pen and sabot range to better represent their capability. What we had made them a wee bit too powerful at short range and not enough at their max range and their max was a bit on the short side but checking back that sabot range goes back to the very beginning. As Andy pointed out to me having sabot rounds changes nothing in dealing with more common the Pz III and PzIV