Magazine questions
 

I have two Luger magazines for my late 1937 S/42 and am wondering a bit about them. The first is a nickel plated, slant bottomed, pin thru the rear, coiled spring, rolled magazine with an aluminum bottom marked S/42 with a Droop Eagle/63 stamp. Folks here previously informed me that the S/42 mark means it was an arsenal issued magazine, and that's fine, but other than the markings on the base, there are no markings I can find on the tube. Is this right, or should there also be acceptance stamps on the body? From what I understand, it is a typical Type 1 mag, but I am just curious, as others I've seen have acceptance stamps on the body.
The second magazine has the same problem/circumstance. However it appears to be a Type 2 magazine, as it is a blued, slant bottomed, pin thru the rear, coiled spring, rolled magazine also with an aluminum base however this one is marked 1056 c with a stick eagle/63 stamp. I can find no markings/stampings at all on the body of the magazine for either of them. Is this typical, or not?
The one other difference I have not seen previously documented is that the blued mag has a half inch or so guide within the spring on the underside of the magazine follower, whereas the nickel mag does not seem to have such a guide.
Is there a FAQ on Luger mags somewhere? What info I have, comes from Mr. Still's Third Reich Lugers, but isn't quite comprehensive enough to answer these questions.
Thank you in advance.

Hi Zamo, Military Mauser Magazines didn't have Waffenamt Marks (Inspection Marks) until 1940 with the beginning of the "122" Marked Magazines and then later in the "fxo" Marked Magazines. Both of these were WaA Marked SE/37.

Both of your magazines should have the spring guide feature. Perhaps someone disassembled one of the magazines and forgot to put the spring guide back in place. There is a small detent machined in the bottom of the follower to accept the spring guide.

Hope this helps! :)

spring guide
 

Hi to all, Frank is quite correct in his assement of the magazines, although the spring guide and mag spring may just be inverted in the mag. This was often done in an attempt to correct magazine spring / feeding problems... As you come to understand how mag springs work in the Luger mag, It wasn't a half bad effort or idea... there are a lot of them assembled this way, but never by the factory... best to you, til...lat'r...GT

Bingo! Nickel magazine has the spring guide rising from the base. I didn't catch that last night. Both the base and the pin are very snug, so much so that I would think it was factory and had never been disassembled if you hadn't told me otherwise. There is no marring on the pin, and the base is immobile. There is a slight amount of up-down wobble on the blued magazine. I'd say about .5mm. When I press on it, it gives off a slight "click" which is more noticable than visable movement.
Anyway, thanks for the clarifications. I don't think I am going to bother disassembling the nickel mag to right it. If it feels as tight as it does, whose to say it wasn't Unterscharfuhrer Johann Schmidt-Schultz himself that didn't do the mod one boring day during the Sitzkrieg of '39-'40? Or maybe it was Brad McBackbacon back in the '50's when he bought this thing for $25 from some vet down the block who needed the money to buy that new Chevy? All I know is it's that way now. The mag is tight and seems to function well, so I'm not messing with it.
Thanks again for the info. :cheers:

Hi Christian,
* If the stick eagle/63 is about the same small size of the droop eagle/63 of your bright tube mag; then, your blue tube mag came from a 1938 Mauser Luger. If the sE/63 is larger; then, the blue tube may be from a 1940/42 code Luger.
* Hope this helps.
Respectfully,
Bob

Noticably larger...Pics:
http://home.comcast.net/~dbweb1903/g.../s42/mags1.jpg
and...
http://home.comcast.net/~dbweb1903/g.../s42/mags2.jpg
and again, in negative image...
http://home.comcast.net/~dbweb1903/g.../s42/mags3.jpg
The blue mag was sold to me at the last local gunshow as being "correct" for my '37 S/42. I don't mind that it's "not quite", as I got it relatively cheap.
But I will keep my eyes open for a better example. Preferably marked 3742a
:)

Zamo, Bob (RockinWR) was correct. The magazine is for an early 1938 Luger. The 1937 Luger serial number stopped about 400b. It's close, but no cigar!! Good Luck on your quest for a matching magazine. That's a very difficult find, but possible. Try to find an "a" suffix that is marked the same as the "c" suffix you have.