Newbie question about magazines, wood VS. Aluminum
 

Hey guys,
Do aluminum magazines with wood ends only appear on WWI Lugers? I have an all matching Mauser (42) Luger, date 1940, with matching magazine, but the magazine is aluminum with a wood end. Could this magazine be correct or is it a WWI magazine on a WWII Luger?

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

There were commercial mags with plain wood bottoms made from 1900 to well into the 30's. Some one probably force matched it to your 1940-42 which should have an aluminum bottom mag with a blued tube. If the mag is an original WWI Army mag with the same number and suffix of your Luger, that would be just extremely good luck but not correct.

Tell me the exact serial number and letter suffix of your 1940-42 Luger and I will tell you exactly what type of magazine was issued with your Luger. Good Luck.

The letter suffix located under the barrel is a cursive letter "a" with serial number 5462. 62 is stamped on all parts. The date stamped on the barrel is "1940" and there is a "42" on the cocking lever.

Basically, I did a search and found a gentleman selling a luger with mis-matched magazine that had 5462.

Since my magazine didn't match anyways (the rest does) we did a straight up trade.
now my wood-bottomed magazine number (5462) matches the rest of the gun.

I gather this is a Mauser-made luger from 1940 but is this magazine correct?

1940-42 magazines

2-MM-SE5 - describes a rolled tin blue body crimped magazine with a solid aluminum base. The base will have the serial number, letter suffix in this case "a". Maybe a + indicating the second magazine. There must be a Stick Eagle 655 acceptance mark under the serial number on the solid aluminum magazine base.

3-MM-122 describes an extruded type magazine with a "zig-Zag" spring and a concave pinned aluminum base. The blue body of the magazine will have the the C.G Haenel code of "122" and the SE-37 (stick eagle 37) Military acceptance marks. The base will have the serial number, suffix letter and maybe a +. A few early 1940-42 magazines will have an additional SE-37 on the magazine base. No need to go there at this point.

Lets start here; there were no wood base magazines in 1940. Fact is, there were no wood base magazines in any Military Mauser Lugers (1934 - 1942). In addition, there were no magazines with a drooped eagle 63 acceptance mark after the - r - block of 1937 or stick eagle 63 magazines after the - w - block of 1939. I say no magazines, however, there probably were some remaining in their inventory and used after these periods.

These two magazines are found on all 1940-42 Lugers until the - d - block. The SE-655 magazine was a carry over from the 1939-42 production after the - w - block of 1939.

The 122 code magazine appeared at the beginning of the 1940-42 period and will be the common magazine after the - d - letter suffix..

My opinion, gleaned from magazines reported to me. The numbers are actual numbers. The serial number and letter suffix information provide the data for the estimates.

No suffix range 31 - 3620 were 3-MM-122 (122 code)
3640 - 7800 were 2-MM-SE5 (SE-655)
7801 - 8050 were 3-MM-122 (122 code)
a suffix 8051 - 4687a were 2-MM-SE5 (SE-655)
4700a - 9942a were both type magazines, most were 3-MM-122.

FYI 5300a was a SE-655 magazine while 5800a was a 122 code. Looks like either would be correct

That should give you a good idea what magazine is correct for your 1940-42 Luger; hopefully I have provided you enough information..

Good Luck

Don
Excellent information as usual. Bill