Navy magazine with blued body ?
 

a ? for the experts here

Is a wood base magazine with 4 digit serial in large font on the back flat of the magazine wood base, with a Navy crown over M proof on the front flat of the wood base, and with a blued body a known valid original combination ?

The base and mag both look 1906-ish to me, but the bluing looks like old rust blue - so is this perhaps a 1906 navy luger mag that got a bluing on the original bright metal mag body at some point in arsenal repair ? I dont see any pitting under the blue and actually no typical sanding/preparation marks etc

The wood base markings are very faint but look authentic to me - but so faint as to be nearly impossible to get a picture worthy of view here - tried talcum powder + wipe etc

I did searches here and gunboards but dont see any prior discussions on this magazine case

thanks
Bill

One Navy was sold by Hermann Historica in 2000 with three of those magazines. It came from Norway and I have known it several years. It was correct. The clips have had a light blue calor.

Hi Bill, The gun that Klaus refers to is 1917 Navy #4582. What is the serial number of your magazine? Is the wood base dished or ringed? Can you post photos of the indents on each side of the tube near the top?
Regards, Norm

Norm is on the right track to determine if the original tube has been blued or replaced with a post WW1 one. TH

I will post some pictures soon as I can get some daytime in shade that works
the base is ringed wood original
thanks all for the comments !
Bill

Norm,
sorry for delay in getting pictures

here are some of my best pictures so far for this blue body mag discussed in prior posts this thread
please take a look and comment

I also have a very similar mag with original looking unmarked standard wood bottom if that is of any interest
The two mags came to me from two unrelated sources / events

thanks
Bill

Hi Bill, It's a very interesting mag, I've never seen one like it. The late war beechwood base looks authentic and the rust blued tube sure looks like it was made by DWM. I'd like to add it to the list of orphan Navy mags that I keep, but I can't quite make out the number, is it 3801?
Regards, Norm

Looks like 3081 to me...

looks like 3031 to me.

Ron, it looks to me like the third number, bottom curl, is longer/reaches higher than the first number/three...

Bill, if you can't tell, maybe a couple more pics taken at different angles, right to left, would be more telling...

I'm no expert at anything, I just like to manipulate pics with different Gamma settings, and sometimes a negative image will show details that other effects don't...

On the third number the little "dot" at the start of the top curl is a dead giveaway that it is a "3"

I bow to the expert... :bowdown:

Norm,
bright light and magnifier and various angles for about 30 mins , with my best near vision glasses and before the doze ...

I think serial is more likely 8031 than 3031 , since the top curl of the first digit is not as tall as the top curl in the clearer 3 3rd digit , and it doesnt seem likely they would have used number dies with that much variance for the same digit

I dont think the base has been changed out on this mag - the base pin is tight and looks aged like the lower mag body and has no tool marks on pin or mag body

please add to the orphan navy list as could be either number ( assuming 3031 and 8031 are in the range of valid navy serials )

are these large font serials running down the back plane of the base actually correct for a 1916-17 Navy ? or more likely for a 1906/1908 Navy ?

regarding my second mag that looks very similiar but with standard unnumbered base, I now think it has a partial proof mark on the base - did dwm proofmark unnumbered mags ? looks maybe like small crown over a C with a toupe between the C and crown

anybody have ideas on valuation for this Navy mag ? and also the similar standard base mag ?

thanks !

Hi Bill, Thanks for the serial number. Large numerals running lengthwise are correct for Navy magazines. Navy magazines in decent shape run from $300.00 to $500.00, however that cracked base really hurts. I'd guess $150.00 or thereabouts.
Regards, Norm

Norm,
thanks for your comments on this item !
and also what you do for the forum in general !!!

Others who commented
thanks for help !
Bill

Bill

in case of interest -
I just ran across a post in this forum for sale section, which included offering of a navy mag with blued body that closely resembles the one we have discussed above

it is at thread ( the last three pictures there )
http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...ght=commercial

so far havent found any other cases with blue body

thanks
Bill

Hi together,
here are a couple of pictures from another blued Navy clip.
Geoff Sturgess mentiones somewhere in his books that this kind of magazine was produced for the Navy towards the end of WW1 when economy ran tight.
Regards, Armin.

Sorry,
I forgot to upload the picture with the magazine's number.