Interesting magazine base
 

I came across this on Ebay. It's listed as a reproduction and it is a numbered bakelite bottom. The thing I find interesting is the suffix and the Mauser E/63 stamping. If the tools exist to do this on a phony mag base then perhaps a lot of different kinds of dies exist and are being used for other purposes. It's a nasty world out there.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...248932167&rd=1

Herb,
A mold was made from an original mag base with the E/63 and serial number on it. No dies were required to mark the base. When the repro was cast in the mold with phenolic resin, it picked up the markings from the original.

I am puzzled as to how phenolic is cast into such a small mold. The layers/sheets of fiber that constitute phenolic would be extremely difficult to place as the mass of phenolic was built up (much as fiber glass).

wes, your links don't seem to work from your mapped luger. just thought I might alert you to that fact. or maybe its just my crummy computer?
TOm

No, it's the links on my site. I am in the process of creating it. I haven't done anything on that site for some time.
I have no time at present for my interests, but I do lurk this forum daily.
Thank you for the kindness of the link alert and be assured that it is not a computer problem on your end.

Regarding the magazine base, my guess is that it is a small enough part that the strengthening which comes from addition of a substrate is not necessary, and so it is cast from pure resin.

And Wes, glad to know that you are still around.

--Dwight

It never crossed my mind that it might have been poured in a mold made from a real bottom, but that makes sense. I figured it was marked using a hot die, but poured is more logical, there must be a lot of them out there somewhere as that is too much work just for one.

herb, I don't think there has to be a "lot" of them out there... I think some enterprising hobbyist created either a reusable mold, or perhaps a method for reproducing throw away molds in small quantities and is making this ONE mag bottom over and over again.

The maker offers them one at a time on ebay... I have seen him/her sell one at a time a week or tem days, for the last several weeks. Sometimes there are no bidders, since the starting price is a penny shy of $15 and when you add shipping you are in the $20 range for a cast piece of plastic that couldn't be mistaken for an original since this form of plastic bottom, (a) was never produced by the factory, and (b) couldn't have been actually stamped because it would have broken.

I think these are expensive for a replacement mag bottom, when for just a few dollars more, you could have the expertly done replacement mag bottoms in appropriate wood or aluminum by either GT or Viggo.

Just my $0.02