Mike,
as an Imperial Era luger collector, I would never trade an original, numbered wood bottom magazine for an aluminum bottomed magazine unless the aluminum bottomed one had unaltered markings that matched one of my few Nazi Era Lugers. Please note that I mentioned unaltered aluminum magazine. Many of these aluminum bottoms have had their old numbers filed off and new numbers applied, some amateurishly. But if neither of the magazines serial numbers matched any Luger involved, then why bother? Its still a mismatch.
The only exception would be a plastic bottomed magazine. Non of those were numbered. So seeking an appropriate magazine here would be proper. On second thought, another exception would be certain commercial wood bottom magazines would be proper for certain commercial Lugers. But thats another long story.
You should never use an original magazine for shooting because all of them are prone to breakage. For casual shooting purposes, modern magazines work just fine and are less valuable.
If you have a numbered, original magazine that does not match your Luger and you want to get rid of, then contact Don Hallock. He publishes a list of magazines about once a year for people who are looking for magazines that match their Lugers.
Everytime I go to a gun show or visit another Luger collector, I carry a long list of serial numbers of my guns that I am looking for the matching magazines for. Last year I bought an ugly shooter Luger only because it had a navy magazine in it. I changed magazines and immediately sold that gun.
Big Norm
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