[John Sabato]

Lugers are a design of another time and place over a century ago... The typical holster tells the story quite well. They were not designed for fast draw. It was a time when the possession of a pistol by a person was a respected activity. There was no great thought of dropping WOODEN bottomed magazines on the ground to break. They were carefully removed and reused. While a properly fitting magazine will indeed drop out of the gun. I wouldn't want it to do so unless it was a cheap modern replacement (and even those will shatter their bottom piece if they hit a hard surface. As the automatic pistol became a common thing, the design and function of the magazine changed to be more durable... and easily replaced. Remember that there was a reason that magazines were serially numbered to the gun. These guns were designed and were HAND FITTED to matching components including the magazines... even for military issue weapons... unlike our Colt 1911 and 1911A1 that used wider tolerances and interchangeable parts including magazines.

The "finger buttons" on a Luger magazine bottom piece as you call them are to give your thumb and forefinger enough "purchase" to pull out a stubborn or ill-fitting magazine.

I hope this helped...

As to a special forum just for magazines? I don't think that is necessary but I want to hear from the membership about the "need"... What I do think we "Need" is a forum explicitly for troubleshooting Lugers... I think it falls somewhat out of the category of Shooting and Reloading and may deserve it's own forum.
Your Comments my friends?