Transition from wood base to aluminum base mags?

[Edward Tinker]

they were short on wood because of rifle stocks

at least that is what I have always heard

Simson was using aluminum several years before other folks (DWM) and there is a date when everyone was supposed to go from wood to aluminum... I'd have to look it up

[Norme]

Originally Posted by postino

Norme, I find it odd that the German weapons industry would still be making Luger bottoms out of aluminum late in the war [comparatively late], when raw materials were scarce...Why didn't they go back to wood and leave the aluminum to the aircraft industry???

Hi Rich, Dr Sturgess in "Pistole Parabellum", which I'm too lazy to dig out so I have to quote from memory, says that the switch from aluminum to plastic in 1941, was for the reason you state. The good Doctor has calculated that if you add up the weight of 250,000 aluminum mag bases (Mauser was making about 125,000 Lugers per year), it comes to two tons, enough to make two medium bombers! Regards, Norm