[drbuster]

I have an early Mauser magazine, serial #3839 "f", nickle tube, aluminum base with stick E/63 proof! This is definitely not a DE/63. Jan's Third Reich Lugers, page 125, essentially says that this magazine should have a blued tube. Did stick E/63 proofs appear on Type I military mags? What gives?

 

[Frank]

Herb, the nickle plated magazines were phased out just at the end of the 1936 L-Block. They were marked with DE/63. The SE/63 appeared about the R-Block of the 1937 production.

If I were guessing, your magazine is a combination of an early magazine bottom and a 1938 F-Block bottom that was added. The owner probably liked the shiny tube!!

 

[Guest]

Just a thought. Maybe the magazine base is not original to the body!!!!!!

 

[runner]

I also have a nickel bodied magazine # 5283 e or l that has an aluminum base with the SE/63. You can see it on my post on Nazi era lugers. Based on comments from this forum and what reading I have done, I also assumed that the base was not original. Does anyone else have mags with this combination of construction and marking? If enough of these exist, perhaps the nickeled tubes were used concurrently with the blued tubes for some period in early 1937? Just a thought. Frank

 

[Frank]

Runner, as mentioned in several other threads, the period toward the end of the 1936 and the start of the 1937 production is somewhat volatile. I should imagine that Mauser was not going to discard parts that were not to a "present" configuration, but would use them until the old parts were depleated. Then there were parts that were in production at the time and could have been recycled for rework or repair and finally completed at a later date. Tough to tell. But you have a good thought!!