Identify these magazines please

grease gun maybe

Sten. Compare https://www.centerfiresystems.com/p-3026-9mm-sten-20rd-magazine-used.aspx

Yep grease gun. I'll post up one of mine tomorrow.
Grease gun would be 45ACP. What ammo fits?

Sure looks like it...

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/821912437

I purchased a half dozen spares from Numerich for $8.99 each about five years ago. That is a crazy price.

Sten.

Sten, I think.

I think the M3 Grease gun used single stack mags ... could be wrong, but I will risk the guess.

Those look like double stack mags.

It’s marked E&Co, indicating that the magazine was made by Elkington & Co in Birmingham, a subcontractor during the war (WWII).

It’s a Sten gun mag.

It IS a STEN gun magazine that spent time in India, and was converted, by India, into a 20 round mag with the addion of the two brass wires set inside each side. This did three things, reduced the ammount of rounds per magazine (lighter) , gave room for dirt and dust for reliability, they are single stack/single feed now, which is much easier to load than the double stack/single feed it originally was.

If you wantthem to be 32 round mags again, simply remove the wires. They are worth 20$ or so.

1KPerDay said:

Wish we had a Sten to run them in. Any idea on ballpark value these days?

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Just get a Sten kit and build yourself one - https://www.apexgunparts.com/sten-mk2-smg-parts-set-w-skeleton-stock-9mm-luger.html

Wish I could build one. Looks fun - https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/diy-mk-iis-sten-gun-ultimate-vintage-world-war-ii-homebuilt/

STEN- saw these in Afg caches sometimes. Olympic made a 9mm AR that used them in the 90's.

troy fairweather said:

grease gun maybe

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I have a Grease Gun mag in my hands right now, and I can tell you for sure that these are NOT Grease Gun mags. I'll go with those who say they are Sten mags.

Tommygunn said:

I think the M3 Grease gun used single stack mags ... could be wrong, but I will risk the guess.

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No, Grease Gun mags are double stack.

Look like Sten gun clips to me.

AlexanderA said:

No, Grease Gun mags are double stack.

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Well, all I can say is, OOOOOOOOOOPS!! I seem to recall that the M3 mags were pretty tough to load ... so when the M3A1 version came out, the wire stock was altered so it could be used as a loading tool. Trying to recall every tiny detail can be a challenge at times.

Besides ....I always considered the Thompson SUPERIOR!!!!! (There's a revelation for ya!)

Tommygunn said:

Well, all I can say is, OOOOOOOOOOPS!! I seem to recall that the M3 mags were pretty tough to load ... so when the M3A1 version came out, the wire stock was altered so it could be used as a loading tool. Trying to recall every tiny detail can be a challenge at times.

Besides ....I always considered the Thompson SUPERIOR!!!!!

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Unlike the Thompson mag, the Grease Gun mags are tapered at the top, so that the double-stack body narrows down to a single-stack feed. (Same as for the Sten mags pictured earlier.) This is what makes them hard to load without a mag loader. The original M3 Grease Guns were issued with a separate mag loader, but it tended to get lost. You are right about the M3A1 wire stock as a loading tool. But it also had two additional functions: the ends of the wire "arms" were drilled and tapped so they could be used as cleaning rods, and the stock could be used as a wrench to unscrew the barrel, which had flats milled into the collar for this purpose. An M3A1 barrel and stock can easily be retrofitted to an M3, which results in a significant improvement even without the other M3A1 changes.

The wires run from top to bottom, this narrows the column into a single bullet stack, bullet upon bullet , rather than staggered, bullet upon bullet. The single feed is how many cartridges are presented for feeding, , as a double column with a double feed has the top cartridges being fed alternatively.

The Thompson had double column, double feed, and was ,therefore, easier to load.
The advantage to a single feed is that the bullet is directly in line with the bore and straight fed. The double feeds have a much more complicated geometry that has to be precise or feed problems galore emerge.

A typical AR or AK mag is double stacked, double feed , as the cartridges are stripped into the chamber alternatively from left and then right,, then left....

1KPerDay

If you don't have a Sten you can always use them in a Sterling Mk.VI which was the semi-auto version of the British L2A3 SMG. Don't know if they still have them but a few years back Century Arms was offering two versions of a Sterling semi-auto with a 16" barrel; the Type 1 and the Type 2.

If you do use Sten mags in a Sterling I found that a mag loader (I used one that was made for the Australian Austen), is invaluable for loading and that they worked better if loaded up with 30 rounds instead of 32.