M1 Carbine Mags: distinguishing new prod. vs. milsup?

[NWAttorney]

My son and I will be going to be going to be at a gun show soon, and are going to be on the lookout for 30rnd M-1 carbine mags. We have heard that most of the new production mags are unreliable, so are there any distinguishing marks between new production and milsurp magazines?

Thanks,

NWAttorney

 

[uneasy_rider]

I would stay away from 30 round mags. These are almost always going to be aftermarket pieces of crap. The number of USGI 30 round mags in circulation is fairly low, and I would view any 30 round mag as aftermarket until proven otherwise.

You would be better of finding 15 round mags. There are tons of USGI 15 round mags available. They are generally blue rather than parkerized, and then will have a manufacturers code on the rear wall. It is generally a one or two letter code for manufacturer (ie, "I" for Inland).

You can often find unused GI mags still in the brown grease paper wrapper.

 

[NWAttorney]

Thanks Uneasy Rider. We have picked up the real deal 15 rounders, and they do work perfectly. That is the fall back choice.

 

[jrfoxx]

Not to thread-jack, but it looks like the OP has gotton his answer, and is satisfied with such, so rather than start a new thread, I'll ask here and see what happens.
In regards to this:

There are tons of USGI 15 round mags available. They are generally blue rather than parkerized, and then will have a manufacturers code on the rear wall. It is generally a one or two letter code for manufacturer (ie, "I" for Inland).

I am planning to get a General Motors Saginaw Steering Gear M1 carbine (I grew up in Saginaw, and my dad was an engineer at Steering gear for 35 years), and wonder if anyone knows if GM made mags also, and if so, how to identify them, or if they just made the guns, and mags came only from the others like
Inland and such.I would LOVE to have some GM mags to go with the gun, if they exist and can be found.Thanks

 

[dmftoy1]

For the original poster - There's a good writeup on http://www.odcmp.com on how to distinguish GI 30 rounder's from the fakes.

Saginaw Mag's - K-SG, U-SG, K-S'G', SP-S'G', S'G', U-S'G', ISG, KSG, OSG, WEP, OI-S'G'

There's a couple of characters I can't type, but basically if it's got the S'G' and something in front of it then you're good. There's also a distinction between Saginaw, and Saginaw Gear . . ..but both seem to have variant's of SG.

 

[vzenmn]

If they have M2 on the spine are they USGI? I have 3 30 rounders that have that and they are well worn and look like they seen military use.

 

[dmftoy1]

According to "U.S. M1 Carbines, Wartime Production" by Craig Riesch the "M2" are "commercial" mags if they lack the bolt hold open and "could" be commercial even with that feature. FWIW

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Mag FAQ

http://www.rawles.to/M1_Carbine_Mag_FAQ.html

 

[Trebor]

JRfoxx,

Check your PM's

Thanks