1911/1911A1 Magazines

[Johnny Peppers]

From left to right:
The first magazine is the early "exposed base" which was used to approximately serial number 4500. There is an earlier version of this magazine which is not two tone. The Colt pistols and magazines were heat blued, and Colt had been tempering the top of the magazine before blueing them in charcoal ovens. Colt found that the heat of the blueing process was removing some of the temper, and started tempering the magazines after they had been blued. The upper part of the magazine was dipped in molten cyanide and quenched in oil to give it the proper temper. The blue was removed to the depth the magazine was dipped in the molten cyanide.

The second magazine is the "keyhole" version. There had been a problem with the backs of the magazines cracking from the tempering process. To give the magazine a little more spring a "punch and saw cut" was approved to help prevent the cracking. This magazine was used from approximately serial number 4500 to 40000.

The third magazine is the standard lanyard loop magazine. The lanyard loop magazine was discontinued in 1915 at serial number 125566, as noted in Colt's records.

The fourth is the standard magazine with no lanyard loop. This magazine was used until the 1940 time period.

The fifth magazine is the standard magazine with the new tempering process where the magazine was no longer dipped in the molten cyanide for tempering. Another version of this magazine does away with the pinned base in favor of a spot welded base.

The second picture shows the "punch and saw cut" of the earlier magazine.

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http://www.milsurps.com/images/imported/2011/04/j79e6v-1.jpg

[Duane Hansen]

Great collection on Mags, thanks for sharing the detailed pictures with us. Great pictures to have for future reference.

[Jughead]

I have a couple like the fourth one that are unmarked on the bottom lip. Is there a way to tell if they are Colt or Remington other than the length of the bottom lip? THANKS

[Johnny Peppers]

None of the Colt or Remington-UMC magazines were marked. Comparing the lip is about the only way to differentiate the two, with the Rem-UMC having a noticeably shorter lip. When Colt started contracting their Magazines in WWII, the magazine was then marked on the bottom of the lip identifying it as being Colt with the manufacturer.

[Bruce McAskill]

How rare are the keyhole magazines? I happened to see one on Gunbroker the other day and it had a buy now price of over $600 on it. They can't be going for that price can they?

[Johnny Peppers]

Just my opinion, but it would have to be a really nice one to bring that. But, if you had a really nice pistol needing that magazine it would be worth however much you wanted to spend to correct the pistol. In that case, $600 would be a good price.

[A square 10]

wow - im impressed , and i know what these are worth , i also know how often they come up these days , very nice collection

[Waltherman]

JP, I just picked up a "WB" that has an unmarked all blue pined base mag.
Any idea what time frame this belived to be Colt mag is from?

[Johnny Peppers]

The full blued magazines were approved in late 1940. so the full blued, pinned, and unmarked would be absolutely correct for your pistol.

[Waltherman]

Thanks JP, the Colt is 95% and "straight out of the woodwork"
I had a good feeling that it might be the original mag.

When did the "C-R" and "C-S" mags first show up?

[Johnny Peppers]

The Colt contract magazines did not show up until 1943.

[lenb]

Johnny,
In addition to the full-blued, unmarked Colt magazines, would a converted commercial Colt magazine (with the sandblasted and parkerized baseplate) have been issued with the '42 WB Colts?

Len

[Johnny Peppers]

Since the commercial magazines were just transferred over to the military contract there is no documentation of when it was done or how many. Most I have seen that I thought might be original to the pistol show up slightly later in production.
By the way, the magazines were not part blue and part phosphate. Think about that as to how it could be accomplished. A close examination of the magazines reveals that the sides of the magazines were first sandblasted to remove the bright commercial finish, then sanded to smooth them up from the sandblasting, and last the base plate was lightly sandblasted to remove the mirror polish. After this the magazines were fully blued, and the sandblasted base looks like it has a phosphate finish.

[lenb]

Thanks for the finish clarification, Johnny. It does make sense that they wouldn't be able to just parkerize the base without having some kind of effect on the blued sides of the magazine, since they have to dip it to parkerize it, and the phosphate solution would have come up on the sides as well. The ones I have look so dull and nearly grainy on the base that at a glance they always looked parkerized to me. I'm really surprised at the amount of labor steps they put into getting the base to be non-reflective.

Len

[Johnny Peppers]

The phosphate finish itself is actually very smooth, but the military required the pistols to be sandblasted before phosphate, and this creates the rough finish.

On the late Colt 1911A1's the Parko-Lubrite was so smooth that Ordnance let Colt discontinue the final polish of the feed ramp. The outside was sandblasted, but the top of the receiver was not, leaving the outside slightly rough, where the inside was very smooth. Also, the slides of most of the late Colts were not sandblasted, and they too are very smooth. This led some to believe the receiver was Parkerize and the slide Parko-Lubrite, but both are Parko-Lubrite.

This is a late Colt with the sandblasted receiver and non-sandblasted slide. Same finish, just one sandblasted and the other wasn't.

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