Mag Pouch - Authentic Or Not?
When I bought my Inland carbine a few months ago from the CMP I decided I wanted to get a Type 1 magazine pouch to mount on the stock. Originally I bought several of the inexpensive repro pouches (My son has a couple of carbines as well so I bought enough to outfit them all.). Anyway, I decided I wanted an authentic U.S.G.I. pouch so recently I ordered one via the 'net.
Well, it arrived today. Besides a little bit of verdigris on the lift-the-dot snap the pouch is in PERFECT condition..............so perfect, in fact, that I have to wonder if it's authentic or just a very good repro.
Besides the aforementioned verdigris there is no other mark of any kind on the snap - no lettering or anything. The front flap is marked "U.S.", and on the back it's stenciled "Boyd & Gould" and "1943". There is an off-center snap on the rear for attaching to the pistol belt.
The main part of the pouch is a kind of smooth olive drab canvas, and the actual pouch is formed of a kind of heavy olive drab webbing material. The thread used to sew the whole thing together appears to be a type of natural fiber, and two thicknesses of thread are employed, with the thread used on the web pouch portion being noticeably heavier than used on, say, the piping.
One last thing....the pouch has a kind of musty odor that I've detected on other old military web gear.
Elsewhere on this forum I found a list of the pouch manufacturers, and there was, in fact, a Boyd & Gould Company making pouches in 1943, so at least the markings check out.
But, again, this pouch is in almost too perfect condition to have been around for 67 years! Do you all really think it's authentic?
