Magazines going through rehab/ID Help Please

[Fushigi Ojisan]

Now that I have the Kongsberg M1914 about to come online, I thought now would be a good time to gather up all my 1911 magazines and troubleshoot the ones with jamming issues. While taking a few apart, I got out the digital camera and took some photos:

CHECK-MATE MAGAZINE CRACKS: I was warned about them, and asked how I could tell if they were cracked. Well, I don't need someone to tell me now, one of them is indeed cracked into uselessness (left magazine, left side). First two images are the magazines that turned out to be recent-vintage Check-Mate government contract magazines.

ARGENTINE SISTEMA COLT MAGAZINES: I am assuming they are Argentine because they are numbered and came with M1927 Sistema Colts back in the day. Yeah, one of them is pretty beat up.

BALLESTER and MYSTERY MAGAZINE: The one of the left is a Ballester-Molina magazine made for the British Contract (hence the Broad Arrow marking on the bottom). The one on the right came with the Kongsberg Colt, what puzzles me are the rather deep squared-off indendations, never seen any that looked like that (the Check-Made have semi-circle ones). Any ideas?

UNKNOWN TRIO: I grouped this batch together since they have nearly identical features. One of them does have a deeper cutout in the back as well as a different follower design (not to mention lacking a worn spot 1/3 down the magazine like the other two). Again, I have no idea about the history of these magazines so if anyone can clue me in that would be great.

BTW, *none* of them have the letter-on-the-toe marking indicating WWII manufacture, drat. On the other hand, all so far have 8-round followers.

SPRINGS: Here are the springs, I labeled them as well. I noticed the Argentine-originating springs have much gentler curves and more curls, while the Check-Mate (removed from the cracked one) and mystery look awful similar.

Given I only have three springs and two kits, I am going to use the Wolff springs in the Unknown trio, put the Check-Mate and mystery springs into the numbered Argentine mags, and use the kits on the Mystery and Ballester magazines. Hopefully that will get them all into shape.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.