Unusual G.I. M2 Magazine

[tpelle]

An old friend of mine, an 82nd Airborne veteran of the Korean War period, gave me this M2 magazine that "sort of must have fallen into my duffle bag". I ran into him earlier this year at a Christmas luncheon, we bs'ed about guns and his military days, and I offered to take him to the range when the weather got warmer so he could shoot my Inland Carbine, my Springfield M1 Garand, and my AR15 set up for service rifle competition.

Anyway, he said that he had a couple of Carbine magazines that he had brought home from the service that had been laying in his dresser drawer for almost to 60 years, and that I could have them. One was a 15 rounder, but the other was a G.I. 30 rounder. He said that he held on to the 30 round magazine, as he wanted to make sure that he had at least one if he had to go into combat.

BTW, I told him that authentic G.I. M2 magazines sometimes brought "big money" - maybe $75 to $100 or more - and was he sure he wanted to just give it to me? He said that he did, and that otherwise it would just be laying in his sock drawer when his daughter cleaned out his place after he died, and he wanted somebody to have it that would appreciate it and use it. So how could I refuse?

Anyway, when we got to the range, he pulled out the two mags, and the M2 mag still had a few crusty old cartridges in it. He said that he'd like to see if they would shoot. So he loaded some of my 30 Carbine reloads on top of them, put them in my carbine, and banged them off. All fed and fired fine, and the bolt locked back after the last round as expected. We proceed to spend a couple of hours firing all of my rifles, and when we cleaned up I put the magazines away in my range bag without looking at it.

When I got home I took the magazine out and examined it, and was surprised to see that the follower was different from any I'd ever seen before. I looked up whatever I could find in "War Baby" and "War Baby II" but could not find this follower described. Hopefully someone here can shed some light on it.

I took some pics with my digital camera, and I hope they are clear enough. BTW, the magazine is marked with an underlined and inverted A.I. near the bottom, and has a single hole top and bottom of the back surface.

I'm certain this is an authentic G.I. M2 magazine, as I've known the veteran that gave it to me since 1976, and he's a patriotic straight shooter. I have no reason to doubt his story.

Here are the pics:

Side View:


Rear View:


Front Oblique:


Three mags (G.I. 15-rounder on left, Korean new production 15-rounder with hold-back follower, and my 30-rounder showing follower):


Note the three different followers in the last pic. The G.I. 15-rounder has the typical 15-round follower with the slanted rear surface. The Korean mag in the middle has what is typical of the other 30-round magazines I've seen, as well as what is identified in the Ruth books as the T18 follower, on which the rear surface of the follower is stamped into a straight semi-cylindrical shape designed to catch the bolt on the last round. The 30-rounder in question, on the right, has a follower that has a semi-cylindrical bolt catch part formed into it, but there is also sort of a vestigial sloped part as well - almost as if it was formed from a 15-round follower.


Close-up of the Follower:


Can anybody tell me anything about this magazine and follower?

Information

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[BrianQ]

It's not unusual, that's just the way Autoyre made the T18 followers.

[tpelle]

Thanks. And I thought I had something unusual there. Odd that none of the reference books I have show that variation.

This is the one and only 30-round magazine I have - I just prefer the 15-rounder, as it seems to be less in the way.

[shadycon]

Nice piece of history! I have an AI over M2 marked one [it looks unused] and it has the same T18 follower as the rest of my 30 rounders. SEY Hardbacks,& J underlined, J, Made in USA marked