How to date carbine magazines

[52m37]

I am new to this forum. I have been going through the posts and am amazed at all the info here.
So, my question is how do you date an M1 Carbine magazine?
Thanks

Information

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[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

I don't know of a way to get a confirmed date on magazines. There are different markings and base plates.

M1 Carbine 15 rnd Magazines

[Aunt Bee]

Let's get the stupid answers out of the way first ------ "Bring it some flowers & chocolate & be sure to tell the father you both will be back by 10 pm "---- someone with brains will answer soon , I hope !!

[browningautorifle]

As far as I know there's no way to date beyond knowing the contract dates for certain companies. The mags don't have a date stamp.

[imntxs554]

It's pretty much a guesstimate on the year. There are 4 or 5 different base plate designs so, if you follow those different types of designs, then you can probably only guess to what year they might of been used and that too is definitely not written in stone. I don't think you can get a date.

[DaveHH]

They were also made in huge, huge quantities, millions, many millions. Since the base plates all work about the same, there was probably no rush to change the design at some specific time. I recall having a tough time getting even an estimate of how many were made.

[INLAND44]

6 million carbines made. I guess they would have figured about 100 mags per carbine. 600,000,000 magazines. Most have been destroyed/lost in warfare, given to other countries or simply wore out.

[cali201]

and on a side note: Back in the '90s Intrac imported about 8,000 carbines from Austria along with magazines. The line below is copied off of the bavarian carbine page on imports.

Amongst the parts INTRAC received from Austria were thousands of original GI 15 round magazines and many GI 30 round magazines. BATF advised INTRAC these were in violation of laws limiting magazine capacity. INTRAC rented a concrete/asphalt roller, placed the magazines in their parking lot, and flattened all of them. The metal was sold as scrap. Shortly thereafter BATF stated they had made a mistake, the magazines were legal for INTRAC to import and sell.