I have been collecting MP-40's for about 40 years... back around 1980, I ran across an original MP40 mag that just would not fit into the magazine housing of the MP40's I had in inventory at the time. I ended up selling the mag at a gun show to someone who wanted to create a dummy gun display and he needed to fill his ammo pouches...
After many inquiries, I came across a rumor that during WWII the German's made a quantity of MP-40 magazines (and MP-40's to match???) that would not fit into the magazine well of the standard Wehrmacht WaA MP40. Perhaps they were for export? No one could tell me more on this...
This week I purchased an MP40 mag (code bte42) from a member of this forum... at first I thought it was a counterfeit mag... either someone bought cheap surplus Belgian Verignon mags and re-stamped them with fake WaAmts, or perhaps one of the recent semi-auto/blank gun/dummy gun manufacturers made these mags for their weapons... After all, the mag just looked too good for being 72 years old! And the grinding/filing marks weren't typical of the "milled" MP40 mags we often see.
When I tried to place the bte42 mag into a matching bnz42 MP40 it just wouldn't fit, I compared the bte42 with a bte43 mag that came with the bnz42 MP40 and the markings/funts etc. were so similar that I no longer believe the bte42 to be counterfeit... and then I remembered that old MP40 mag I had years ago!
Speculating some possibilities:
1. The mag was for a part of a WW2 export contract that went with a batch of MP40's
2. The mag was for the MP40/II dual magazine feed weapon (that is unlikely)
3. The mag was for the Wehrmacht PPSH-41 conversion to 9mm that used MP40 mags...
4. The mag was for some other export contract for some 9mm SMG that would use this type of mag.
Any thoughts?
After many inquiries, I came across a rumor that during WWII the German's made a quantity of MP-40 magazines (and MP-40's to match???) that would not fit into the magazine well of the standard Wehrmacht WaA MP40. Perhaps they were for export? No one could tell me more on this...
This week I purchased an MP40 mag (code bte42) from a member of this forum... at first I thought it was a counterfeit mag... either someone bought cheap surplus Belgian Verignon mags and re-stamped them with fake WaAmts, or perhaps one of the recent semi-auto/blank gun/dummy gun manufacturers made these mags for their weapons... After all, the mag just looked too good for being 72 years old! And the grinding/filing marks weren't typical of the "milled" MP40 mags we often see.
When I tried to place the bte42 mag into a matching bnz42 MP40 it just wouldn't fit, I compared the bte42 with a bte43 mag that came with the bnz42 MP40 and the markings/funts etc. were so similar that I no longer believe the bte42 to be counterfeit... and then I remembered that old MP40 mag I had years ago!
Speculating some possibilities:
1. The mag was for a part of a WW2 export contract that went with a batch of MP40's
2. The mag was for the MP40/II dual magazine feed weapon (that is unlikely)
3. The mag was for the Wehrmacht PPSH-41 conversion to 9mm that used MP40 mags...
4. The mag was for some other export contract for some 9mm SMG that would use this type of mag.
Any thoughts?