gergnotwen
Rest In Peace
In the spirit of keeping some activity alive on this forum, I thought I would post some variant photos of three K43 AYE Magazines after finding a couple of interesting things last weekend when wiping down a couple of rifles with Ballistol (something that is well advised in Florida).
Mag #1 - Was acquired with a K43 - DUV44 "i" block and I knew it was a bit strange as it had a double stamped aye and Waffenampt. Something else looked a bit strange at the Waffenampt stamp which was a bit grubby so I hit it again with a toothbrush and Ballistol and got out the magnifying glass and it turned out to be one of the "+" stamped mags. Looking closely at the double stamp, it appears that the manufacturers code and the Waffenampt may have been on the same stamping block as they both seem to be in the same plane. The K43 is not double stamped so that may indicate that this was in the tooling for the actual magazine sheet metal stamping.
Mag #2 - I've had this one for a few years, original gloss paint that is very heavy and it came with a G43 - AC44 "n" block with the cosmetic receiver. After "discovering" the "+" on mag #1, I pulled out all of my mags and went over them to check to see if I had missed anything and it looks like I did. With a magnifier this "aye" K43 also is marked with the mysterious "+" as well, faint but there.
Mag #3 - Is a late production aye K43 with a phosphate finish on my AC45 "b" block that is completely phosphate finished except for the barrel and front sight base. Look at the "K43" and note the worn tooling where the top of the "3" is missing so I would suspect that this one was produced later than the two painted mags #1 & 2. The Waffenampt is crisp and deeply struck but the "aye" is very light.
So my question to fellow collectors is this, are there any other makers other than "aye" that have the "+" marking? I have looked for a while and have not seen any other K43 mags marked with the "+", anybody have one? Even the mag in Darrin's book shows only the "aye" K43 mag with the "+" stamp. Are there any marked with the "+" that are stamped G43? None of my early aye G43 mags have this marking.
Just goes to show you that when you think you know exactly what you have in your collection, sometimes taking a second closer look can surprise you.
Mag #1 - Was acquired with a K43 - DUV44 "i" block and I knew it was a bit strange as it had a double stamped aye and Waffenampt. Something else looked a bit strange at the Waffenampt stamp which was a bit grubby so I hit it again with a toothbrush and Ballistol and got out the magnifying glass and it turned out to be one of the "+" stamped mags. Looking closely at the double stamp, it appears that the manufacturers code and the Waffenampt may have been on the same stamping block as they both seem to be in the same plane. The K43 is not double stamped so that may indicate that this was in the tooling for the actual magazine sheet metal stamping.
Mag #2 - I've had this one for a few years, original gloss paint that is very heavy and it came with a G43 - AC44 "n" block with the cosmetic receiver. After "discovering" the "+" on mag #1, I pulled out all of my mags and went over them to check to see if I had missed anything and it looks like I did. With a magnifier this "aye" K43 also is marked with the mysterious "+" as well, faint but there.
Mag #3 - Is a late production aye K43 with a phosphate finish on my AC45 "b" block that is completely phosphate finished except for the barrel and front sight base. Look at the "K43" and note the worn tooling where the top of the "3" is missing so I would suspect that this one was produced later than the two painted mags #1 & 2. The Waffenampt is crisp and deeply struck but the "aye" is very light.
So my question to fellow collectors is this, are there any other makers other than "aye" that have the "+" marking? I have looked for a while and have not seen any other K43 mags marked with the "+", anybody have one? Even the mag in Darrin's book shows only the "aye" K43 mag with the "+" stamp. Are there any marked with the "+" that are stamped G43? None of my early aye G43 mags have this marking.
Just goes to show you that when you think you know exactly what you have in your collection, sometimes taking a second closer look can surprise you.