Rare find: early, "in the white" .22 auto magazine

[fredrx]

I picked up a small lot of dirty, old magazines. After cleaning off the dacades-old oil/grease, I realized that some are the earliest type that was made for Ruger. They are 'in the white' -- bare metal, with no bluing or plating and have a rather odd looking 'hump' in the forward section of the base. In 30+ years of collecting I'd previously only seen pictures of these:

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Dougan's latest book confirms that some of the early magazines were actually modified High Standard items that were cut and modified by the vendor before being shipped to Ruger. Those might be a couple of them.

:)

 

[rugerguy]

yes, I think you'll find that "hump" is actually the front edge of the High Standard magazine as it is a "slanted grip" model variation, and this was where they would have "missed"making the "cut", need MORE and longer, to work in the Rugers, so the "bottom" is a "filler" , to fill-in this 'left over ,missing area of material....the bottom 'angles' are different between the two makes of magazines............yes, some of the gun companies did indeed help each other out, even though they were "fiercely competitive".

and YES< that is indeed quite a "find", tough to come across those after all of these years.......... :wink:

 

[contender]

Note the oblong mag button slot as well. Interesting & GREAT find!

 

[chet15]

There is a pic of the magazine variations on page 23 of my auto book (1992). The earliest Ruger magazines also had the "void" in the bottom front of the shell that would have accepted the "hump" on the top front of the mag bottom.
One variation pictured there also shows it as being an early Ruger mag with polished feed lips and having the large oval button hole toward the bottom of the slot.
Pretty well confirms that whoever made those early unfinished magazines was the same maker as Ruger's magazines.
Chet15

 

[fredrx]

Anyone know if these were shipped with the early pistols or sold as an accessory? Or were they prototypes that never made it to full production?

 

[chet15]

The unfinished mags have never been found in a Ruger. And as far as I know they have only been found at parts supplier's (Numrich, Sarco etc). Honestly I can't say why these were never finished, but there's strong thinking on them that Ruger didn't have a hand in these....or maybe they had them and returned them to the supplier. But would not be good on the supplier's part sending Ruger a batch of unfinished parts.
But...they are what they are and many collectors have put one or two examples of the unfinished magazine away.
Chet15

 

[fredrx]

Many have one or two? Wow, for years I thought these were a genuine rarity.

 

[radicalrod]

Hey Fred, I just looked.....I have 2 sitting on the kitchen counter.....the wife has been asking me to do something with them for a LONG TIME :D :D :D now I can tell her they are RARE :lol: :lol: :lol: I have some I received from Trevor Snivley and he called them "Lueders"......I need to dig them out.....see ya RR

 

[chet15]

Hey Fred, I just looked.....I have 2 sitting on the kitchen counter.....the wife has been asking me to do something with them for a LONG TIME :D :D :D now I can tell her they are RARE :lol: :lol: :lol: I have some I received from Trevor Snivley and he called them "Lueders"......I need to dig them out.....see ya RR

Yes, that brings back a memory on that....the Lueders variation magazine. I think he's the one that found a bunch of them at a show once, or got them from Numrich, or ??? He's the one that brought them to our attention back then.
Chet15