Third Party Press

“a” Marked P38 Magazine

fishermankw

fishermankw

Senior Member
Picked up a mismatched AC41 today, P38 book is sitting a couple hundred miles away at my house, curious if anyone knows about this magazine. Eagle/88 marked on the spine so thought this should’ve been a Spreewerke mag. Curious if anyone knows what the “a” on here is.

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There are both an "a" and "b" marked variation of this magazine. These are considered "correct for a Spreewerk pistol". Spreewerk did not make magazines. No one knows what the "a" and "b" means, but its probably to link them to a subcontractor.

Us collectors get caught up sometimes thinking that eagle 88 means Spreewerk made it, it does not. It just means that the e/88 inspector was responsible for inspecting it. They are not common magazines, but I wouldn't consider them rare. A neat variation for sure. Hope this helps.
 
ugafx4 said:
There are both an "a" and "b" marked variation of this magazine. These are considered "correct for a Spreewerk pistol". Spreewerk did not make magazines. No one knows what the "a" and "b" means, but its probably to link them to a subcontractor.

Us collectors get caught up sometimes thinking that eagle 88 means Spreewerk made it, it does not. It just means that the e/88 inspector was responsible for inspecting it. They are not common magazines, but I wouldn't consider them rare. A neat variation for sure. Hope this helps.
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Thank you both for your help. Hoping the P38 book calls some out too, but gives me a general idea. Have the Krutzek book, nicely detailed with lots of good colored pictures.


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Unfortunately the book you reference has incorrect information about these magazines. It says Spreewerk made and supplied magazines with their pistols. This is not the case.

The a and b marked magazines are most likely made by Erste Nordböhmische Metallwarenfabrik which was given the code JVD. Th factory was in close in proximity to the Spreewerk. There are a and b marked magazines without the eagle 88 stamp as well (probably supplied to other P38 producers).

The book also claims that Spreewerk had a legitimate code chage from CYQ to CVQ which is an absolutely insane conjecture, but that's for another conversation.

My sources are posts on the p38 forum by Ron Clarin and Ron's book on Spreewerk. Ron had a big post about this when the book came out, I'm sure you can find it with a search.
 
ugafx4 said:
Unfortunately the book you reference has incorrect information about these magazines. It says Spreewerk made and supplied magazines with their pistols. This is not the case.

The a and b marked magazines are most likely made by Erste Nordböhmische Metallwarenfabrik which was given the code JVD. Th factory was in close in proximity to the Spreewerk. There are a and b marked magazines without the eagle 88 stamp as well (probably supplied to other P38 producers).

The book also claims that Spreewerk had a legitimate code chage from CYQ to CVQ which is an absolutely insane conjecture, but that's for another conversation.

My sources are posts on the p38 forum by Ron Clarin and Ron's book on Spreewerk. Ron had a big post about this when the book came out, I'm sure you can find it with a search.
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Thanks for the additional information on the “a” & “b” magazines. I knew the JVD marked magazines were subcontracted out for Spreeewerke, I was surprised that this had the eagle/88 w/o the JVD. I had a beautiful Spreewerke, just mint, sold it when we bought our house, wish I would’ve held onto it.

In regards to the CYQ to CVQ I didn’t buy into the change of codes. I’ve read in other places it was a die break that was never fixed (had other things to worry about). I believe that is rational subscribed to by most, correct?


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Most P.38 collectors agree with the "broken die" theory. Small delicate dies do distort or break with stamped into steel a bunch of times.
I have one of these "broken die" pistols, and and several regular "cyq" of later manfacture.
 
They did a really in depth analysis of the CYQ vs CVQ dies with measurements etc on the P38 forum and found it to be the same die.
 
Very nice find. Definitely a neat magazine for a p.38 collector. There's various theories on why the a/b, but I am not sure there's any real evidence that points to the exact reason. Doesn't exactly fit into a Walther AC41 as it wouldn't have come from the factory that way but in a mismatch it is what it is. If you ever have interest in selling definitely let me know!
 
phillynick said:
Very nice find. Definitely a neat magazine for a p.38 collector. There's various theories on why the a/b, but I am not sure there's any real evidence that points to the exact reason. Doesn't exactly fit into a Walther AC41 as it wouldn't have come from the factory that way but in a mismatch it is what it is. If you ever have interest in selling definitely let me know!
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Thanks, yeah got it as a “Rig” guys father in law bought it from the vet that brought it back in the 50’s allegedly. Came with a Walther Mag this Spreewerke was the spare. Came in a nice 1942 luger holster with the tool. Barrel and block are the same serial, frame and slide are the same. All in all not unhappy about it.


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