M1 Carbine 30rd mag question.

[KalashnaKobold]

Hello! Been a while since I been around here, mostly use the site for buying.

I was curious about a magazine, as well as some ammo, I recently picked up for my .30 carbine.

The magazine is a 30rd magazine with SEY marked on it, and a rubber dust cover? Over the feed lips. The reinforcement ribs follow the curve if the magazine rather than the weird reinforcements on the mags I've seen. It's also one piece which I haven't seen, I thought they were two pieces? I have another unmarked 30rd mag that is more typical to what I've seen. The condition on this SEY mag is quite nice, and with the original rubber dust cap in place, and no wear on the mag catches, I'm fairly certain it's unissued.

Additionally, I got four 10rd stripper clips of .30 with orange tips - I'm assuming these are tracers but am unsure. They are stamped L C 54 and have red sealed primers. Are these corrosive? I also got a lot of ammo marked P C 44, L C 4, L C 5, L C 51, R A 52, and others. Many have red sealed primers. There are also some marked LC54 that do not have the tips painted orange, however some of the orange tips do have the paint wearing off. Are these more tracers, or just standard rounds?

Additionally, are either the rounds or the mag worth much to collectors? I don't really need the second 30rder and don't want to take the dust cap off to use it if it is worthy to a collector.

Thank you for any help!!

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[CLT65]

The orange tip ammo would be M27 tracer ammo. Whatever you do, don't shoot them in the woods in summer. We don't need any more forest fires.

All USGI .30 carbine ammo is non-corrosive. I'm not a magazine expert, but what you describe sound like an early "hardback" M2 magazine, uncommon and definitely worth more that the average magazine. How much I do not know. There are a lot of inferior commercially made mags out there, and they can be hard to tell apart if you don't know what to look for.

 

[CountryGent]

Agree with @CLT65. Sounds like an early Seymour Products magazine. They appear to go for a pretty penny compared to run-of-the-mill 30-round magazines.

 

[KalashnaKobold]

Thanks to both of you! I didn't really plan on shooting the tracers honestly because of exactly that - it's been wicked dry in Oregon and we already have had major fires.... no thanks!

Looking it up it definitely seems like the early hardback. I hadn't even known about those, only the typical later ones with the weird straight reinforcement ribs and two piece mag. Thank you a ton for the info on it! I'll probably try and sell it to someone who is looking for one rather than use it.