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Posted: 2/28/2013 8:12:31 PM EDT
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Hey guys I'm new to this forum stuff so bare with me, but I picked up twenty 30(rd) magazines that are all Colts ( from what it says on the mag plates) but I found a couple of mags that have restricted stampings on them. Any information or direct me to a thread that discusses them would be great. Just want to know what the stampings mean and what numbers I should look for to verify they are colt mags. Thanks.
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Colt mags have been made by Okay Industries for decades, and their markings mimic them:
Up until @ 1990 there were no external marks (besides the floor plate) If you remove the floorplate and peek inside the body, you should see a couple of 2-3 digit codes stamped, K# over ## aon one side and O# over ## on the other. (the exact format doesn't matter as no other mfg did this) This can verify that they started life at the Okay plant. 1990-91 Okay started stamping their CAGE code and date on the outside of the mag body. 33710 / MM-YY. At this point there is still no difference between an Okay and a Colt mag body. 1994: At the start of the ban they added the LE/Gov't warning. This warning was there from 1994 to 2004. This image shows where the various markings are located: 
Sometime during the ban, the name (stylized logo) and address of the respective companies were stamped by the magazine catch. (In recent years, the Colt ones went from the stylized Colt logo to plain text Colt) When the ban ended in 2004, everything remained the same with the exception of the removal of the LE/Gov't warning. So basically anything made in the past 13-15 years has Colt stamped on the body. And prior to that there were either external or internal stamps indicating it was made by Okay, and more than likely left the plant with the Colt floorplate. |
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