Value of Luger snail drums and loading tools

G

Gryphon Energetics

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Yes, plural.

I have one Type 1 and one Type 2 Luger snail drum along with one original and one reproduction loading tool. Everything is operational and unmodified. I should be able to put some photos up later but would anyone care to place a value on these exceptionally rare articles?

These are the highest-capacity magazines exempted from cartridge magazine regulations. Doing a full 32 round dump from a Luger must be a hoot!
 
Try searching US sites like gunbroker. I don't think too many functioning drum magazines exist in Canada, never mind ones that sell frequently enough to set a market price.
 
I paid $1500 for mine back in 2010 and $670 for the repro loading tool in 2011.

Luger collector has sold them in the past
 
Gryphon Energetics said:
Someone got a screaming deal if that's true. That's well below even average market value based on what I've seen.
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I wouldn't say screaming. American prices have zero bearing on this article. Sometimes US value can kind of be equated here, but in my opinion not this time. It's a magazine that goes into a gun very few people can own. And if you can own one, not many ranges I Ontario anyways, allow more then 5 rounds in a magazine.
The pool of Luger and Luger accessory buyers declines daily.

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't people banging down the door to pay $2000 for a magazine.
 
One has been at the local gunshow out here for the last few months. He's asking $2000, and it has sat for awhile. Would be cool to have one to go with my s/42, but not at that price...
 
wbaad said:
I would think the mag would sell at 1500 reasonably fast.

Would reproduction Luger snail drums be exempt if someone made them??
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Looks like it is:

Paragraph (1)(b) does not include any cartridge magazine that (a) is of the “snail-drum” type (schneckentrommel) that was originally designed or manufactured for use in a firearm that is a handgun known as the Parabellum-Pistol, System Borchardt-Luger, Model 1900, or “Luger”, or any variant or modified version of it, including the Model 1902, Model 1904 (Marine), Model 1904/06 (Marine), Model 1904/08 (Marine), Model 1906, Model 1908 and Model 1908 (Artillery) pistols
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unlike other sections, it doesn't have "is not a reproduction"
 
guess_kto said:
Paragraph (1)(b) does not include any cartridge magazine that (a) is of the “snail-drum” type (schneckentrommel) that was originally designed or manufactured for use in a firearm that is a handgun known as the Parabellum-Pistol, System Borchardt-Luger, Model 1900, or “Luger”, or any variant or modified version of it, including the Model 1902, Model 1904 (Marine), Model 1904/06 (Marine), Model 1904/08 (Marine), Model 1906, Model 1908 and Model 1908 (Artillery) pistols
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So let me get this straight, they wrote this into the legislation, but still allowed the luger to be prohibited, even after being advised that they were a collectors item and no more harmful than any other hand gun or long gun??

Mr. Nielsen: For instance, there's a part in there about the handguns with a barrel length of less than 105 millimetres. Obviously, I would think what the person who was drafting it was trying to get at was these cheap handguns I referred to earlier. But a better way of having done that would have been to list the overall length of the firearm itself rather than concentrating on the barrel length.

As a result of this legislation, I have just sold a number of Luger pistols to Germany because they would be prohibited if I kept them. From that point of view, I certainly don't like it, and I don't think they hit the target when they introduced that 105 millimetres.
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From: http://www.finnnielsen.com/About/Bill%20C-68.html

found at: http://www.finnnielsen.com/About/Finn%20Nielsen%20-%20About.html
 
Somebody DOES make them. I have replica of the type 1 Trommelmagazin made about thirty years ago by the Tanaka Toy Co. of Japan.

I'll be over home in Canada in March, attending a train show in York PA while I'm home, so if anybody is interested in a replica, please let me know by PM.

tac
 
Didn't Collectors Source sell a type 1 for $1750 with the last year or so?

I paid $3200 for my LP08 and type 2 drum in 2010, and then another $600 for an original loading tool. I don't think the loading tool is worth any more than I paid for it but I wouldn't even think of selling the set for under $ 2200.
 
On January 15 2005 I paid $3,000 for a Type one A.E.G. TM08 (snail drum magazine) and a Bing magazine loader.
Both are well marked.
I gagged at the price at that time but I had just added a very nice unit marked 1917 dated DWM Artillery Luger to my collection and I was hot to trot to add these accessories.
I probably overpaid at that time and I suspect in the U.S. today I might be able to get my money back. (11 years later)













This stuff is from my notes in 2005.

The A.E.G. Type 1 TM08 is rarer than the Type 2 TM08 which were made by Bing.

Original dust covers for the magazine are not that easy to find. Original Magazine Loaders are more difficult to find than the Snail Drum Magazines.

The Snail Drum Magazine or Trommel Magazine ( T.M –08) Serial # 35718 is a Type 1 (early model) manufactured by A.E.G which apparently was an electrical equipment manufacturer in Berlin. The AEG hallmark is a Pentagon with circles inside the pentagon. This hallmark marking is present on the snail drum. There is also a dust cover with the magazine. The magazine retains approx. 80% of the original blued finish. On the telescoping winder handle is a marking, “Germany”. It is not unusual to find Snail Drum Magazines with this marking.

The Magazine loader tool is manufactured by Bing-Nurnberg (apparently a toy manufacturer), their hallmark is B over N. This marking is present on the loading tool, together a faint “Crown over S” acceptance proof mark. Approx. 65% of the original blue finish remains on the loading tool.

Both of these accessories are highly desirable, as starting in 1917, the Artillery Lugers were issued to certain troops with these Trommel (drum) magazines.

The loading tool is a scarce accessory to find, and the Type 1 early snail drum magazine manufactured by A.E.G is probably the most desirable of the snail drums from a collectors view point. Supposedly, of the approx. 750,000 Trommel Magazines made, 75000 were manufactured by AEG, and the rest were made by Bing.

There is a thought that AEG only made the telescoping winder,(Type 1) and never manufactured the folding winder handle model (Type 2)

AEG marked magazine loaders are very rare and very expensive when found.

One has to be careful and do ones homework as there are faked snail drum mags and loaders out there.

 
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These are not mine.

A super rare A.E.G. marked dust cover.



An A.E.G. marked magazine loader.



The dust cover on my A.E.G. Type one TM08 is unmarked.

 
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Mr. Dynamite said:
So let me get this straight, they wrote this into the legislation, but still allowed the luger to be prohibited, even after being advised that they were a collectors item and no more harmful than any other hand gun or long gun??
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Let me get this straight... You're shocked at something ridiculous in Canadian Firearms law?
 
If you are interested in (TM08) snail drum magazines you are stuck with WWI Artillery long barreled Lugers which are not prohibited.



The shorter barreled P.08 Luger (WWI or WWII prohibited 12-6) was never intended to use the 32 round snail drum magazine.

 
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