WWI mag pouch and WWII leggings, real or fake?

[Doug Douglass]

$35 with the care card included.

[thorin6]

The story, as I understand it and was relayed to me by a old dealer was that boxes of unused WWI .45 magazine pouches were found in a warehouse about 20 years ago. Apparently the 1917 marked pistol lanyards (unissued) and the metal scabbards for the M1917 bolos (also unissued) were found around the same time. The guys with the lanyards sold them in drips and drabs at $60-70 each, and sold boxes of the metal scabbards as well as the individual ones slowly as to not drive down prices. However, it seems that a lot of dealers got ahold of the magazines, and they flooded the market and prices just went into the basement. Several years ago I could buy a mint Mills magazine pouch for $10 that had been sitting on the dealers table for several shows without interest. Even today, there are so many of them that $15 is a reasonable price. That doesn't stop some dealers from asking $45-50 or more, but there is no reason to spend that kind of money. In my opinion, the WWII 1942 dated magazine pouches are much more desirable than the WWI pouches, although both were used early in the war. I have my father's magazine pouch he carried in WWII (he went on active duty in December 1940), and it's a WWI 1918 manufactured pouch.

[Johnny P]

The as new WWI magazine pockets appeared on the market much longer than 20 years ago. I have been collecting the 1911/1911A1 pistol and accessories for over 30 years, and the magazine pockets were common before that time.