Model 52 S&W Magazine

Has anyone ever seen or heard of a nickle plated magazine for a Model 52?  If you have, any idea why these were nickle plated?
I've just bought one. It's in great condition.
Any information on this would be appreciated.

Corrosion resistance.

Multiracer wrote:Corrosion resistance.

Yep, makes sense.  That's the only thing I could come up with but I wasn't sure if others had been seen.

I've never seen or heard of a factory nickelled 52 magazine.

Pictures or it does not exist ?  

Of course it exists!  I bought it from Sasquatch. 
Here's a pic with it next to a blued mag.

Beautiful, wish there were more. BTW its not plated, it looks to be made from Stainless steel.

Oh, hadn't thought about that but it does look more like stainless and not shiny like nickle would be.  So has anyone seen one in stainless??

No, but I saved 15% on my car insurance !

Maybe it had the bluing stripped?

Neither nickel or stainless steel can be blued by hot or rust blue methods and bare carbon steel would corrode under normal handling.

Oiling magazines causes malfunctions if the oil seeps into primers and/or bullet mouths.

I'd bet on Electroless Nickel plating.

DA/SA wrote:I'd bet on Electroless Nickel plating.

It really has more of a stainless steel look about it but no one seems to have heard of that being used for the mags.  Maybe you're right.
Gee, wouldn't it be nice if I have the only example of a factory experiment with stainless?  Yeah, I go with that.

I saw this as I was searching price range for my 52-2 going on the block soon.
Could your mag be related to this gun?
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/711107612

Jack H wrote:I saw this as I was searching price range for my 52-2 going on the block soon.
Could your mag be related to this gun?
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/711107612

Very interesting variation you found and question you posed.  I'd love to say "yes" but my gut tells me "no" because 1) the history on that gun only talks about a "parts kit" was sold to AMT.  If the factory made stainless mags for AMT, they probably would have mentioned it.  And 2) one of the photos shows a blued mag with the finished gun.

You found a unicorn in the wild.

Blackbird wrote:You found a unicorn in the wild.

Maybe so.  I think I'll start looking for Elvis.