

Inserting a drum magazine is more fiddly, as it needs to be threaded in from the side.

THOMPSON MACHINE GUN SERIAL NUMBERS FREE
The magazine will drop free and you can insert a new magazine from below, taking care to thread it into the groove built into the front of the trigger guard. Push the conviniently-placed magazine release up with the thumb of the shooting hand. Reloading is fast with the box magazines, at least if you are right-handed. The 2.27-kg (5-lb) 50-round drums are awkward to carry, however. The drums are less reliable, but work satisfactorily if filled carefully. The original box magazines made by Auto-Ordnance or Seymour during WWII work flawlessly. You do not want to do this under fire or with a shoal of Deep Ones approaching. You have to take off the cover, place all 50 cartridges correctly inside, then replace the cover and wind up the spring by turning the handle exactly nine times. The improved weight and concealability without the stock was more important to the gangsters than the lack of accuracy, as they typically fired at very close range and did not concern themselves with the welfare of innocent bystanders.įilling the box magazines is very easy, but filling the drums is ridiculously involved. Taking off the stock was the modus operandi for many of the American outlaws of the 1920s and 1930s. Shooting without the stock is pretty useless, although full-automatic fire from the hip could still be effective at very short distances. Taking off the stock reduces length by 22.2 cm (8.75”) and also saves 0.75 kg (1.75 lbs). The gun’s short length of pull, short overall length, and general handiness make it a joy to handle despite the weight. The Type XXX 30-round box was introduced in 1942.

It could be used in the gun, but since only 5,000 were made, all before 1922, the things are rather scarce. By the time the M1928A1 appeared, the Type C 100-round drum infamously used by many gangsters was no longer offered.
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It is a heavy gun, 4.88 kg (10.75 lbs) empty, 5.44 kg (12 lbs) with a full Type XX 20-round magazine, 5.6 kg (12.35 lbs) with a Type XXX 30-round magazine, and 7.14 kg (15.75 lbs) with a Type L 50-round drum magazine. It was then sold to a distributor in Luxembourg, where it was permanently restricted to semiautomatic and then exported to Germany. At some point, it must have been stored in some arsenal in the Ukraine, where it was forgotten for decades until the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union broke up. It was apparently supplied under the wartime Lend-Lease programme to the Soviet Union with over 110,000 others, but the Krasnaya Armiya made little use of the Pistolet-Pulemyet Tompsona during the war, and the overall condition of my gun would support that. Judging from the serial number, the gun shown dates from 1941. Auto-Ordnance made 323,900 M1928A1s at Bridgeport, Connecticut, between 19. Some 2 million Thompson guns were made between 19. Of course, it also provides that period feel … I have fitted mine with an aftermarket forward pistol grip, which is not a perfect replica but pretty close, and allows a good fit given my size and arm length. The M1928A1 normally ‒ but not always ‒ has a horizontal handguard instead of the forward pistol grip. Practically all of these components are missing from the wartime M1 and M1A1 Thompsons. However, the M1928A1 retains most of the original features, including the finned 26.7-cm (10.5”) barrel, Lyman-made Cutts compensator, adjustable Lyman rear sight, detachable shoulder stock, and ability to use drum magazines. It also has the lower cyclic rate of the Model 1928AC and M1928. It differs from the civilian Model 1921AC of 1926 and the Model 1928AC and the US Navy’s M1928 of 1928 in a few cost-cutting measures, including the dull Parkerized finish instead of the blueing of the earlier weapons. Despite minor variations over the course of the following 17 years, the M1928A1 adopted by the US Army in 1938 is still basically the same gun. The original gun entered production as the Model 1921 in that year, made by Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, under contract for the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. The Thompson gun was envisioned by John Thompson in 1917, but much of the actual design was performed by Theodore Eickhoff. This a practical review of the Auto-Ordnance M1928A1 Thompson gun, with an eye towards its performance in games like GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, and Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game.
