So nice. So rare. Going to be out of my price range without a doubt.
1928 Colt .45 Caliber Thompson Sub-Machine Gun
Actually issued to their SWAT guys in the 1980s because they didn't have enough M-16s. I gotta say that, shortcomings aside, that would be a pretty cool gun to have issued.
Get your bids in.
And on the Thompson front, mine has been shipped off again for repair, this time to John Andrewski, who, like his father, legendary machine gun expert Stan Andrewski, has likely forgotten more about these guns than most of us will ever learn. The first time I talked to him on the phone about mine, he described exactly what it was doing without me telling him, and then he explained why it did what did did...or in this case, didn't. So he got the gun and I'll be writing him a check while cursing the seller's (David Spiwak) "100% guarantee", which apparently meant "I'll take it back three or four times and have my guy do the bare minimum on it until it runs half-way decent and that's as good as these guns will ever work so stop sending it to me."
Can you guess that I'm not a fan of this guy any more? I don't want a gun that works 90% of the time, or 95%. I want one that goes "BANG!" every single time I pull the trigger...or in this case, I want one that goes "BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!..." And one that doesn't look like mis-matched shit would be nice too, but John's going to take care of that as well.
Anyway, great guns from the past, the Thompsons. Heavy and not the easiest gun to reload quickly in a fight, but .45ACP and too damned cool otherwise.
I deeply regret not purchasing a Sterling or UZI back in the late 70's when I had the opportunity to do so. I was holding out for a Thompson, all of which I encountered were beyond my means.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya. A seller I know offered me a rewat M1 Thompson back in the 90's for just a few grand, and like a dolt, I decided I'd never get my money out of it and passed.
DeleteYou oughta look around for an M3A1. Absolutely wonderful gun for fun-time blasting, and it's good for house clearing too. The only thing is that you have to wear a welders glove on your support hand when you shoot it.
ReplyDeleteThose guns are expensive as all hell, just because there are so few of them out there. I may see one or two a year come up for sale and they go fast.
DeleteThe M50 Reising was a sweetheart of an entry level SMG and a lot of fun to shoot. I had a PT job in a gun shop with a range and available SMG samples to shoot in the nineties. I shot...a lot...H&K, Beretta and LE trade ins. Fun times.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I liked the Reising a lot for it's ergonomics and it's weight but I could never get mine to work reliably and magazines are near impossible to come by. It had to go when I found my Thompson, which is much heavier and works almost as poorly.
Delete(Homer Simpson drooling and gurgling sounds)
ReplyDeleteYeah, on my 'never will get one' list. Like an MP5.
Bookends of the sub gun world...
SIGH.
gfa
Mid-five figures probably... sigh
ReplyDelete