Questions about Taiwan L Drums

[Waldo]

Several years ago I got an L Drum from either Sarco or Numrich. I don't remember who anymore. I think it was supposed to have been made in Taiwan. I learned about the on this board and bought one. I have been happy with it. I just used it last week and it worked fine. I have also ordered one from the company that was mentioned in another recent thread. I also have a WW II U.S. L drum. The repro drum and the G.I. drum have slightly different marking, but feel and function about the same. I am curious, is this the same drum as Kahr sells? The one I just ordered is supposedly made by a Taiwanese Military contractor. Are the Taiwanese still using Thompsons? I did not think there was that big of a civilian demand for them. Does anyone know how and why this came about? I am very pleased that I was able to get some, but am curios how it happened. Thanks for any info or insight.

[Ryo]

Probably Numrich where you got your original Taiwanese drums. They still sell it under the manufacturer GPC I believe. Worked perfectly in my Thompson.

 

I'm hope those $99 drums work good because that was a steal.

[TSMG28]

Waldo,

 

The Taiwan-made drums are not the same as those sold by Kahr. Kahr has been having their own drums made by a subcontractor since a few years after they acquired all of the rights to Auto-Ordnance from Numrich in 1999. Most of the Kahr drums do not work well in full auto guns. For a brief time in the latter 2000s, they tried to address the FA community needs, but seem to have switched back to only focusing on their semi guns.

 

The Taiwan drums have no connection to any military. They were originally reverse engineered by the Taiwan manufacturer based on a WWII Crosby L drum. All of the WWII markings were duplicated, including the Crosby name and address plus Thompson Submachine Gun on the front faceplate. The latter was a registered trademark owned by Kahr, so Kahr threatened legal action and the markings on the drum were changed or removed. Even though the Crosby Company no longer existed, that name was removed as well, I assume just to be safe.

 

As far as I know, the first Taiwan-made drums were offered by a company named Keep Shooting in the U.S. I do not know whether they are the ones who commissioned the manufacture, but that seems likely.

 

After the Kahr trademark issue went away, other companies started to sell the Taiwan-made drums, including Numrich (Gun Parts Corp). Numrich later had the same manufacturer duplicate the C drum as well. This time, they had them marked with their company name, GPC. As far as I know, only GPC and Kahr sell the C drums. The GPC ones generally work well in FA guns. The Kahr ones have proved to be much less reliable.

 

I believe the Taiwan-made L drums are still available from different companies in the U.S., including Numrich and occasionally Keep Shooting.

 

I hope this answers your questions.

Roger

Edited October 24, 2021 by TSMG28

[colt21a]

keep shooting yes I know the owner for years.We even got together for the MP-44 mag deal. WE WORKED IT OUT AND 2,000 OF THOSE CAME ABOUT. I had the early models of Crosby also. AND THE FIRST BATCH OF MP-44, was going to work on MP-40 BUT SSD IN GERMANY.had that deal already. so that ended. However since the American deal to bring or have the guns made here flopped in the past 30 months. i no longer bother with any of it.

 

but glad that people still ask questions that is sometimes how deals get done.RON K.

[Waldo]

TSMG28,

Sir, thank you for the info. Now that I see the name, I think Keep Shooting is who I got it from. I