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.22 Caliber Thompson Drums


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I have been busy dusting off some of the things in my warehouse and found some 30 round .22 cal. Thompson mags and these two .22 caliber drums. I think I have another drum but couldn't find it. In any case, I shot up some pics for you guys to look at. They both have different mounting attachments. I am pretty sure the one with the round hole is for a full auto .22 cal. weapon but I am not sure about the other one. I thought it might be for a Bingham .22, but I have 6 of those and they are different. Any info you guys have would help.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Nick

 

22drum-1a.JPG

22drum-1b.JPG

22drum-1c.JPG

22drum-1d.JPG

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Just shot these jpegs of the 30 round mags that I found as well. Notice they both have different notches cut into them. Is one for a semi and the other a full auto? When Auto Ordnance Corporation in West Hurley NY shut down, I bought all of the .22 thirty round magazines that they had left in stock. I think there were about 70, 80 or 100 of them. I got both of these out of that shipment. So why are they different?

22mag-1a.JPG

22mag-1b.JPG

22mag-1c.JPG

22mag-1d.JPG

Edited by firearm
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The notch that is important for Auto-Ordnance is the round one in the front. That locks up with their adapter for either semi- or full-auto guns.

 

The reason for the differing notches on the back is that these magazines were designed to be used with a number of different adapters, I believe most made by Bingham. For example, there is a Bingham adapter that fits a Ruger 10-22 that allows these stick mags to be used in that gun.

 

Like their .22 drum, Auto-Ordnance simply adopted an existing solution and adapted it for their needs.

 

Concerning the drums above, I agree that the one with the round hole is designed to work in a Thompson. I have no idea what gun the other modification is designed to work with.

 

Nick, since you bought all of the Numrich .22 stock, it may have been a development model for getting the hole placed correctly for the production version. Just a guess. Both drums have obviously been inserted into guns more than a few times. Neither drum is one of their production models. The production models have a Thompson bullet logo stamped on them and a spring steel clip spot-welded on the back to hold the loading tool for the drum.

 

Roger

Edited by TSMG28
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Is the adaptor plate on the back of the left drum with the top of it cut out the same material as the right one?

 

The wear pattern in the bluing on the front is indicative of being inserted into the pps 50 gun. So they were well used drums before numrich started to experiment on them.

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Here is a shot of both drums. The one on the right is the drum that has the round hole in the mounting attachment. Is that the modification that you are referring to? Also note that the one on the left had something on the feed lip. It has either worn off or been removed.

P1010733.JPG

Edited by firearm
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Since Nick did not get the drums from Numrich, my guess is that someone else took drums that had been used in PPS50s and modified them to be used with a Thompson and something else.
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Is the adaptor plate on the back of the left drum with the top of it cut out the same material as the right one?

 

The wear pattern in the bluing on the front is indicative of being inserted into the pps 50 gun. So they were well used drums before numrich started to experiment on them.

Both of the adaptor plates look like they were factory made. The one with the slot looks like it was machine formed or rolled. Doesn't look like it was a basement job.

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The feed lips on both were modified to be ejectors. One original drum I had looked like this ejector was made from a bent roll pin glued in place. When I make drums like these I use a piece of reworked xxx mag for the back. These show the numrich version of a formed piece of steel though the finish on the left (slotted) one makes it hard to identify as such. I would suggest these are early experimental or production versions as the don't have the stamping on the front. Edited by deerslayer
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The notch that is important for Auto-Ordnance is the round one in the front. That locks up with their adapter for either semi- or full-auto guns.

 

...

 

Roger

 

Here are some pictures of my AO Thompson .22lr magazine adapter and magazine. Note this adapter setup is for use with my early FA BDM .22lr conversion kit. It was configured by PK back in the day. Everything works perfectly and is extremely reliable using bulk box Federal .22lr plated ammo. It also runs very clean.

SN150721.jpg

Magazine on right has not been modified to work with the magazine adapter.

 

Magazine within adapter.

SN150720.jpg

 

Top view.

SN150718.jpg

 

View through ejection port. You can clearly see the magazine lips along with the breach end of the conversion's .22lr barrel insert.

SN150717.jpg

 

The converted AO Thompson.

SN150716.jpg

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