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Current Semi-Auto Khar M1 Thompson SBR Inquirey


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Happy New Years to Alll,

Im reaching out to those that have purchased the current production (since Khar arms took over) M1 Thompson Semi-Auto and or the SBR version. How are they performing? What are your experiences positive or negative. Im thinking about purchasing one with the sole purpose eventually of going SBR or purchasing that way. I would greatly appreciate your input.

Thank you in advance, JB

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Recently picked up my 27 SBR after a year wait and its headed back for repair. After 150 rounds the bolt face is deforming and no longer picks up the left round. Right side and drums are gtg.

 

Rear sight barely has a notch in it and the rear grip was over cut on one side and under on the other.

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Happy New Years to Alll,

Im reaching out to those that have purchased the current production (since Khar arms took over) M1 Thompson Semi-Auto and or the SBR version. How are they performing? What are your experiences positive or negative. Im thinking about purchasing one with the sole purpose eventually of going SBR or purchasing that way. I would greatly appreciate your input.

Thank you in advance, JB

 

I went through the process of making and registering a Kahr 1927A1 Deluxe into and SBR in 2002 and still have it today. Granted, it wasn't shot often, like most people's, but aside from a broken firing pin, it's held up well. It runs really well on original drums. Making what was a $1000 rifle into a registered SBR for the extra cost of the barrel and registration was not what I call cost effective, made worse with the replacement of the rear sight with an original WWII era Lyman sight and an original mag release lever. I knew I would never recover the money if I sold it, but I didn't care. It looked cool. Later Kahr offered SBR versions, which were a lot less headache to purchase effort wise. I just bought a replacement firing pin last week just in case I break another one. As far as longevity goes, the gun seems to be built like a tank. There's not much that can go wrong except for the brittle firing pin. It's hard to break a brick of steel with a tree's worth of walnut attached to it. It shrugged off one out of battery round that occurred years ago (See pic of casing below), because it's a STEEL BRICK. The design of the internals is not elegant, but they do work. I STILL HATE having to use the "third hand" to get the bolt to hold back. It would be nice to figure a way how to make a semi/auto lever that operates as a bolt hold back. As far as rifles go, this is a fun plinker, albeit very heavy. But, you have it for the looks and history, no practicality, and even though it's not a C&R Tommy, it still oozes history.

 

Thompson-Close.jpg

 

45-out-of-Battery-casing.jpg

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As long as you enter this purchase with the understanding that most likely you will have function issues to be addressed whether by Kahr or by a gunsmith of your choosing and as an out of pocket expense on your part and that replacement part availability is spotty at times together with at least in my case the inability to correctly fill my parts order as only two out of three parts were correct.

 

And that Kahr offers no flexibility in it's warranty definition, one year and to original purchaser only, despite many owners experiencing the same failures such as extractor groove fractures of the bolt and firing pin breakage. Also, my bolt had an additional fracture, at the rear of the firing pin channel there is a cross pin that retains the firing pin to the bolt. One of the holes the pin goes through has two cracks in it, this screams metal embrittlement, improper heat treating. This was the opinion of my gunsmith also, he was a machinist by trade for about fifty years prior to his retirement.

 

My gun was a two owner example, original purchaser never fired it despite owning it four years. This I fully disclosed at the time I initially called customer service as I related the story. Once I said "second owner" I was told no assistance regardless of how many bolts and extractors "allegedly" have been reported as failed.

 

In my previous line of work many times out of warranty repairs were offered with customer participation like 50/50 split, or a we cover the parts, you the labor, maybe the opposite, a discount on the part or the labor, many ways. Any of those would have been acceptable, I would not have expected 100% coverage in any case nor asked for it, just some consideration for assistance.

 

For the price those guns sell for you would expect a better service after the sale experience.

 

I love the gun, it is definitely high on the fun scale. And whenever I take it out, well people are drawn to it like moths to a candle despite it only being a semi-automatic. I don't regret the purchase, in fact when the person I bought it from and I were talking I related what happened to it. He immediately offered to buy it back saying he didn't want me to be stuck with a defective gun, I declined the offer, it was not his fault.

Edited by SHOVELHEADRIDER
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  • 2 months later...

I want to thank Dan (Deerslayer) for the most excellent work in making a bolt hold back mechanism which mimics the look of the semi/full auto toggle switch. I went down to Dan' place last week to talk shop and tinker with the rifle and had a wonderful time. This Kahr Thompson is from year 2000 block, SN KA4XXX. Dan able to point out some of the areas that need improvement in the design that I had not discovered. An interesting one explained a past firing bin breakage.

 

The firing pin is basically a plate of hardened steel sliding in a vertical slot, with a pin at the front end, and a sear cut into the bottom. The front end of the pin is elongated, and rides on the surface of a cross pin passing through the forward, cylindrical section of the bolt. The firing pin itself does not line up with the firing pin hole in the front of the bolt. The tip of the pin slams into and catches on the inside bottom edge of the hole as the pin moves forward. Shiny impact wear on the very tip of the pin showed where the contact was. The quick fix was to use a Dremel with a steel burr tool, and enter the firing pin hole from the front end and remove metal at the bottom of the hole, making a sort of ramp for the pin to ride up as it extends through the hole. This was done without changing the circular shape of the hole at the bolt face. A harder method would be to remove the support pin, ream the support pin hole to a slightly larger diameter, and insert a new, larger pin. This would raise the front end of the firing pin such that the pin moves straight into the hold without contacting the edges of the hole, solving the problem. It is likely the adjustment made will prevent premature breakage of the firing pin from here on.

 

We also took noted of how unfinished the interior surfaces of the receiver were in general. Lots of milling marks and unfinished surface area that can contribute friction which slows parts movement and creates inconsistent movement of the parts. That may rise to the level where it can affect reliability, but in my rifle's case, it hasn't. The gun has been supremely reliable.

 

My rifle, being one of the earliest, had wood grips that were extremely blocky on shape. Very unfinished. I used photos of Model 1928's to reshape the walnut to remove the flat facets on the sides and create the smooth, organic curves that give the Thompson its elegant look. Dan had some original Thompson grips available, and I was surprise to see how close my reshaping was compared an original sample. Aside from removing a slim crescent from the bottom rear of the front grip in profile, my changes appeared spot on.

 

 

 

Over the years, this rifle slowly evolved into a 1928 clone. The rear sight was replaced with an original Lyman sight from a lend-lease Thompson in Russia. The 10.5" barrel was purchased from Kahr Arms. The bolt pull back handle was reshaped on the lathe. The area on the lower just above the grip was machined to the shape of a 1928 lower, removing the metal that belonged on a M1A1. A plate was added to the lower to allow the buttstock to be removed, along with installation of the T-slotted steel attachment on the butt stock which I milled from a block of steel. Easy pull spring were made from springs bought at McMaster Carr and a firm but not brittle plastic buffer was made from a kitchen cutting board and installed. The magazine latch was replaced with a WWII era original. The Kahr drum which came with the gun was sold as a display only piece for $50.00 years ago because it was nonfunctional, and I bought two WWII drums, a Bridgeport and a Seymour to replace it. They work very well.

 

This was the first firearm I bought, and it was an occasional money pit, project gun, SBR's and modified with parts swapouts with originals and re-machining and reshaping over the past 20 years. I could never get the money out of it that I put into it, being a project gun, but it being a Thompson, who would want to?

 

Thanks Dan, for helping me see this project to its ultimate end! Now it's time to go shooting . . .

 

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post-261391-0-98003100-1585102588_thumb.jpg

 

Edited by DARIVS
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I went the cheapest route possible when I did my short barreled rifle Thompson I wanted the look of A28A1AC so I ended up getting the commando Parkerized version and a smooth barrel and went from there, also added a 28 stock adapter plate.

post-259979-0-63655600-1585164493_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

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