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Hello all!

Newer member here (less than 6 months) but first time poster.

Last fall I traded some work, sight unseen, for an old beat up, rusty (and broke as I later discovered) circa 1979 West Hurley 1927A1. At the time, I knew next to nothing about 'Tommys' other than they being one of the more iconic firearm designs. Being a big fan of C&R milsurps – especially US WW1 & WW2 milsurps – I jumped on the deal.

 

The gun was wrapped up in a plastic bag and covered with motor oil. Upon cleaning it off, it was obvious why someone poured oil on it - the entire gun’s exterior was rusty. Tearing it apart to inspect the internals, I noticed that the bolt carrier had a major crack in it as well. After finding Douglas Richardson's website and trading a few phone calls with him, I had a replacement bolt carrier inbound. As the laws here in Cali were changing year end and not wanting to tap the receiver to install a bullet button, I temporarily bubba’d it up to comply with the new BS laws (Temp bubba = grip wrap on pistol grip and replaced the vertical forward grip with a horizontal grip). Now looking rough but ready, I hit the range and gave her a work out. All I say is ‘Wow’ - what fun it is to shoot the Thompson – even if just a rusted up SA version of it!

 

Now, even though I technically have the Thompson hole in my humble collection filled, it is with an example that has a rough finish and sporting a neutered look = the more I look at it the less I am satisfied. I now intend to refinish the rifle and would like to get it to a less neutered look. Can’t decide if I want to blast and re-blue it to keep the classic 1927A1 look, or send it off to a gunsmith to shorten the barrel, blast and park it and possibly modify it to be more similar to the WW2 M1 look which is more in line with my interests in US milsurps.

 

As my knowledge of all things Thompson is limited, I thought it time to make my formal appearance here and to engage and participate with this community and to hopefully glean some of the cognoscenti’s wealth of knowledge on all things Thompson.

 

Reading up on the various threads, it seems like the member ‘Deerslayer’ is the ‘go-to’ Tommy gunsmith for this kind of work. I also see that he is offering a modification to make Cali based Thompsons comply with the new laws by breaking the action to drop the mag. This interests me as I would then be able to get rid of the awful grip wrap. Has any California based members hired him to perform this service?

 

I appreciate any tips or recommendations members can give.

Again, greetings all...

 

-Randy

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Edited by Macho Hambre
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Re metal finish I'll offer this. Considering the surface rust you have, blast and park may be the best way to remove that. The polishing required ( to get below that rust) for a re-blue will play hell with the receiver markings.

 

Deerslayer did great work for me but I have not heard of the Cali mod yet.

 

Good luck.

 

JR

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Congrats. I agree that parkerizing may be your best option. This would simulate an arsenal rebuild and likely be the best option to mask the pitting.

 

Not being familiar with all things Kalifornia is the idea behind the grip wrap to prevent wrapping the hand around the grip to eliminate the pistol grip? I love laws written by morons. Certainly I feel safer after the grip wrap has been installed.


Ron

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as for California, I will just register it, and for get about the add ons

 

Unfortunately we cannot register a 'featureless' rifle as an 'assault weapon' as it does not meet the revised 2017 legal definition of what an assault rifle is - it doesn't have any of the listed 'evil features' PLUS a detachable magazine... This whole idea is moot though as your recommended approach would have required that a bullet button be installed on the rifle, and the rifle legally configured to 2016 specs, at 12:00 AM on 1/1/17 - which mine being featureless did not.

 

This is why I am interested in Deerslayer's Cali modification. Upon completion, it requires the action to be broken to drop the magazine which fits the definition of a permanently installed (non detachable) magazine and I can therefore avoid having to register it as an assault weapon under the new 2017 BS laws. This also means that I can restore the 'evil features' - remove the grip wrap from the pistol grip and replace the forward horizontal grip with the proper forward grip.

he way I see it - no wonky Thompson bullet button + keep all the normal 'evil features' + not classified as an assault weapon by Cali DOJ & the subsequent restrictions on transporting it = win/win/win/win.

 

We have to deal with an inordinate amount of BS laws and hostility behind the Iron Curtain here in California; however there are plenty of us here giving the good fight and staying on top of the ever changing laws and stumbling blocks they throw at us.

 

Are you perchance the same Paladin from over on the Calguns?

Edited by Macho Hambre
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The rust doesn't look that bad.

Just get some 0000 steel wool and scrub the gun in the direction of the machining/polishing marks. Use the steel wool dry. Wipe/blow all the residue from the gun.

Then soak a rag with WD 40 and scrub the gun down a few times with that. You may very well be amazed at how good the gun looks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey everyone - thank you, appreciate the tips. Apologies for the late response I've been AWOL around here parts lately.

I will give the 0000 steel wool/WD40 approach a shot, before moving on to a more aggressive approach.

I would think that a coarse wire wheel would mar the bluing, no?

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as for California, I will just register it, and for get about the add ons

 

Unfortunately we cannot register a 'featureless' rifle as an 'assault weapon' as it does not meet the revised 2017 legal definition of what an assault rifle is - it doesn't have any of the listed 'evil features' PLUS a detachable magazine... This whole idea is moot though as your recommended approach would have required that a bullet button be installed on the rifle, and the rifle legally configured to 2016 specs, at 12:00 AM on 1/1/17 - which mine being featureless did not.

 

This is why I am interested in Deerslayer's Cali modification. Upon completion, it requires the action to be broken to drop the magazine which fits the definition of a permanently installed (non detachable) magazine and I can therefore avoid having to register it as an assault weapon under the new 2017 BS laws. This also means that I can restore the 'evil features' - remove the grip wrap from the pistol grip and replace the forward horizontal grip with the proper forward grip.

he way I see it - no wonky Thompson bullet button + keep all the normal 'evil features' + not classified as an assault weapon by Cali DOJ & the subsequent restrictions on transporting it = win/win/win/win.

 

We have to deal with an inordinate amount of BS laws and hostility behind the Iron Curtain here in California; however there are plenty of us here giving the good fight and staying on top of the ever changing laws and stumbling blocks they throw at us.

 

Are you perchance the same Paladin from over on the Calguns?

From the Bill

 

This bill would require that any person who, from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2016, inclusive, lawfully possessed an assault weapon that does not have a fixed magazine, as defined, and including those weapons with an ammunition feeding device that can be removed readily from the firearm with the use of a tool, register the firearm with the Department of Justice before January 1, 2018, but not before the effective date of specified regulations. The bill would permit the department to increase the $20 registration fee as long as it does not exceed the reasonable processing costs of the department. The bill would also require registrations to be submitted electronically via the Internet utilizing a public-facing application made available by the department. The bill would require the registration to contain specified information, including, but not limited to, a description of the firearm that identifies it uniquely and specified information about the registrant. The bill would permit the department to charge a fee of up to $15 per person for registration through the Internet, not to exceed the reasonable processing costs of the department to be paid and deposited, as specified, for purposes of the registration program. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations for the purpose of implementing those provisions and would exempt those regulations from the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would also make technical and conforming changes.

 

 

Here is the Bill in it's entirety

 

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB880

 

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  • 1 year later...

Finally getting around to posting an update on the status of my 'In Progress’ West Hurley 1927A1. After much research around these parts I ended up sending it to Dan ‘Deerslayer’ Block last year to perform his California compliance modification and to ‘gussy it up’ with several of the upgrades I gleaned from plowing through these threads – thanks for all the great ideas fellas.

 

It took a good amount of time and not an insignificant amount of $$ to come up with all the parts before I was ready to send it off to him - finding a serviceable surplus 1928 trigger frame was the most difficult and I ended up having to roll the dice and purchase one off of GB from a vendor over in Poland...

 

In addition to the Cali-compliant mod Dan performed the following upgrades:

 

- Modify the FA 1928 trigger frame to run my 1927A1 Semi-auto parts - add dummy (non-op) selector.

- Modify the rifle to accept stick mags.

- Surplus 20-rd Stick mag blocked off to only 10-rd capacity.

- Install EZ-Pull springs.

- Replace stock barrel with 14.125" barrel from Green Mountain Barrels, radius the fins.

- Replace the ersatz Cutts compensator and Lyman rear sight with the real McCoys (he pinned and welded the Cutts compensator onto the barrel to meet minimum OAL).

- Replace 3/4" grip mount with 1/2" grip mount.

- Checker the selector and safety.

- Bead blast and re-blue the entire rifle.

- Dan Block custom 1928 pattern stock set with +1.5" horizontal foreend (to help mitigate the long proboscis look of the non-SBR barrel).

- Dan Block custom spare vertical foregrip (couldn't decide between horizontal or vertical grips so got one of each FTW...) .

 

I think it tuned out awesome and I am thrilled with the results. Though not nearly as cool as going the SBR route (someday after the Wife and i escape), but about as good as it gets for Thompson's here in CA.

 

I cannot recommend Dan's work highly enough!

See below link to the video of Dan demonstrating his California modification on my West Hurley!

 

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Edited by Macho Hambre
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