West Hurley Thompson Ownership Survey

[El Duce]

I am still waiting on my WH M1 to transfer. I have my fingers crossed that it should be any day or week by now. It may need some work. I bought a parts kit in the mean time. I am patient.

[Vettom]

I too am awaiting transfer. Although my WH has been corrected and PKd it has reportedly run without issues with 28 or 21 internals as per Sandman57 and former owner.

[wv1928]

When I purchased mine there were some minor parts parts missing like the oilier and a buffer and it "Hiccuped " yeah right. it would fire and jam every two or three rounds. I was told by board members to buy a parts kit and replace the lower with GI. parts. I bought two parts kits that came from Russia. I bought two of them for $650.00 each. Both sets were complete sets minus the uppers. Both sets were new. I replace the lower and installed one of the oilier and the buffers crumbled when i picked them up for the first time. I installed a urethane buffer, oiled it well and proceeded to try it out and it ran great. The over all condition of the gun was beautiful. I waited a long time to get a Thompson and went threw a lot of trouble before I could take possession of it. I had to get the ATF involved before I finally got it. So I will vote " NO " on your survey.

[mnshooter]

I no longer own my '84 vintage WH 28, I have replaced it with a Savage M1.

The WH came with some GI internals and some not. While I owned it, I had a gunsmith replace the junk rear sight with a Lyman, replaced the junk WH guide rod and buffer with a GI rod and urethane buffer, added a Wolff recoil spring, and replaced the junk cast WH actuator which broke in two at the slot for the Blish lock. The sight was the only change that required a smith and that had nothing to do with reliability. It ran fine until it didn't - the actuator.

 

I sent PK photos of the Blish slots in the receiver. He said that he'd seen worse but still recommended that I not shoot it much. His waiting list was 3 years ± and I decided that I didn't want to wait that long

 

Pretty much mirrors my WH 28 experience, plus I also replaced the WH mag catch, sear, pinned levers, and grip mount with the real thing.

The WH "True M1" got a new bolt, guide rod, sear, and buffer, plus the mag well clearance work usually needed on these.

Did get on PK's wait list. Made it to the top 5-1/2 years later, so made use of his talents on another project a couple of years back.

 

Didn't know PK has closed the wait list. Hope everyone there makes it to the top.

Edited July 1, 2019 by mnshooter

[RogerD]

I just bought mine last month. Serial # is in the 1200's so I suspect it was manufactured in the late 70's. The way the snails at the ATF and FBI are working I'll be lucky if I get it in a year. That's the bad news. Good news is the SOT is a friend so I'll get to shoot it about once a month. I'll get back after a few range sessions.

[Grease Gunner]

My first purchase was a 1928 WH ,late production like 1985. I shot only 2 mags thru it. It ran perfect

when i heard about the long wait list for PK, i sold mine for 22k after Rock Island's commish (super lucky) and bought a M1a1

When WW2 guns sell in the low 20's and WH's seem so close in price, get the WW2 one.

Just my 2 cents

[reconbob]

I have never owned a West Hurley but have had quite a few of them pass

thru the shop. These are guns that had assorted problems and were sent for

repair. In most cases we were able to fix the problems and get the guns

running but a few of them I recommended that the owners contact Paul.

I think the important thing is for anyone considering buying a WH is that

they must inspect the gun to check for the obvious faults as it makes no

sense to go thru all of the time and trouble and end up with a gun that does

not work.

One of the guns we had was a M1 and the bolt pocket was grossly

over-sized plus the receiver was bowed along the front-rear axis. There

was so much extra space in the bolt pocket that the bolt would jump the

sear.

 

Bob

[Uncle Dudley]

I voted "no".  My 1977 production 28 ran fine but from information I got on this board I could see that it needed a "PK" enhancement, due to visible flaws in internal receiver machining.  I'm glad I had PK do his fine craftsmanship on my WH 28.  It is better than new and should last several lifetimes, as I pass it down through the family.

 

[Moose1]

I voted No. I acquired my WH 28 from a friend from our group who was in bad health. The WH functioned fine, but after reading all the info on this site, I changed all the internal parts and lower to USGI to be on the safe side. Next will be that rear sight, that comes loose every time I shoot it.

I looked at my blish lock slots after learning about the issues. The slots look fine and will continue to shoot it until I notice something.

The WH will eat anything I load in the mags.

I would love to upgrade to a USGI model, but the only one I found close to the $20k mark was so mismatched and beat up.

Moose

 

[RogerD]

Had my WH out at the range last weekend with my SOT who currently has custody. The first mag was a run away so we stopped shooting the gun. My SOT wanted to take it to the machine gunsmith for inspection. Apparently the first round smashed the old buffer to pieces and bits of it got into the fire control group jamming the sear. Problem diagnosed and repaired in 10 minutes. No charge. I voted no because had we taken the time we could have discovered this rather obvious problem and remedied ourselves with a good cleaning.

Edited August 14, 2019 by RogerD

[El Duce]

I will be picking up mine tomorrow!!! Probably shoot it as is, I am going to bring a complete lower and a bolt to swap out at the range. I am super excited! 11 month wait! For a gun that has sat in a safe for 20 years now!

[TSMGguy]

I bought a LNIB WH M1, not a '28. The M1 would shoot about three rounds and then have some kind of failure. PK did a great job of squaring it away. At my request, he made it look like an early WWII M1 TSMG, with a bright bolt, paddle-style pivot and safety, milled sling swivels and grip mount, and "L" rear sight. Gone is the original overly glossy, slab sided appearance. All parts of the gun are from an original unissued M1 (not M1A1) parts kit except for the frame and receiver. Glad I asked PK to mark the gun with is diamond K logo.

[RogerD]

I'm Jealous. I had contact with him last week and was advised his "queue was untenable" and was not accepting any more work.

[cbmott]

I'm Jealous. I had contact with him last week and was advised his "queue was untenable" and was not accepting any more work.

PK told me the same in February that he just has too much work currently to add to his wait list. Depending on what you need you can ask Deerslayer, reconbob, or look up John Andrewski for work on your Thompson. I know Andrewski does re-blue receivers to whatever you desire and does the machine work for the Blish slots. Deerslayer did great work on my WH chamber to fix jamming I had, swapped out the buffer pilot and made a new stock set that is gorgeous. I’m not advertising for anyone in particular, just giving you a few options should you need them. Maybe also give it a year-ish and see if PK’s list has gone down enough to get on it but I just don’t see the demand going down.

[Ryo]

Note I voted but honestly I don't know what work was done to this WH other than all the parts were replaced.

I know the ejector was slightly worked on, but I don't count that.

 

The internals look like it wasn't worked on so I'd say it wasn't worked on.

[timkel]

Just a pop to the top for any new members with West Hurley Thompsons to take part in the poll. Currently the poll sits with a total of 62 votes. "No" has a slight lead at 52% with "Yes" close behind at 48%.

[Tiz]

The gun would run OK. But it was like a whole new gun when it came back from PK. Slick as snot on a door knob. Action is like glass. Now runs 100%. Well worth the money. I can assure you there is no stock WH that can begin to compare with a WH that has been PK'd. I thought mine ran good but I was mistaken. His work is AAA+++

 

Chopper1928

 

PS My gun was made in the first year of production #297A

Ditto to what Chopper1928 says.

Edited March 27, 2022 by Tiz

[Ryo]

The honest answer is it depends.

It depends what is wrong with it.

It depends on the owner's skill set.

[mohawk64]

Maybe there's nothing wrong with it.

[Countryboy77]

I wonder how many 'Nos' purchased a gun that PK worked on for the previous owner.

[wv1928]

I VOTE " NO " I REPLACED PARTS WITH " GI " PARTS KITS MYSELF AND RUNS GREAT. I GOT REALLY LUCKY, BOUGHT 2 OF THE KITS TO HAVE EXTRA PARTS AND WHEN THEY WERE CHEAP. I GOT REALLY LUCKY, BOTH KITS WERE NEW .

[u136953]

I vote no. 1981 WH has always run fine

[RogerD]

After some minor stumbles along the way I sent the gun to Deerslayer last year. He reamed the chamber, checked the internals (all GI), and tweaked the rear sight. Gun runs fine now.

[timkel]

A tight chamber seems to be a common complaint.

[Sandman1957]

A tight chamber seems to be a common complaint.

Unless you are a newlywed!