I wish someone would have showed me the 'secret handshake' though. On my first trip out I'm all happy and ready to blast away. Standing on a gravel logging road I go to slide the drum in and it goes clean out the other side of the gun promptly landing on the ground! Fully loaded of course! I about crapped! Fortunately it didn't get dented (again) but has a couple new battle scars on Merle's fresh park job.

From the same friend I bought a WH M1 semi and I'm currently waiting on an F1 to clear so I can make it into a SBR. It's going to get a round trip ticket to PK's shop (he doesn't know it yet) to get the barrel cut and a few other things once the F1 is in hand. The gun is pretty much mint and I'm pretty sure it's only been fired a few times. Looking forward to having it look more like a tommy should with a shorter barrel.
All in all I'm pretty stoked. I'ts been fun learning about Thompsons and hanging out on this board. Franks Thompson book was a good read as well.