Joshua,
Welcome to the board. Glad to see that you were somehow finally enticed to come out of hiding after all these years by this post. Computer/Software engineer? Wowsers! I appreciate the compliment but even though I do all the webwork and can even do some programming, ecommerce and build my own websites...and some others. I have never taken a computer course in my life...just typing. As a mater of fact, I have no formal education above 2 years of college (Business/Pysch) and none of it relates as to what I do now. I teach myself what I need to know and always manage to get by. As far as guns go...by the time I get the real time movie of how they work to play in my head...it is pretty much figured out.
The Thompson show and shoot was the first time that I shot a Full Auto all right...and the only time as well. Tom did not ever even see a Full Auto Thompson untill at least a year after that. (I had to explain how the frame comes off of the reciever) I have not been out of NY state since then so I have not had the opportunity. However as far as semi's go...I have a couple and got my first long before I ever got the idea to get into this business. Actually, I wanted to put a detachable stock on my gun and got to learning, needed to find parts and an Idea sparked. Gotta start somewhere.
Since you have asked...I will clear some more things up...and then put it to rest.
Tom was a machinist and FFL holder that's it. He never did all of the work on a single gun by himself ever. He would be given jobs and told how to complete them. I personally engineered all of the custom parts...not him. He is not the only one who worked on the guns. BTW...the total of custom guns that Tom had go through his shop was 4...that's it. All the others went through Jim's. We are getting ready to finish a run of guns and will post some pic's of those...the quality is the same...just more of them. I trained and oversee both of them.
Tom is a general gunsmith, not a Thompson specialist. He dosen't collect or take interest in the hobby but now it seems he may want to try to make a name for himself. He had alot of problems and made some major mistakes. Even crashed a tool into the reciver on one of the custom guns and destroyed it.
Why did I stick with him? He had a real sad story. He was struggling with his business and complaining to me that his partner, Bob, just backed out on him and the partner before that had taken all his customers. His girlfriend just through him out on the street...he said the excuse was because he could not pull his own weight. I felt bad for him and I try to be loyal. At least he seemed sincere...so I tried not to give up. He was sleeping on a cot in his office after all. He even filed personal bankruptcy in a last ditch effort to save his business. I didn't want to cut his knees off.
When did it all go bad? When things started to bear fruit. I managed to hook up with Kahr arms and started a good working relationship where I felt I might even have a chance to influence some improvements in production...It worked! We could get the guns cheaper so we sold more and Kahr started sending all the custom and west hurley gunsmithing to me. I was on very good terms with them and they even made mention that they would be willing to floorplan some guns on credit! I was excited about the possibility of putting together a gun shop full of Thompson's...a real specialty shop...and told Tom about the conversation and the idea. Thought since he had the shop and FFL we could work out an arrangement that would benefit all. He liked the idea and we decided that we would work out the details on forming a partnership LLP. Would take some time but seemed doable. In the mean time sales went up and the business started turning the corner to profitability in it's second year. Tom even seemed to be doing better...he was buying things for the shop, had money and even said that he was doing much better financially and that it was great to have the pressure off of him. It seemed that he would soon be able to even start to pay me the money he owed me!
All was going great untill the call. Frank Harris called me and said that they could not ship a gun that we just ordered because they had not recieved a payment in 3 months! He owed thousands! WTF! All he had to do was take the order, deposit the money, clear, order the gun, ship to the ffl, send me my commission and keep the rest. Then I realized why I thought it was so funny that I had 2 customers that seemed to be waiting some time for thier guns and did not get them yet. What Tom did...on his own without telling me...was call Kahr Arms and ask for the credit terms that were offered to me...not him...on my reputation...be activated in his business name so we (actually he) could get the guns on credit. Kahr agreed since I had mentioned possibly setting this up with Tom and had some discussion about it previously. Then Tom proceeded to shake his moneymaker! He deposited the checks and ordered the guns on credit and did not pay for them! When I confronted him with this he burst into tears and gave the biggest BS performance about how he was such a victim and had to do it. He did lie to me the entire time and do this behind my back. The customers were livid. The first one, Sean, disputed the credit card and got his back but the other guy "Will" paid by money order and was pissed and ready to sue everybody! I think either of these guys would be more than happy to share thier experiences with Tom if Y'all don't believe me. It took over a month to work it all out...thank god Kahr was still willing to work with me and we got it cleared up...the last I heard Tom still had not paid them what he owed them yet.
Needless to say this was very dammaging to a still fledgling business and harmed my reputation with Kahr since I had brought Tom in as an associate.
At this point I realized that if Tom had any financial control over things he would drag me down with him. I have a family to feed and this can't happen so I severed our dealings. This was several months ago.
Now Tom is tring to make that name and attempting to lie about how much he really was involved with things to try to get back at me for taking my business elsewhere. I have noticed that he seems to have a real problem taking responsibility for his own actions and whines and crys the victim while displacing the blame on others. He even tried to blame me for his business failing and that I forced him to go to Kahr and lie to me. Now as he has in the past...is trying to spread lies to get back at me because he has a childish revenge problem. Case in point: Tom got banished from Numrich arms (he did not work on Thompson's...just gages) and told Bobby Numrich that the "next time you see me you better be armed" (there is a police report on this Tom told me). Then he procededs to exact this rediculous revenge scheme. First he starts spreading rumors that Numrich is going out of business. Numrich's lawyers force Tom to post a retraction on the home page of his website for 3 months. Then he gets clever...Tom designed the 1911 detachable stock for Numrich when he worked there. He then set out to make a better detachable stock, get it pattented and a failed attempt to market it. He lost an unbelieveable amount of money and effort to produce a useless product...just for revenge. You can see the stock and how he slams the part he designed for Numrich as a "canoe paddle" if you
Click Here You will have to scroll past the stocks to near the bottom of the page.
And he thinks that he has some right to use my name "chopper ordnance". I will get a lawyer for that one if needed.
FYI...all the stocks he sells are made by Wood Plus...not him.
Hey, don't take my word for it though...verify the facts for yourself.
Between web development, dealing with customers, research, engineering, repairs, custom guns, parts, and the whole lot of it...one person can't do it all so some things have to be farmed out...no one person knows all that we do...but me.
I am curious. What specifically do you know about Hudson Trading post? Tom has been in business for a while and he has owned it for years so any reputation gained would be due to Tom. Curious to know what you know.
Best,
Damon
OH...BTW...almost forgot. When you were lurking...(for a couple of years)...were you registerd under another name? Forgive me but your profile says you registered yesturday...not 2 years ago. You would have had to have registered to lurk...so what name were you registered under? I am curious are you real or do you have some motive here? Sorry to be suspicious but I know who I am dealing with. And you being him would fit right in.