West Hurley Thompson Ownership Survey

[Ryo]

A tight chamber seems to be a common complaint.

 

I wouldn't complain about that.

 

Mine was milled sloppy.. too deep. I had to hand make a internal plate to bring the bolt closer to the sear so it would be able to trip the rocker and lock on the sear. Mine was a runaway. Now it runs great the last few times I took it out.

[heavy artillery]

Adding some details as I originally voted without adding any comment:

I've owned two (a 1980 build and a TF serial) and sold one (the TF). The TF one was a 1981 .22 receiver converted by WH to sell in .45 in 1987.

I replaced the internals with USGI on both, replaced springs and buffers, and added original breech oilers. The TF one had a tight chamber and would occasionally not extract a fired case. It just needed some minor work to resolve that issue. The second has run flawlessly to date and looks good internally (blish slots have good placement/geometry but with the second WH angled cut). Would have PK work on it just for my peace of mind but, as others have noted, Paul isn't taking on any more work.

Edited April 5, 2022 by heavy artillery

[timkel]

Just popping this to the top for any new  West Hurley owners to vote and voice their experence/opinions.

[Doug Quaid]

This forum is a fantastic source of information, and running this poll is a great idea.

Not to be picky, but the poll has a couple of inherent flaws:

First of all, when people VOLUNTEER to answer a poll, you're getting a restricted and skewed data sample.   Like when your phone rings and someone asks you if you have 20 minutes to answer 200 political questions for a poll, you hang up.   But a lonely old widow lady might welcome the call.  So the phone poll data set is skewed toward bored or lonely people.  You're not getting a truly random sample across the entire run of WH production.

Also WH poll sample is on the small side, about 70 guns out of how many?  1500?  2000?   

Secondly, people are real defensive about stuff that they own.  People who have had problems with their Westies might be reluctant to admit it, because bad-mouthing WHs might tend to de-value their guns when they go to sell them.

Like I said in the other thread, I sort of collect pinball machines and I see this all the time:  every review of every single pinball machine says it's!! the!! best!! pinball!! machine!! ever!!   Nobody wants to say their $8,000 pinball machine sucks.  Or that it's even mediocre.

Third, as someone else pointed out to me - some of the owners who are voting in this poll are people who are 2nd, 3rd or 4th owners.   So the same gun might show up in the poll 4 times as it changes hands.   It would be better to make a list that includes serial numbers and do the poll that way.

Like I said, having the poll is a great idea, but there is going to be a decent margin of error in it.

Personally, I would have no hesitation at all with buying a WH to use as a shooter, provided that the price is right and it can be made to run properly.

The problem is the uncertainty involved.   WHs were made with large dimensional variation, and we have seen everything from WHs that run perfect right out of the box, to guns that are a complete mess and need extensive part swaps and re-machining.

On the other hand, I bought a nice minty arsenal rebuild USGI M1A1 and I have run about 2,000 rounds through it and I'm still waiting for it to jam.  I've had one misfire so far and that was a dud round, the primer had a strong dent in it but it failed to fire.  If you buy a pre-1945 gun, you tend to take all the risk out of the equation.

Edited January 20, 2023 by Doug Quaid

[cm289]

I voted “no” but confess to being somewhat ignorant. I have 274A, owned it for about 10 yrs and bought it directly from the original owner. I rarely shoot it, but have never had any problems. Since I haven’t ever shot a “real” Thompson, I guess I don’t know what I’m missing. 

Edited June 5, 2023 by cm289
Typo

[1gewehr]

I voted "No".   But, after a couple of range trips, I noticed wear on the bolt where the sear stops it.  I bought a new GI bolt and swapped it out.  For good luck, I also swapped out the complete lower, recoil spring, stop, and buffer.  

So, a gunsmith wasn't needed.  And strictly speaking, I don't know if other issues would have popped up if I had not replaced all the other parts.  But, I haven't had any issues at all since then.

[Old Sensei]

Besides that Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?

It took years to get the the WH to run.  I sent it out for repair to a few well thought of TSMG smiths (not PK) and when returned it would still not fire single shot, just full auto no matter where the selector was switched.  All of the smiths asked for a second chance to repair it, so I have no complaint about their efforts.  It was just after shipping and paying for it, why both a second time?

The entire story is still too much of a trauma to relate.  The final chapter is akin to a cheap spy novel.  I asked for assistance from a special forces captain who had recently retired from BATF.  I shipped it to a dealer in another country (Texas) who "drove" it to an unnamed gunsmith who "had seen the problem before" and fixed it.  At this point, I don't care what he did as long as it works.  (I guess he put the frame back into spec, which I was originally told by many, could not be done).  

[Ryo]

38 minutes ago, Old Sensei said:

Besides that Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?

It took years to get the the WH to run.  I sent it out for repair to a few well thought of TSMG smiths (not PK) and when returned it would still not fire single shot, just full auto no matter where the selector was switched.  All of the smiths asked for a second chance to repair it, so I have no complaint about their efforts.  It was just after shipping and paying for it, why both a second time

I bet the receiver was milled deeper than it should have. I use to have full auto issues. 

[DixieTriggerMan]

Another "no" vote here. I purchased my West Hurley #13xxA NIB from Roger Cox in late 1980 for $695. The Form 4 transfer took a little less than 9 weeks. I always shot USGI spec hardball through the gun and it performed reliably.

When I bought mine, very little information was available about the WH guns and their supposed shortcomings. I knew my gun didn't exhibit the fine workmanship of the original Colts, but I wanted a shooter and not a collectable. Besides, my Westie cost less than 1/5 what a Model 1921 was going for at that time.

Although my gun had always run well, I wanted to ensure its long-term durability by replacing the West Hurley internals with mil-spec components. I purchased one of IMA's "super select" Russian parts kits, contacted PK and got my gun in his queue. After a six year wait, I was able to send the gun and parts kit to Paul and he reworked my Westie into a superb, very smooth-running recreation of an early WW II Model 1928A1. After PK's magic, does my WH have the cachet of a Colt or even a WW II AO or Savage? No, but I'll stack up its performance against a Thompson of any vintage.             

[timkel]

Great post. This poll has been running for 6 years. Keep the votes and posts coming.

I also purchased a NIB WH in 1980. I have never had any reason to regret that decision. 

Edited September 26, 2023 by timkel
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[katanafred]

I voted no ... My gun was originally manufactured in 1985, but it looks to have been very well maintained and only lightly used and so far has performed perfectly except with the Seymore magazines I received with it. I was fortunate in that it was sold to me by a local Class 3 dealer and he let me inspect it in detail and fire it. I suspect that it may have been worked on in the past ... all the WH internals have been replaced with USGI parts except for the original one piece WH buffer pilot which I immediately replaced with a USGI part and polyurethane disk. I've reached out to some folks on our forum who have worked on WH TSMGs, but so far I've not found any record of work that may have been done on my gun in the past. The finish on my gun is especially nice - almost as if a previous owner had gotten the gun blued, based on my limited observation of some other WH's I've seen.