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Thompson M1


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coastie,

OK, so you have done the one round test multiple times and the bolt always failed to lock all the way to the rear, correct???

I guess it could be something as simple as a overly strong, non original, bolt spring. Like a Wolfe spring. Or a weak sear spring.

Perhaps the sear trip installed backwards or damaged.

Perhaps you live near a forum member who could inspect your gun.

While waiting for a volunteer, buy a GI bolt and sear spring.

Jim C

Jim,

Thanks. Bolt never has locked fully to the rear. I replaced recoil spring. It was the same length as new GI spring. Next step is to replace sear spring. Trip appears correct.

Bill

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Bill,

I fear we may be back to the earlier mentioned shot out barrel issue.

You need the help of a local Thompson collector.

Jim C

I think you are correct. I just realized it's sometimes keyholing some shots.

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if you bought it from one of the larger national dealers they should pay to fix this for you...

 

most sellers of FA on any business level would help you out to some degree or pay for the repair

 

if bought AS IS from a local then you'd be on your own....

 

contact Reconbob to see if he has any barrels for sale...he sold me a few that are minty for a very reasonable price a few years ago......

 

kinda crazy to wear out a barrel....someone really enjoyed that thompson or did a lot of mag dumps and heated that barrel up nicely and wore it down

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Keyholes could also mean under powered.

Counter intuitive, but a week recoil spring could prevent enough pressure from building, so maybe not too heavy a spring, could be too light.

Also, if you havent tried several other brands of ammo, do that just to be sure.

What area are you located in, maybe someone near you can bring another gun to compare, maybe swap lowers just to test.

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what you are doing is pounding a pc of lead into the bore so you can measure it with a micrometer

 

if you get .444 you are on the high side of the tolerance for a tommy gun barrel

if you see .452 you have a shotgun barrel with little to no rifling left .

 

so anything near the rifling dimension at the breech end is going to cause pressure loss from behind the bullet

 

you can't seal the bore if it's worn out bigger than the average 45 caliber slug at 451

 

that measly little .oo4 a side is very important to keep the gas behind the bullet

for reference a piece of paper averages about .005 thick

Edited by 95mustang
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The lead will slide pretty easy. Get a few pure lead cast .452 bullets and push them through the barrel. You should get a good read of the condition of the lands and grooves. Put a micrometer and measure the diameter. This should confirm if the barrel is shot out. The previous posts explained it well. Doing this does not harm a barrel.
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