Value of West Hurley 1927A5 pistol

[BPinFL]

Hello:  I inherited a nice W. Hurley 1927A5 pistol #763XP. with 10 - 30 rd mags and a 50? rd drum. Mags have had catch hole enlarged to fit the gun.

Shoots great with mags, haven't tried the drum.  What do you guys think this package would be worth?  Thanks for the Board! BP

[Gio]

I would put the value depending on shape $1400 to $1800. You could put on Gunbroker and possibly get more.

Thats my 2 cents.

Frank

[Bayrain]

I have one I bought for $1250 on armlist from a seller in Kansas.

 

Best $1250 I've ever spent.

West Hurleys are insanely expensive right now and most Tommy's in general online rn. So probably start at $1400 on an online bid and see what happens.

 

Did see someone post an A5 for $4000 on GB. It's not on there a anymore either.

I wouldn't mind buying yours, I'm still waiting for my lower to come back and now it's starting to seem like it never will.

 

 

I would say keep it. Very cool pistol, aluminum receiever is pretty nice as well.

[BPinFL]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies! Very nice case there Frank, who made it?  Does the front grip make it an AOW?

It is a very cool gun, just not very accurate without a stock. BP

[villafuego]

13 hours ago, BPinFL said:

Hi guys, thanks for the replies! Very nice case there Frank, who made it?  Does the front grip make it an AOW?

It is a very cool gun, just not very accurate without a stock. BP

They had a 13.5" bbl, rather than a 10.5" .....that put the OAL over 26", and kept them from being considered AOW's. Put a 10.5" bbl on one with a vertical grip, and it becomes an NFA weapon.

ETA: That case is really outstanding !

Edited December 8, 2022 by villafuego

[Gio]

Thanks for the nice remarks on the case . It is a Greg Fox Alabama case. I think it works great for a Pistol. 

The question on barrel length. These Thompson's are pistols, a lot of experts say with that classification barrel length should not be a problem.

Frank

[jojeep]

I have often wondered why the current Thompson Pistol is sold with the Horizontal Foregrip when the early West Hurleys had the Vertical.  Is it a Legal issue and were early A5 Grandfathered in of sorts and the Horizontal Foregrip meets some newer Regulation ??

When I saw this Topic and Thread, I went to GunBroker.com to see what was for sale and saw the Horizontal on the Pistol. Is it illegal if I were to put the Vertical Foregrip on a newer version ??

I do like the newer version with the 10.5 original length Barrel, no Cutts, not even as an extra $$ option. It could use the Cutts.

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by jojeep

[TennesseeTaylor95]

I can't remember all of the specifics on the West Hurley made 1927A5 firearms but I believe that they were able to have the vertical front grip as it is classified as a "firearm" rather than a "pistol". I think that this was accomplished with having a barrel over 12" (I believe they have a 13.5" barrel) and possibly affecting the overall length( ?, I don't remember) or something to do with being designed to be used with both hands (probably wrong there, so someone more knowledgeable on this can chime in and set the record straight if I got anything incorrect). Since Kahr's thompson pistol is classified as a pistol, putting a vertical grip on it would make it an illegal AOW without doing a Form 1 on it. However, you could fill out the form and pay the tax stamp ($5 IIRC) and wait for the approval, at which you could then put a vertical front grip on a thompson pistol. However, I would highly recommend that you do your due diligence on the subject before attempting anything if you want to go that route.

I have seen an ATF response letter regarding the WH 1927A5 in the past that mentions its classification as a firearm and it can probably be Googled to learn a bit more about it. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by TennesseeTaylor95

[jojeep]

19 minutes ago, TennesseeTaylor95 said:

I can't remember all of the specifics on the West Hurley made 1927A5 firearms but I believe that they were able to have the vertical front grip  as it is classified as a "firearm" rather than a "pistol". I think that this was accomplished with having a barrel over 12" (I believe they have a 13.5" barrel) and an overall length over 26". Since Kahr is using 10.5" barrels and it is classified as a pistol with an overall length less than 26", putting a vertical grip on a modern Kahr production pistol would make it an illegal AOW without doing a Form 1 on it. However, you could fill out the form and pay the tax stamp ($5 IIRC) and wait for the approval, at which you could then put a vertical front grip on a thompson pistol. However, I would highly recommend that you do your due diligence on the subject before attempting anything if you want to go that route.

I have seen an ATF response letter regarding the WH 1927A5 in the past that mentions its classification as a firearm and it can probably be Googled to learn a bit more about it. 

If the current Thompson Pistol(10.5) had the Cutts Welded in place I wondered if that would bring it out to 13.5 and the overall length of 26inchs....I sorta went through this bs when I had a detachable Buttstock kit put on 1927 A1 and a Green Mountain 14.5 with Welded Cutts put on....I had to meet the 26in requirements. It just shows the Asinine People that make up our Gov't Regulations.  All I ever wanted was the Semi with a 10.5 barrel like the original. to Blank Adapt for WW2 Reenactment, but I live in a State run by Marxist Democrats, so I have the Green Mountain Barrel 14.5 Blank Adapted. Recently purchased a 2nd Green Mountain 14.5 Barrel to maybe one day put on my Semi M1 then see about custom Horizontal Foregrip that maybe 1-2 inches longer to hide some Barrel length.

Edited December 13, 2022 by jojeep

[TennesseeTaylor95]

28 minutes ago, jojeep said:

If the current Thompson Pistol(10.5) had the Cutts Welded in place I wondered if that would bring it out to 13.5 and the overall length of 26inchs....I sorta went through this bs when I had a detachable Buttstock kit put on 1927 A1 and a Green Mountain 14.5 with Welded Cutt put on....I had to meet the 26in requirements. It just shows the Asinine People that make up our Gov't Regulations.  All I ever wanted was the Semi with a 10.5 barrel like the original. to Blank Adapt for WW2 Reenactment, but I live in a State run by Marxist Democrats, so I have the Green Mountain Barrel 14.5 Blank Adapted

I have since edited my post because now I don't know if exceeding an OAL has much to do with this or not since I haven't  measured the OAL on a WH 1927A5 (I'm also not into the NFA world of things so I know little in comparison to many here). Maybe it has more to do with the original intended design of the firearm along with a certain length barrel (who knows, it might be all three things playing together; it's all a bunch of bull in my opinion). I have also wondered if permanently attaching a cutts comp would make a difference in the classification or if Big Brother would still veiw it as "once a pistol, always a pistol" (the same thought process on MGs; "once a MG, always an MG"). I would assume that permanently attaching the compensator on a pistol to increase the length by a couple of inches would not change a thing in the eyes to the feds since you are just modifying a pre-existing gun that wasn't originally intended or designed to be used that way. The only way around it that I could see would be to manufacture your own receiver from scratch, a virgin receiver that has never been classified as anything, and follow the ATF guidelines and definition to make your receiver into a "firearm" with whatever length barrel and OAL necessary to accomplish that. 

I was in the same boat as you with wanting to shoot blanks out of my 1927A1 and I wound up getting one of the blank firing only non-barrels that allows you to shoot blanks with a 10.5" barrel shaped object and I can then swap back to my abhorently long barrel for live fire shooting. I agree that it sucks that this is all of the hoops we have to jump through, but unless we want to get into the NFA game, I see that these is our only real options currently for having a vertical grip on something other than a rifle.

Edited December 13, 2022 by TennesseeTaylor95
left out word