Near mint M1A1 I picked up

[Nick-England]

Managed to pick this up a few months back, it wasn’t cheap but I’ve had a few now and none have been as tidy as this, it’s almost in unissued condition, can only find 2 tiny dents and one scratch in it and a few nocks to the sights but that’s it really, anyway thought I’d post it up it’s my new favourite 

 

 

[Rudy]

Looks almost new. 

[rpbcps]

Cases full of like new Thompson's, came back from the Ukraine about 20 years ago, 20 years, how time flies.

Maybe your M1A1 is one of the former Soviet lend lease stock.

Edited April 10, 2023 by rpbcps

[inertord]

Looks like a nice rewat.

[thirtyround]

The whole gun and wood has been redone.... IMHO

[Rekraps]

8 hours ago, thirtyround said:

The whole gun and wood has been redone.... IMHO

Might be... but it's a great looking gun! Congratulations to Nick!

[Bridgeport28A1]

I believe Nick-England is in the UK so I expect the Thompson is deactivated. 

[Nick-England]

Sorry i probably should have said its a deactivated gun, the wood has been done it was covered in some sort of lacquer\varnish so i sanded it down and its been covered with danish oil, metalwork I’ve not touched and im guessing its been back to the states and blasted before parkerising as the Tommy gun logo is fainter than should be yet the finish is perfect all over with just one ding in it under the parkerised finish, its nice to have a m1a1 without big dents in the woodwork though 

[Taliaferro]

Nice find. But it has had parts swapped out too.

 

Tracie

[BillyDixon]

i dont think you should call this gun near mint condition,  it could be called refinished to like new condition , just sayn

[laurencen]

myself I prefer the dings and dents, makes one wonder how they got there, mine is beat up, scratched and worn, what one would expect going thro war and many years of use

[mschwabee1]

Just curious what kind of value is on a dewat like in the UK?

 

Matt

[rpbcps]

21 hours ago, laurencen said:

myself I prefer the dings and dents, makes one wonder how they got there, mine is beat up, scratched and worn, what one would expect going thro war and many years of use

Laurencen,
You are a man after my own heart. 
A few years back I had two deactivated 1928A1's, ( I live in the UK too), both later productions during WW2, so they had smooth barrels and fixed battle sights.*
One was produced at the AOC Bridgeport plant and was in very good, almost no wear or tear, condition.  The 2nd was produced by Savage and had been through the wars, literally, loads of wear and tear, having seen heavy use, indicated by the minimal amount of bluing left on it. the Savage also features a horizontal fore grip which has been checked to add grip when being used in jungle conditions. This modification shows this example was used in the ‘Far East’, possibly seeing service in the ‘Burma Campaign’. It also has early an ‘REME’ workshop modified stock, with two screws added for reinforcement against cracking. This was a typical Commonwealth modification introduced prior to ‘cross bolt’ upgrade. 
Anyway I did not require two examples of the same version of the 1928A1, so I sold one.... the very good condition AOC example, and I kept the well used Savage example for my collection.

*For those not aware of the history, at an Ordnance Committee meeting held in December of 1941, it was suggested that a much simpler ‘L’ type battle sight replace the complicated Lyman adjustable rear sight on the Thompson. The new sight was better suited for a military application and helped expedite production of the 1928A1's. So 1928A1’s with this type of sight were produced from early 1942. There were still a few features on the 1928A1's that could be eliminated in order to expedite the weapon’s production, one was identified as the open bolt feature of the weapon design provided enough cooling effect to prevent most premature ‘cook-off’ of cartridges. So the US Ordnance Department felt the barrel’s radial cooling fins were therefore not required, and they were eliminated for the sake of production.

The fulll history of the modifications can be read in American Thunder: Military Thompson Machine Guns by Frank Iannamico, a book I highly recommend.

Edited April 13, 2023 by rpbcps
Usual Typo

[rpbcps]

43 minutes ago, mschwabee1 said:

Just curious what kind of value is on a dewat like in the UK?

 

Matt

Matt,

Depends on what you are looking for; M1 / M1A1's usually sell for a little under £1000, where as a 1928 or 1928A1, usualy sell for a little over £1000. One dealer has listed a Model of 1921 on their website at the moment, something that rarely comes up for sale on the deactivated market in the UK, for £20,000.

[laurencen]

Richard, your Thompson looks just right for a aged piece of history, nice one for sure, as for deactivation, what is the requirement nowerdays? here in Canada absolutly no moving parts period, total abuse of a period firearm, even mag is pinned to 5 rounds and then welded into the lower

[rpbcps]

29 minutes ago, laurencen said:

Richard, your Thompson looks just right for a aged piece of history, nice one for sure, as for deactivation, what is the requirement nowerdays? here in Canada absolutly no moving parts period, total abuse of a period firearm, even mag is pinned to 5 rounds and then welded into the lower

Latest regs in the UK/ EU, are similar.
They must prevent the disassembly of the firearms essential components by welding, bonding or by using appropriate measures with the equivalent degree of permanence and trigger assembly must be disconnected / welded.  They can have moving metal dummy bolt under spring pressure, moving fire selector, moving trigger (under spring pressure) and removable magazines,  but without the ability to dry fire or field strip the bolt assembly from the receiver. 

No restrictions on magazines in the UK, although there are some in other European countries, with some requiring the feed lips are ground off, so you can not load any rounds.

An official deactivation standard has been in place in the UK since 1988, and this has been revised several times, increasing its severity. However, subsequent UK standards have never been retrospective for items deactivated to previous standards, for the current owners. If they sell, transfer or gift them however, they have to be brought up to the current standard.
 

 

[laurencen]

early deactivated were cock and click, the barrel was plugged, hardened dowel thro reciever and barrel the welded, bolt face cut 45 degrees and upper welded to lower, this vintage is saught after and can be sold as is, all magazines are pinned to 5 rounds maximum including drums.

[Rekraps]

On 4/12/2023 at 5:17 PM, BillyDixon said:

i dont think you should call this gun near mint condition,  it could be called refinished to like new condition , just sayn

Most of the WW2 thompsons were arsenal refinished (as were the M3's, M1's, Carbines etc.) and stored away. Some were manufactured blued, while most wartime guns were parkerized, but all arsenal refinishes were parkerized (as far as I have been able to determine). 

Personally, a conditioned gun (of the ones noted above) are just as nice to me as "original", if anyone could ever really know, and to me a scraped up parkerized gun is less appealing than a fresh parkerized one.

 

But to each his own!