Non SASS inquiry

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Can anyone tell me the length of a Thompson 30 round double stack, single feed, .45 acp magazine?

 

How about a 20 rounder?

[Doc Shapiro]

I'm sure quite a bit longer than my 1911 10 round mags

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

Twenty round magazine about 6 1/4 inches.  Don't know about 30 round mag, but I would guess around 10 inches.

[Alpo]

Just a touch over eight and a half for a Thompson. I don't know about a grease gun.

 

[Alpo]

Wait a minute. You asked about a single feed. Who the hell makes a double stack single feed for a 45?

[Utah Bob #35998]

55 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Wait a minute. You asked about a single feed. Who the hell makes a double stack single feed for a 45?

It is s single feed. It will only feed one at a time.

[Alpo]

Au contraire. All magazines feed one round at a time.

 

The one on the left is for a Beretta 92. As you can see it is wide-bodied, because it is a double stack, but at the top it comes together so it feeds one round out the middle of the magazine. The one in the middle is for an MP40. Also double stack, and also comes together at the top so that the rounds come out from the middle of the magazine.

The one on the right is for a Thompson. It is double stack, but it is also double feed. It feeds one from the right, and the next one is fed from the left, then the next one from the right. Just like an M16. Just like an M1. Double stack double feed.

[Alpo]

Damn. I'm as bad as HK. When I loaded those two rounds in that Thompson mag for the picture, I put them in backwards. Did not notice it till I tried to slide them out, and they would not go. Had to slide them out "backwards".

[WOLFY]

Grease gun mage are double stack / single feed

[Alpo]

So they are.

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

19 hours ago, Alpo said:

Wait a minute. You asked about a single feed. Who the hell makes a double stack single feed for a 45?

Thompson and the outfit that made M-3 and M-3A1 submachine guns.  Seems like that Canadian (Para Ordnance?) outfit's magazines would fit that category, too.

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L]

Here you go, both Auto Ordanance Corp.

[WOLFY]

this is somewhat related/ was there a change to the thompson receiver?   someone was talking how after a certain era they wouldn’t accept the drum magazine anymore (which sounded odd to me).

 

or were they mistaking the grease gun w/ the tommy gun?

 

 

 

[ EDIT :  instead of bumping this thread a second time, big thanks to forty rod, cowtown scout & alpo ]

 

Last observation... only two handguns I know of operate with double stack / double feed magazines.   The IMI uzi and Steyr GB.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Had a 1928A1 in 'Nam.  It took 50 round drums, and 20 and 30 round box mags.  The drums were slow to load, awkward to carry, and prone to every dent, grain of sand, or dead bug in country, and rusted almost instantly.  I usually carried a 20 on the gun and 30s for spares.  The military stopped buying guns that would take drums to eliminate those problems and cut the price down.  This was prior to WWII, the first was an M-1 and they modified it about 1943 into the M-1A1.

 

I later got an M1A1 that, like the M-1, didn't accept drums, didn't have a detachable stock, didn't have  fluted barrels or Cutts compensators, didn't have separate  hammer or firing pin, and was much cheaper to build and easier to maintain.  Instead of a separate firing pin a "dimple" was machined into the bolt face.  All in all it was  better gun than the several earlier versions, but it wasn't as classy.  Didn't have to be classy because it worked flawlessly for me for seven or eight months until I came back home.

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L]

The models 1921, 1923, 1928 and 1928A1 all accepted drums, with charging handle is on the top, the M1 and M1A1 would not accept drums and the charging handle is on the side.

[Alpo]

44 minutes ago, WOLFY said:

this is somewhat related/ was there a change to the thompson receiver?   someone was talking how after a certain era they wouldn’t accept the drum magazine anymore (which sounded odd to me).

 

or were they mistaking the grease gun w/ the tommy gun?

 

 

This is the magazine well of a 1928 Thompson. Notice the grooves on both the front and rear of the well.

 

These grooves correspond to ridges on the front and the rear of the drum.

 

 

 

A Thompson drum is slid into the grooves from the side. A Thompson stick is pushed up into the well from the bottom, just like just about every other stick magazine.

 

This is the magazine well of an M1 Thompson. Notice there are no grooves. They discontinued the grooves, which was a money saving feature - less machining - but now a drum could not be used.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Drums could load from either side, but were prone to even more damage if loaded from the right.

 

Government stopped ordering drums when the M-1 was introduced.

[Alpo]

According to some of my reading, we must blame Marines for the shortage of drum magazines.

 

Drum magazines are slightly difficult to load when you are sitting in front of the table. They are a serious pain in the tochas when you are squatting in the bushes.

 

During the war in the Pacific Marines would often leave the landing craft with a drum in the gun. That gave them 50 rounds. But when it was empty they would just pull it out and drop it. Drop it in the bushes. Drop it on the beach. Drop it in the bay. They made no effort to retain it so it could be reloaded. Once it was empty it was replaced with sticks. It was treated as a disposable consumable.

[DeaconKC]

Stick mags don't rattle and are more damage resistant. The Tommy guns mags were among the best stick magazines ever made. also a 20 round and 30 round mag combined weigh about half as much as a 50 round drum. And the 100 round drums were horrible on top of a heavy gun!