

John Dillinger with his “Tommy Gun.” (Paul Scarlata collection) The 30-round stick mags came later…but I had Auto-Ordnance send me some of those too. It arrives in a hard case with foam cutouts and one 20-round stick mag and one 50-round drum, which were the magazine options available at the time when this gun was new. The version sent to me is the Auto-Ordnance 1927-A1 Deluxe Carbine which features a standard stock and a 16.5-inch barrel tipped with the Cutts compensator. Auto-Ordnance also offers short-barreled rifle (SBR) versions if you’re up for the additional paperwork. You can have your choice of the original steel receiver, a lighter version with an aluminum receiver, stockless pistol versions with a detachable stock, carbines with 16.5-inch barrels or a version with a 14.5-inch barrel with the Cutts compensator permanently attached to provide a total barrel length of 16 inches. They have several models of the simplified M1 (it and the even more bare bones version M1A1 were issued to our troops in World War II), as well as several models of their 1927-A1 Thompson, which more closely resembles the original models which went into production in 1921. Because of that weight, recoil is very minimal.Īuto-Ordnance offers numerous semi-auto carbine versions of the Thompson. The Thompson is a big, heavy gun, and about as iconic a firearm as there is. Currently, there is only one company making this firearm - Auto-Ordnance. The Thompson submachine gun, the “Tommy Gun,” is the gun which is said to have made the “Roaring 20s” roar, and its use in that decade by gangsters earned it the moniker “Chicago Typewriter.” So, it only makes sense in this issue to cover this iconic American firearm.
