This gallery is dedicated to a recent acquisition of mine: an original Thompson submachine gun model M1. This Savage manufacture weapon was built circa 1942, and likely saw action during WWII. It is a very high serial number Savage, and represents one of the last M1 models made, before being replaced by the M1A1 version. This is what some would call a "Saving Private Ryan" Thompson, made (more) famous by the movie of the same name.

This late model gun features a protected rear sight, paddle style fire control levers (added by me), and a non-cross bolt butt stock (replacing the cross bolt style that came with the gun). The lower is a mis-match, as is the pinned style rather than what would have been an original milled style. This is not uncommon, as many military guns were rebuilt at some point using other parts.

This M1 has Savage (S) stamped internals (along with a few Stevens Arms Company (5) marked parts) and a now sports a "bright" bolt. The wood is of various manufacture (Savage, Jewell Brothers, and Strombeck-Beker). I came to possess this weapon from a private collector from Louisiana. After taking custody, I sent the gun off to a respected and persistently keen Thompsonsmith for inspection. It was determined the gun had been a DeWaT. The chamber of the gun had been drilled, and a steel rod inserted and welded in place above the fore grip mount. This was subsequently undone, thus making the gun a ReWaT. No external evidence of this operation is visible. Also, the gun had been heavily grinded upon, likely to remove pitting in the surface of the receiver. I can only speculate the gun lay in a jungle or beach for some time to accumulate a level of surface damage necessitating such heavy grinding. Nevertheless, this original "restoration"--and the subsequent Parkerization, greatly altered the appearance of the gun. In fact, so much work was done on the receiver in the past, the roll stamping and nearly all of the proof marks were practically obliterated. You can see in several of the images below how faint the roll markings were. There are no discernible arsenal rebuilding or import marks.

Since the gun was in such "good/bad shape", I elected to take some artistic license and attempt a bit of restoration on it. To that end, I had all of the roll markings re-engraved to "deepen" them. Also, as per historical drawings and photographs, I had the "GEG" stamp (from George E. Goll, the chief inspector of the Auto-Ordnance Corporation), the "FJA" acceptance stamp (of Colonel Frank J. Atwood) and also the "Ordnance wheel" stamp replaced on the receiver. Of these stamps, the only one visible before the work was a slight crescent of the GEG stamp. All these marks were hand engraved.

After this work was done, the gun was re-blued to military specification. The result was stunning. The guns looks quite literally brand new. Even the metal grain--much of it hidden by the heavy Parkerization--became visible once again. Granted, the newly engraved marks are stark, but only because one seldom if ever sees markings this clear. Obviously, they are not "original"--the factory marks were stamped and these engravings lack the raised nature of the primordial variety. One might even say they are too good. But I think it helps the historic nature of the weapon, considering what had been obliterated by past restoration. Further, the Ordnance Wheel is a tad bigger than stock, but not without precedent in terms of size.

In no particular order, here is a gallery of images of my M1 from as-purchased up to post restoration. As a shooter grade M1, I am very pleased with the outcome.

"Covering fire!"