Thursday, February 2, 2012

Thompson Stock Set

Old and unattractive thompson vertical grip. The pictures below are my new and great looking Dan Block stock set.
I’m the lucky owner of a Thompson Model 1927A1 semi auto carbine. Auto Ordnance Corporation located in West Hurley, NY during the mid 1990s, manufactured my gun. As far as Thompsons go, the Model 1927A1 is a bit of a hybrid. First, it’s semi automatic, second, it has a 16 inch barrel, third, it has a WWII style M1 Butts tock, and it also has an M1 style safety lever. Another area is the quality of the factory wood stocks, while the factory butt stock looks nice and is well made, the pistol grip and vertical grip were very flat and homely, and the factory set just did not scream “quality”.
I’ve lived with these factory stocks for a number of years; they were the one disappointment of the gun. The current manufacturer of the Thompson, Kahr Arms, turns out better factory stock sets than were available in the past, but there is still room for improvement. I took the plunge and ordered a stock set from Dan Block. Mr Block is an artisan located in Iowa. His Thompson Stocks were used in the recent Dillinger bio picture “Public Enemies”. I place an order. Mr Block has a backlog of work of about 3 to 4 months. However, the end product is well worth the wait.
Here is the link to Dan Block’s site, http://www.naturalistnotebook.com/index.html
Mr. Block is a very fine gentleman to do business with and he and I communicated about the project and its details such as sling swivels and wood finish. Simply put I could not be happier with this new wood. It has the red finish I desired and it looks much more like a vintage Thompson. I choose the 1928 style butt stock and this one improvement really makes my Thompson look much more like a vintage gun. I strongly recommend that Model 1927 owners consider this simple upgrade. Given Mr. Blocks’ expertise with Thompsons, selecting him as the stock maker is really an easy decision.

2 comments:

  1. Is the difference mostly the color? It's hard to tell from the photos. But If the only difference where the color? Couldn't you sand it down real well and re-stain?
    Anyway, just found you blog, some really interesting stuff here!
    -Elmernite

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    1. The color is one difference, the biggest difference is the contours of the wood on the foregrip and the pistol grip. The modern ones are flat and don't look like the originals. The buttstock is also like the M1928. The one that came on the gun is the M1 style that was used in WWII and is out of place on a 1930s style gun. Thanks for the interest and welcome!

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