The Lost Oasis Gun

Once in a while I see some gun art that really catches my eye. I read Doc Savage novels when I was a boy, I enjoyed the adventure, and I always enjoyed the cover art as well. This is the only one that shows Doc Savage using a firearm, he normally didn’t carry one. He did invent a compact “machine pistol” with a drum magazine for his crew.

This cover “The Lost Oasis” has the only picture of it that I know of. It looks like a Thompson M1927A5 with a shorter barrel, horizontal fore grip and M1A1 type rear sight, the charging handle may be on the right side of the receiver as well. It’s never mentioned in the novels if it has a butt stock, I always assumes it did not, however I see a hint of a butt stock in this rendering. It is also able to fire explosive, full metal jacket, and tranquilizer ammunition known as “Mercy Bullets” that render people unconscious for extended periods. It must be a 45 ACP magazine,but the ejected cartridges look like rifle rounds! The use of mercy bullets kept Doc Savage and his group of adventurers from becoming mass murders, as they do a lot of shooting in the 181 Doc Savage pulp novels written and published from 1933 to 1945.