I found another!

I did find another Doc Savage cover with the "Machine Pistol" Enjoy and read the previous post!

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.

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.