Montana7184
Member
My brother and I liked guns (alot) and were fascinated with Thompsons. So back in the days when you could buy a dewat (around 1958) we teenagers bought a mail-order Thompson M1A1 dewat for $75. It arrived in beautiful condition and looked almost new. In checking it out we saw that a smallish bolt had been lightly spot welded into the chamber. Well, heck, we just knocked that out with a rod down the barrel. The weld was so minimal that with a little cleaning, a loaded round would chamber perfectly. It was time to test fire. For some unknown reason we decided to tie it securely to an old cottonwood stump and set it off with a piece of baler twine. It went bang, so we thought we were in business. Then we took a look at the ejected case. It had a perfectly round 3/16" hole through the side of the case about midway. A round piece of brass had been blown out through the bottom of the chamber where a hole had been neatly drilled. So the dewatting was a little more extensive than we had thought. But a brand new barrel from Numrich soon arrived at the high price of $12.95. Out with the old, in with the new, replace the front sight and we definitely were in business. Boxes of 45 acp at our favorite gun shop were $2.50. We shot the heck out of carp in the canal, scared lots of jack rabbits, killed a few, and packed the Thompson on forays through the hills near the house.
The fun came to an end a year later. Dad saw a violin case in the back seat of my brother's car (violin was a gift from an aunt). He was pretty sure my brother wasn't taking violin lessons so he opened the case for a heavy surprise.
It was spring so there wasn't much coal left in the huge coal bin in the basement. Dad got a load of coal with the farm truck (120 mile round trip to the coal mine), backed up to the coal chute, and buried the Thompson under 5 tons of coal. Guess he figured it was pretty well hidden. When bro discovered the gun was missing he made delicate inquiries of Mom. She did tell him that the gun had been found, but gave no details on its location or disposition. It wasn't until spring a year later that the Thompson was recovered with the stipulation that it go far away. It did, and our full auto fun really was all over. I still miss it!
The fun came to an end a year later. Dad saw a violin case in the back seat of my brother's car (violin was a gift from an aunt). He was pretty sure my brother wasn't taking violin lessons so he opened the case for a heavy surprise.
It was spring so there wasn't much coal left in the huge coal bin in the basement. Dad got a load of coal with the farm truck (120 mile round trip to the coal mine), backed up to the coal chute, and buried the Thompson under 5 tons of coal. Guess he figured it was pretty well hidden. When bro discovered the gun was missing he made delicate inquiries of Mom. She did tell him that the gun had been found, but gave no details on its location or disposition. It wasn't until spring a year later that the Thompson was recovered with the stipulation that it go far away. It did, and our full auto fun really was all over. I still miss it!