Maintenance

The most basic element of any drum or mechanical device is to ensure that the mechanism is in good working order. Many times I have seen drum magazines in collections that are pretty to look at, but they could not function due to a variety of reasons. In my opinion, a faultless drum is one that is in great condition (meaning little or no blueing loss and no scratches or dents) and one that can function.

When you first receive a drum, I suggest that you take the drum apart, including removal of the rotor from the drum. To open a Thompson drum magazine, begin by grasping the front winding key and sliding it in the direction of the large hole in the key and lift the key off. With the key removed, the front cover can be lifted off from the body. Don’t be afraid if the two halves of the drum do not come apart easily. The snugness of the fit will depend on how long they have been together and how much dried grease and grime there is.

Next, place the body and rotor on a soft surface with the rotor pointing down toward the table. You have to remove the rotor retaining key first to free the rotor from the body of the drum. Most times this is easily accomplished by sliding monofilament fishing line under the key. Usually there is enough space: if not try sliding a wood tooth pick or plastic card under the key to allow the monofilament to go under. With the monofilament in place take a plastic card and position it near the hole in the body into which the key locks.

The plastic cards are something that most everybody already has. You either get them in the mail as “temporary” credit cards or old phone cards or even old hotel room keys that you forgot to leave behind. If you are hard pressed, you can even use your regular Visa or Mastercards.

Once the monofilament is under the key, wrap the two ends of the line around a wooden dowel rod. Lift the line via the dowel rod until the key pulls clear of the hole in the body of the drum. Next, slide the plastic card under the key, in-between the body. Now pull the line and the key parallel with the drum body and remove the key. This will free the rotor from the drum body. The plastic card will prevent any scratches being added to the drum body.

With the drum now apart clean all the surfaces. Don’t forget to remove all dirt from the feed lip area of the drum magazine. Once the drum is cleaned, examine the surfaces for any dents, dings or damage. If needed, tools can be made to fit up inside of the drum to act as an anvil to tap against to reform the metal. If the dents are not impeding the function, leave them alone as they will add character. Additionally, it is a good idea not to over work the sheet metal as splitting and cracking of the metal will occur.

With all the repair work completed, reinsert the rotor, but without the retaining key installed. Add the proper amount of ammunition (inert ammo or function test ammo is best for safety) between one set of rotor arms. Then by hand, rotate the rotor and see if the ammunition rotates around the feed rail without any binding. If binding occurs, look for dents or obstructions in this area. If it operates smoothly, replace the drum cover and the winding key and repeat the process. This will tell you if binding occurs with the cover in place.

Next, load the entire drum and repeat the process with the cover and winding key installed, but not the retaining key on the back. Apply pressure on the winding key until the ammo pops up into the feed lips and hold pressure. With your fingers, try to eject the cartridges. The amount of energy to eject the cartridge is very small. If it requires a lot of hand pressure, then there is a problem.

Normally, you will have to examine the area around the feed lips on the cover for a small dent in the radius area between the sidewall and the top. Even a very small dent here can render the drum inoperable. If a dent is found, repair the dent and the drum should function.

Now that the drum is in working order and cleaned and now empty of ammunition, it is time to decide if you are going to shoot the drum again or preserve the drum. If it is a collectable drum and will not be fired, coat the interior of the drum with a good metal preservative (e.g., Rigg, or museum wax or LPS 3) to prevent rust. If you plan on shooting the drum any light oil will work as a lubricant. Then reassemble the rotor into the body.

To reinstall the retaining key on the rotor, start with the plastic card in place over the slot on the body. Then slide the retaining clip into place on the rotor. Then with the monofilament, lift the tail of the clip and gently raise the clip and remove the plastic card and lower the tail into the slot.

Restoration vs Preservation

There are two different schools of thought on any collectable item: whether to preserve an item in its current condition or to restore it to another time period (usually to factory new condition). I am a firm believer in preservation. I believe that the dents and scratches are part of the unique history of the drum or firearm. Too many times someone has restored a drum or gun (meaning reblued or parkerized) only to find out that the drum was a prototype or had a rare marking which was now destroyed. Remember, a refinished drum will not have the value of an original finish drum.

However, there are times when restoration is necessary. This includes, but is not limited to, times when the only way to protect a drum from further damage is to restore the drum completely. When it becomes necessary to restore a drum, please get in touch with a good gunsmith. Not, Billy-Bob who has a parkerizing tank at the hardware store.

Thankfully, there are some very good gunsmiths. One of the best that I have seen in restoration is Merle F. Bitikofer. He has the talent and the skills to replace the rotor springs and to repair almost any damage. He is also the only person I know of that has repeatedly repaired West Hurley C drums to functioning drums. I have also personally seen work by Paul Krough (Diamond K), Craig Jordan, and Stan Andrewski and they perform the work with exceptional care. They also have the blueing process very close to original.

Presentation

Many collectors enjoy displaying their collection for others to enjoy. If the presentation is done correctly the effect on the public can be impressive. Displays such as the ones done by The Thompson Collectors Association at the NRA Annual Meetings, the National Firearms Museums’ display “On The Side Of Law And Order,” and the Colt Collectors display at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming are all prime examples. These displays have been seen by tens of thousands of collectors and members of the general public. The result has been nothing but high praise from the media and general public. The fact is, Class III has to do it better than anyone else just to be considered acceptable.

When displaying drums, they should be clean, well oiled and with little rust. I also recommend “whitening up” the markings. This is done by taking a white “China Marker” (a wax type pencil) and softening the tip up by soaking it in lighter fluid for a few seconds and rubbing it into the stampings or engravings. Once the wax dries, wipe off the excess with a cloth with just a bit of a gun solvent and then reapply a top coat of oil or Rigg. The results are a drum with markings that the public can see and read from a distance. The whitening can also be used for photography purposes so that the markings are easier to read. If you want to remove the wax, simply use a worn out tooth brush and some gun solvent and the wax will come right out.

Another suggestion is to use a stand when presenting drum magazines. If the drum is sitting flat on a table it is usually hard to see and read the markings. If it is in a stand it will be upright and at a good reading angle. There are several stands available or you can build them yourself. I like to use the plexiglass “large plate” holders as drum stands. These can be found anywhere collectable plates are sold, at flee markets or antique stores.

Contacts

Merle F. Bitikofer
224 N.W. Woods Lane
Dallas, OR 97338
(503) 623-8294

Diamond K
C/O Paul Krough
1390 E. 7th St.
Delta, CO 81416
(970) 874-5750

Craig Jordan
929 Barr Run Road
Marianna, PA 15345
(412) 267-4585

When WWII ended, Auto-Ordnance Corporation stopped producing arms of any kind and was literally packed up into crates and put on the shelf. George Numrich bought the name and the assets of Auto-Ordnance in 1950 and moved Auto-Ordnance to his facilities in West Hurley, New York. At first, Thompsons were produced by assembling them from remaining spare parts inventories or re-importing World War II produced arms and accessories. The same was true with spare parts and L drums. However, by the early 1970’s the supply of surplus items was getting difficult to obtain and he decided to start production of “new” Thompsons.

The last item to be made new was the L drums. The first maker of “new” L drums since WWII was the MGC Corporation of Japan. They produced a dummy Thompson submachine gun made from “pot metal” and supplied them with a blued steel dummy drum.

Numrich Type XL Drum

Numrich purchased these dummy drums and inserted a stamped rotor on the inside that held 39 cartridges. The outside was stamped with “Auto-Ordnance Corporation, West Hurley, New York, U.S.A.”, along with the bullet logo, on the front face at the six o’clock position. No other markings on the face plates were added. This drum was referred to as a type “XL” or 40-round drum magazine. The quality of the drum was poor and reliability suffered.

.22 Caliber Drums

During this time Numrich also offered .22 caliber semiautomatic and later full automatic Thompsons, based on the Model of 1928 appearance. Shown here are only two versions of this caliber drum magazine.

One version used the MGC dummy drum body with an H&R ten round box magazine welded into place to feed the Thompson. The backside of the body had the normal drum rails removed from the face plate and a vertical steel bar welded into place. This allowed the drum to be loaded into the Thompson like a box magazine.

Another version was originally made for the Mitchel Arms PPS-50, a .22 caliber copy of the Russian PPSH-41. Numrich used the drum with a section of a Thompson box magazine welded to the back of the drum allowing the drum to be inserted like a box magazine and added the Thompson bullet logo to the back surface of the drum.

Numrich Type L Drum

Finally, in the 1980’s, Numrich created its own Type L fifty-round drum magazine. Quality of these drums is similar to most of the WWII era drums. However, great care must be taken by novice collectors so as not to confuse this drum with Colt era drums. The rear face plate also uses a New York address but with a little observation, the differences are apparent.

Numrich Type C Drum

In the 1990’s Numrich took the step to produce a hundred round drum magazine. Other than the Type C drums produced by Johns Works Co., in the early 1920’s no other company had produced this version. These drums were made by Elmsford Tool & Die. Worchester Co., New York. Numrich had each drum serialized with a matching number on the cover. Numrich, unfortunately, rushed these drums into production and got what they put into it. The drums produced were a disaster, with poor quality and even worse reliability. These drums became really good boat anchors or paperweights. However, these drums can now be rebuilt to function reliably today. This will be discussed in a later section.

Numrich/Kahr Type X Drum

With the passage in 1998 of the large capacity magazine ban, magazines were limited to a maximum of ten rounds. This led to the creation of the Type X ten-round drum. These were built for collectors who wanted the look of a drum magazine, but one which complied with the new federal laws.

The drum was created by taking a Type L drum and removing the spiral feed rails for all but ten rounds of ammunition. At first, these drums used the full spring rotors from the Type L. Later drums had the springs reduced to only turn enough for the ten rounds of ammo.

Numrich Type L “Export” Drum

With the magazine ban in place, Numrich continued on a very limited basis to produce the 50-round Type L drum magazine. However, sales of these drums (at that time) were limited to only law enforcement or for export. These drums were the standard Numrich L drum, but had the added markings of “FOR EXPORT ONLY” stamped on the back face at the six o’clock position.

These drums were manufactured by Elmsford Tool and Die, Westchester Co., New York and assembled by Iona Co., New Windsor, New York.

With the sunset of the Brady Law/magazine ban, these drums can now be owned by all collectors.

In January 1999, Numrich sold the Auto-Ordnance Corporation name and assets to Saileo Group (Kahr Arms Co.), which continued the production of drum magazines and semiautomatic Thompson carbines.

Kahr Type L “Export” Drum

When Kahr bought Auto-Ordnance in 1999, they took over the production of the Type X and Type L drum magazine production. However, Kahr export drums were marked differently. On the back side of the drum is stamped “EXPORT AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ONLY” at the six o’clock position. With the sunset of the magazine ban, these drums can now be owned by all collectors.

Kahr Type L Drum

With the sunset of the magazine ban, Kahr retooled and went back into production of the Type L drum. Their first attempts exhibited poor workmanship and reliability suffered greatly. These drums were not built with the Class III world in mind, and were intended for the semiautomatic carbine owners only.

Kahr took suggestions from the public and tried to refine the manufacturing of their Type L and introduced what is referred to as an “improved” model. These drums were only marginally better and again reliability is an issue. These drums have a noticeable difference in marking. Notice how the number 9 in the winding instructions appears to have been replaced from the first Kahr L drum.

Modern Reproduction Drums

It can be fun to collect some of the more recent drums on the market. The first is the all rubber drums that have been accredited to the movie industry. These all-rubber drums have been patterned after several different versions of the West Hurley era drums. These drum are only for display and will not function.

Additionally, there are also available drums made for the airsoft Thompsons. These all plastic drums actually feed a plastic 8mm ball to the spring powered Thompson replicas.

Auto-Ordnance “Bridgeport” Drums

One of the most common drum magazines encountered by Thompson collectors is what is referred to as the “Bridgeport L drum.” However, very few collectors realize that there is more than one style of these venerable drums. The following are my personal observations and is not meant to imply that one variation is rarer or more valuable than another. Rather, simply a statement of fact for collectors to start looking for the differences.

I am also not going to get into differences in markings where a comma or period is or is not visible. Collectors must remember that dies used to mark parts wear out and among the first thing that wears out are the small marks in the roll die. Manufacturers generally don’t worry about replacing a die until you cannot read all of the information. Instead, I will discuss changes of entire die sets and is what I will call a separate production run.

When Russell Maguire purchased the Auto-Ordnance Corporation on March 3, 1939, he owned a debt laden company with little assets but had some very good prospects. At the time, the Type XX Box and L Drum magazines were being produced by Mitchell Stamping Co. (M.S.CO) and probably Wooster Pressed Steel Co. respectfully. Mitchell Stamping was merged into a new company called United Specialties Company and became one of at least two different stamping divisions, with the headquarters for the new company being in Chicago.

With Maguire in control of Auto-Ordnance, the L drum production was also moved to United Specialties. The exact reason is unknown, but having one company supplying all of the magazines may have been the contributing factor. By the time that United Specialties took over the production of the L drum, the drum face plates already had the well defined drain slots and the cover markings with the “WIND TO 9 CLICKS” at the eight o’clock position on the face.

United Specialty used this design for their first L drums. The first design has the wording “WIND TO 9 CLICKS” (using .185 inch high lettering) centered on the drum face at the six o’clock position. The front face plate uses the drain slots and terminology (with slightly different alignment – i.e., a new set of dies) as the last Wooster L drum. A block outlined capital letter “U” is stamped between the front face plate rivets. The back face plate information still has the New York, NY., USA address (again with slightly different alignment than the Wooster), slightly less well defined drain slots and a block capital letter “U” (not an outlined U).

The second in the series of United Specialties L drums is the first of the “Bridgeport” address drums. This transitional drum’s front cover face plate and instructions are the same as the first United Specialties drum. However, the back face plate now has the Auto-Ordnance address as “Bridgeport, Connecticut”. There is also the “U” between the face plate rivets. This drum was probably made about the time that Auto-Ordnance built their factory in Bridgeport, circa 1941.

The third in the series is the L drum that has the instructions “WIND TO 9 OR 11 CLICKS” (using .200 inch high letters) centered on the front face. The front face plate also has the winding instructions changed to “9 or 11 clicks” and no information on the Model of 1921. Actually, the instruction to wind to 11 clicks is for the Model of 1921. The “U” is marked between the rivets on the front. The back face plate information stayed the same.

The fourth version is the first design to have the Auto-Ordnance “Thompson Bullet Logo” located centered at the 6 o’clock position above the “WIND TO 9 OR 11 CLICKS”. The “WIND TO 9 OR 11 CLICKS” (using .180 inch high letters) is a different font style than the third series as another set of dies were made. All other information on the face plates stayed the same.

The fifth and final version is very similar to the fourth and is the hardest version to visually pick up the differences on. This drum has the “Thompson bullet logo” and “WIND TO 9 OR 11 CLICKS” in what appears to be a bolder type font, using .220 inch high lettering. The front and back face plate instructions are the same though the “U” on the back face plate is now an outlined “U”.

Other World War II L Drum Production

The Crosby Co. (183 Pratt St., Buffalo, NY) – Crosby was contracted to produce the L drum by the British government in 1940. Crosby was paid $25,000 for tooling and $420,000 for the production of drums under a Defense Aid contract (DAW 740-ORD-2). By the end of the war, Crosby had produced about 243,000 L drums.

Crosby drums are considered by most collectors to be low in quality, yet if properly maintained they will function as well as any Thompson drum ever produced. It is just that they were never finished as nicely as other maker’s drums. The metal surfaces were never grit blasted and were either Black Oxide coated or painted black.

The Seymour Products Co. – These drums were originally shipped with a silver sticker label with the company name typed on and applied over the stamped markings on the front face. However, these labels were normally removed by the first users. The body is blued with no grit blasted finish applied. Seymour produced about 190,000 L drums during WWII under Lend Lease contracts. The company was awarded the Army- Navy E Award of excellence for its Thompson submachine gun magazine production on 21 August, 1943.

Wooster Pressed Steel Co., Wooster, Mass. – The company began production of L drums during WWII under a British contract in 1940. Prior to this, Wooster had produced L drums directly for Auto-Ordnance in the 1930’s. The British drums were produced under contract DA-W-241-ORD-726, for a total of 50,000 drums. The WPSCO drums are blued or diluted with no grit blast finish.

Charles Fischer Spring Co. – These drums were produced during WWII. However, all were rejected and ordered to be scrapped. Nevertheless, a few examples still exist today.

Robbins .22 Caliber Drum Magazine – One of the rarest of the WWII drum magazines is the drum for the Robbins .22 caliber conversion unit. Designed and built by Charles Robbins of Cincinnati, Ohio prior to the US entering World War II, it was the first successful .22 caliber conversion unit for the Thompson submachine gun. The units were all hand fabricated and sold to police and military. One sale of these units required Mr. Robbins to be recalled from the Philippines, after “MacArther’s return,” to produce the units for the US Secret Service. After the order was complete he was returned to combat.

Prophylactic Brush Co. – The Prophylactic Brush Co. was contracted by the US Army Ordnance Dept. to produce phenolic Bakelite “plastic” reinforced with hemp rope L drums in 1940. The idea was to reduce the need for steel in the production of magazines. However, the drums were a failure as the plastic drums weighed more and were even more fragile than the steel drums.

John’s Machine and Stamp Works Company made the first Type C and L drums including the serial numbered C and L drums from the Colt’s era. The C drum was quoted for additional production several times but seems to never have been produced again until 1990 by Numrich. This first supply of drums lasted until 1927. The tooling was then sent to Stanley Works Co., New Briton, Connecticut. Why was the tooling moved? Probably so as to keep the production of drums closer to Colt’s and the remaining Auto-Ordnance personnel. By this time the Cleveland office had been closed and all work was now done from Colt’s South Armory building, third floor.

Stanley used the existing tooling from John’s and produced only the Type L drum. However, new dies were produced to mark the face plates. The front face plate now showed the winding information for the Model of 1928. The back face plate still had space for the serial number, with no numerical information. Thus, Stanley produced what we today call the “No” number drum magazine.

Unfortunately, the relationship between Auto-Ordnance and Stanley was not a “good” relationship. Evidently, Stanley was a lot of trouble. Stanley was only doing the forming of the individual parts of the drum magazines. Another company by the name of Fenn Manufacturing was doing the assembly of the L drums. This may explain why collectors do not see many of “No” number drums.

Auto-Ordnance hired Oscar Payne to be a consultant (in his spare time) to help out with the production of new drum magazines. Oscar Payne and Auto-Ordnance next approached Wooster Press Steel Co. (WPS), in Wooster, Massachusetts. Wooster was very enthusiastic about the project and by January 3, 1928, all of the tooling was again moved, this time to WPS and was put under the supervision of Mr. Royal Bongantz of WPS.

New dies were made to change the markings on the rear face plate to completely remove the serial number information. It took WPS several months to get production started, which caused a drum shortage. While the production was at WPS, the drum face plates went through at least four sets of tooling.

The tooling was again moved about 1939 to Mitchell Stamping Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which later became a division of United Specialties, Chicago, Illinois. The drums may have been made at either of United Specialties Pennsylvania or Illinois factories.

For years Thompson collectors have debated the history of when and who manufactured the various drum magazines. However, never before now has definitive information been available for historical review. This article, in part, is based on letters and correspondence between Auto-Ordnance personnel and the various concerns manufacturing the drums. The later discussion on production during World War II is based on information from the National Archives.

At this point it is important to explain a few definitions of terms used in this article. First, the word “mismatched.” This term refers to drum magazines with covers and bodies that are either not matching in serial number or have different manufacturers’ parts. As an example, a United Specialties cover with a Crosby body assembly would be considered a mismatched drum. Second, a “transitional drum” is a drum which has a body and cover assembled by the same manufacturer that is using the remaining parts of one production in the beginning of another. As anyone who has ever worked in a production facility knows, you try to use up the remaining inventory from a prior production run prior to using new production; this is the most economical use of leftover stock. For the collector, these are very important drums as they can tell the historical order of various production runs.

Originally, the first ammunition feed device to be tried was a cloth belt. However, after several trial mechanisms failed to prove reliable, the Colt Model of 1911 box magazine was pressed into service. Both General Thompson and Theodore Eickhoff were very familiar with these magazines from when they worked together in the US Army Small Division. General Thompson was in charge of the development of not only the .45 caliber cartridge, but also the trials for the new Model of 1911 Colt service pistol.

The first Annihilator I, serial number one, was designed to have “wings” on the receiver to handle several Colt magazines in a line. Later, the engineers designed the twenty round box magazine for serial number one. The first design required the use of an adaptor to hold the box magazine in position.

Oscar Payne was assigned the task of designing a larger capacity magazine. After several initial designs that were unsuccessful, he created the “Spiral Drum Magazine.” The first of these Spiral Drums used a removable crank handle to wind the drum spring. This design was quickly abandoned in favor of the now familiar winding key. These very early designs, both failures and successful, were in all likelihood made in the Auto-Ordnance Engineering Department’s own machine shop at 6536 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland, Ohio.

However, once a successful design was finalized, they turned to a local company to help with the manufacturing of production quantities. The company was John’s Machine and Stamp Works Company in Cleveland, Ohio. With John’s Co., Auto-Ordnance’s Engineering Department went about the tedious and time consuming job of producing drawings for each part of the C and L drums. From these documents were created the tooling to manufacture the XX box, C and L drum magazines.

All of the formed metal parts were made by John’s Co. The rotor springs were ordered from Wallace Barnes Co., Bristol, Conn. Wallace Barnes supplied the springs to Auto-Ordnance clear through to United Specialties production in 1939.

By the end of November 1920, the partnership with John’s had produced 205 sample C drums at a cost of $871.17, 200 sample L drums at a cost of $180.69 and 506 sample XX box magazines at a cost of $327.70. The cost of the tooling for these samples totaled $48,994.28. This included 14 sets of dies to produce the XX box magazine, 40 sets for the C drum and 36 sets for the L drum. Some of the sets of dies were used to produce common parts for both the C and L drum. For example, the winding keys, rotor retaining clip, body and face plates, etc, are common to both drums. Later, John’s Co. would also be tooled to produce the felt pad oiler system for the TSMG.

It appears that John’s Co. was also assembling the drums after forming of all the individual pieces. This assembly was being closely overseen by the Auto-Ordnance personnel to assure quality. The first drums produced by John’s were of the type found in the accessories that accompanied Model of 1919, serial number 17. These drums are a bright blued finish with the serial numbers stamped into the face plates and the rotor. Markings for instructions are vibra etched into the face plates.

The second version is the first drums to have stamped information on the face plates. The rear face plate contains the winding information and has a stamped “No.” location for the etched serial number. These were the drums available when Colt’s began production of the Model of 1921. According to a report by Theodore Eickhoff, dated January 4, 1921, 4,000 of each drum (C and L) have been produced to date.

It is at this point that the John’s Co. drums start to have the dull blued finish applied to them. This is a second generation John’s C drum, but with the grit blast finish applied by Colt’s prior to blueing. With this grit blasting, any information of the face plates that was not deeply stamped would not be visible. Therefore, the etched information was not used and the winding information was still stamped into the back face plates.

As production of the guns began, the winding information is still on the back side and the serial numbers are now restarted and stamped, such as serial number one. As production continued, some time within the first hundred drums, the winding information on the back face is moved to the front face and patent and address information for Auto-Ordnance is stamped into the rear. The surface of the drum is still grit blasted and blued. The serial number (which is actually an assembly number only) is stamped into the front and rear face plates.

It was costing Auto-Ordnance approximately $5.54 each to make a C drum plus an additional .85 cents for Colt’s to grit blast and blue. The L drums were costing $3.54 each plus the additional cost of .65 cents for Colt’s work. So from these new records it seems that all variations of the C drum were produced by John’s Machine and Tool Co.

There is still the question, “How many were made?” The highest number seen on a C drum to date is about serial number 5,000. But, this does not mean that only 5,000 were made. In a letter from Oscar Payne to Auto-Ordnance he states that, “…if a drum failed to pass final inspection we did not produce a new C drum with the same number as the drum that was rejected. We simply threw it away and made another.”

The real question should be how many still exist? It is not known for sure but keep in mind that 535 C drums were shipped in the first ten weeks of production shipments (ending 6/11/21). Most of these went to the IRA. Thus, assuming 5,000 were made, this means that 11 percent are already outside the US.