[C19fan]

The only drawback to the Thompson as a weapon of war was the costs. That is why cheap guns were produced like the Grease Gun and the Sten. What would be considered the best submachine gun dollar for dollar?

[SkyDancer]

And as I understand, a full drum plus the gun weighed almost fifty pounds.

[Gaffer]

I have a semi-auto legal version from Auto Ordnance....a heavy shooter, for sure and it can shoot any kind of crap 45 ACP you can feed it. I’ve shot an M1A1 full auto with the 12” barrel and I loved it.

The only drawback to the legal version is the 16” barrel and that it (and the M1A1) wouldn’t accept a 100 rnd drum magazine. But overall, I think it’s the best of all of them.

[golux]

I really was astounded by the UZI. For such a “noisy” weapon it was accurate, “plinky” like a 10-22, and reliable like an AK variant. I have always wanted to buy one.

[VeniVidiVici]

When I was stationed with the 5th ID in 1985 my primary weapon was the M3 Grease Gun.

I kid you not.

[556x45]

Whats your defn is ‘best’?

[Man from Oz]

My honey got to hold one at our Weapons dealer's place. He was asking @ 35K for this one.

[elteemike]

A few years ago, an elderly WWII Army Infantry veteran friend let me shoot the Thompson with drum mag he had used in the European Theater and “brought back” with him...

He said many of the guys he served with thought of the .45s and other weapons as “theirs” after carrying them for so long...

He showed me how he’d employed the “Tommy”, at about waist level, rolling it 45 degrees, and sweeping side to side in a figure eight pattern...I certainly can see how this weapon would be devastating to enemy infantry...

Unfortunately, “his” was lost in a tragic boating accident, and my friend has since passed away...

[Big Red Badger]

1Sgt Funk,,,

A Real Rambo!

[JoeFromSidney]

I'd love to own a Thompson, just because. However, there's no way I could justify the expense. As for a semi-auto Thompson, other than the "cool" factor, it's probably no better than any of the .45 carbines on the market.

[jaydee770]

Never got the chance to run a mag through one, but would dearly love to.

Had a retired FBI SA for an instructor who regaled us with the tale of a shootout back in the 50’s that occurred north-central Florida. Badguys were alone (no hostages) on the bottom floor of a two-story house and wouldn’t come out. The Jacksonville office had most of their agents on scene trying to talk them out and three of the agents had thompsons — that they had never fired before. Bear in mind, this was the 50’s and these were “g-men” and the bad guys were pretty brutal to their victims, so they wanted all the advantage they could get.

Anyway, long story short, bad guys refused to come out and one of them fired a couple of shots, at which point the entire assembled crowd of FBI and Sheriff’s deputies opened up on the two-story house with an assortment of guns from revolvers to shotguns, rifles and thompsons. Shot them til’ they emptied. In the reload pause, someone yelled “STOP” the bad guys immediately surrendered after that. Absolutely no-one on either side was hit or even scratched.

He said that the interesting part was that after it was all over, and you stopped to take in the scene, you could see the huge truck sized group of bullet holes around the front door and one of the first-floor windows. And then, radiating up from that, you could clearly see a bunch of bullet holes running up the front of the house, past the second floor towards the roof. And he wouldn’t say if he had one of the thompsons or not.