Tommy Gun Collectibles LLC
76 Waterford Street 16438 Union City, PA, US

PRE=Production Peters 45 Automatic Shot Cartridge Box This is an example of the very hard to find pre-production box used by Peters Ammunition to pack their new round which was adopted by Auto Ordnance Corp in 1921. This is a taller box to accommodate the longer cartridge but at that point a new label had not been created so they just used their standard 45 automatic label and pasted over top of it. The green SHOT label is also pasted on the ends. By the time this cartridge was discontinued they had 4 different boxes for it but within those 4 there are a number of variations.

RARE of the RARE - Test box of Remington Thompson Riot Cartridges This is a box which is super rare, it is a box that was shipped to Auto Ordnance in Feb 1922 for testing of a "new" round which Auto Ordnance was trying to find for their new Submachine Guns. Starting in late 1921 Auto Ordnance had samples of new "riot" type loads shipped to them by the major ammunition manufacturer's for testing (Aug 1921). Then at the demonstration event for military, police, political offici...als and the press in Tenafly NJ (The Sportsman Service Station) in May 1922 the 2 "new" cartridges that where officially picked previously by Auto Ordnance - Peters Shot Cartridges and the Remington Riot Round where part of the demonstration. This box is from a batch of test cartridges sent to Auto Ordnance at their location in Hartford Connecticut (Colt's Patent Firearms factory) on Feb 21, 1922 just a few months before the demonstration. It is clearly marked with an ink stamp for Thompson Submachine Guns and then the faint ink stamp of the date etc. I am pretty sure this would have been a box of riot rounds before they were in full production for testing or demonstrating by John Thompson himself in NJ in May 1922. See more

Here is one of 15 or so Thompson's I had at one time, a Vietnam bring back that I got out of a museum. Sadly it has moved on to a good friend of mine as have the others but nice to have them while i did. Note the conversion from 45 acp to 7.62 X 25 Caliber, the barrel, bolt are replaced for the new caliber bullets and the magazine housing is changed to accept the new magazine, the old mag release is removed and the new one is screwed in place. Also note the relocation of the rear sling swivel to the side of the buttstock, the other end of the sling would have been tied to the barrel in the front grip area.

Here is an interesting WW2 Armourers modification sheet for the Thompson to add the front grip bracket to help secure the grip from breaking. Amazing the amount of paperwork that survives after all these years!!!