Auto-Ordnance 1927 A-1C Lightweight Deluxe Thompson Hits Market
Looking for a Tommy gun, but you don’t have the cash to buy an original? Auto-Ordnance has a solution—they’ve just announced their new 1927 A-1C Lightweight Deluxe Thompson carbine, although, technically speaking, it’s not exactly an all-new idea.
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Auto-Ordnance Guns In 2025
Auto-Ordnance was founded all the way back in 1916 by retired Army colonel John Taliaferro Thompson as he began development, then production of the original Thompson submachine gun run. Those easily portable full-auto weapons revolutionized combat in the decades between the World Wars. To be clear, the Thompson submachine guns came with many drawbacks, but they offered a lot of firepower in a package easily carried by a man on the move. Global militaries moved to develop their own SMGs before and during World War II, and then assault rifles through the Cold War, but the full-auto Thompson was the gun that proved the idea worked.
But as the American law books evolved, so did Auto-Ordnance. Automatic weapons were increasingly restricted over the 21st century, and now, Auto-Ordnance finds it easier to produce and sell semi-auto Thompson replicas to the public, which fire from a closed bolt.
Auto-Ordnance 1927 A-1C Lightweight Deluxe
The new Lightweight Deluxe rifle is chambered in .45 ACP and looks an awful lot like the SMGs that Marines used in the Banana Wars, and Prohibition-era gangsters wielded in the mean streets of the Chicago bootlegging wars. However, it has one major advantage over the original Thompson submachine gun—it’s a lot lighter.
This is because the receiver and frame are made of aluminum alloy and the furniture is made of a polymer that looks like wood, but weighs less. That means it’s much easier to lug around, at only 8 pounds, when compared to more faithful copies of the original, and it’s also cheaper.
MSRP depends on which magazine package you want, with prices starting at $1,558 for one of these carbines with a single 20-round stick mag. Adding a 50-round drum mag to that package will run the price up to $1,970. Opting for a 100-round drum mag and a 20-round stick mag means a $2,140 MSRP. Find more details at the Auto-Ordnance website here.
Professional hoser with fudd-ish leanings.
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I'm not diabetic.
I don't need to reduce my A-1-C.
😄😄
What we have today is Auto-Ord 4.0. General Thompson had it from 1916-1937 when he sold it to Mc Guire Industries. They sold it to Numrich Gun Parts in 1953, and they sold off the assets a couple of years after the FOPA 1986 killed off new machine guns. Today it's a part of Khar Arms. And I freaking hate that people ruin the mag catch on original mags to work in these semis because they didn't think to move the mag lock up to adjust for the closed bolt operation. This version they're selling looks like a 1921AC, (with a 16" barrel), but the rear sight is completely wrong. The "L" sight with protective wings should only be on late M1 and all M1A1 Thompsons. This one needs a Lyman rear sight. (Note: I'm a member of both TCA and TATA and own one Colt 1921AC with a Type 1 small ring Cutts Comp, and two WW2 area transferable Thompsons, early Savage M1928A1 and AO Bridgeport M1 arsenal rebuilt into a M1A1 post war). "Friends don't let friends buy West Hurleys!"