Hudson Thompson M1A1

Welcome to the forum Rhodri It's good to have you join us

Your Hudson Thompson fires really well, there's nothing to beat them when they work like that is there

Nice video this, thanks very much for posting it up. I'll copy the shortcut over to Jake's link in the Hudson M1A1 category later.

Hi
Thank you for accepting my invite.

It does don't it a very nice piece

How come everyone gets so much smoke out of their modelguns? :-)

Use something like 3 in 1 oil a light oil on lubing the rounds and you will get loads of smoke enough to choke on

Also i find giving the firing pin inside the gun a good spray with 3 in 1 oil helps

Rhodri,

Hi,
It is nice to see your Hudson fires well where lot of forum member had struggle with it (including my self).
Just for your info., Hudson went out of business, there will be no replacement parts available so that you may want not shoot too much. Modelguns are fairly fragile more than you would expect.

shaz,

Hi Shaz

Thanks for the warning I've seen the forum post about hudson going out of buisness which is a shame. I don't get alot of chances to fire my thompson because of where I live, i only get a chance when I go on holiday in Wales. My main worry is the Zinc bolt getting damaged. I would love to get a steel one made but don't know any one who could do it. Do you have the zinc bolt? or have you got a steel bolt? if it the latter could you point me in the right direction to where I could get one.
Thanks again for the warning

Rhodri

Not trying to put everybody off...but there's a doubt - even if a custom steel bolt is used for a Hudson, but can the gun (the receiver) actually withstand such smooth firing action after all the internal modifications?

So it's correct by not firing the Hudsons too much...unless a steel (or at least aluminium like those airsoft metal bodies) receiver is made for it as well (but then simply it's easier to build a complete one)...

jim wrote:

Not trying to put everybody off...but there's a doubt - even if a custom steel bolt is used for a Hudson, but can the gun (the receiver) actually withstand such smooth firing action after all the internal modifications?

So it's correct by not firing the Hudsons too much...unless a steel (or at least aluminium like those airsoft metal bodies) receiver is made for it as well (but then simply it's easier to build a complete one)...

I can only go by personal experience but having had steel bolts made and fitted for both my MGC Thompsons and my Hudson M1A1 Thompson, everything appears to work well at the moment.
Nothing's guaranteed obviously, my Hudson PPSh41 proves that point, even with a standard Zinc Alloy bolt in it the reciever snapped clean in half right at its weakest point.
The Thompsons have a much stronger looking reciever than the PPSh, at least there's a three sided box casting, further supported by the trigger group making it a full box section
The magazine well and detonator chamber area looks stronger on these than the PPSh too.

Assuming that the Zinc Alloy used during manufacture of the recievers is of good quality, I'd guess that parts prone to accelerated wear when using steel bolts might be Sears and Rubber Buffer pads at the rear of the reciever.

Any doubts with Zinc casting quality could well end up with damaged recievers, but that could well happen anyway.

It's a very difficult quandry this one, some of us buy our modelguns as display pieces only, never to be fired, some of us buy them to fire occassionally, I certainly fall into this category, the best part of modelguns for me is the flying shells, smoke and noise of a well tuned model.

Zinc bolts wear out rather quickly, OE parts are becoming difficult to find nowadays so replacements have to be made to keep models firing, or they'll end up as very expensive display only pieces.
Aluminium bolts could be a gentler alternative, but would one last in a full metal SMG?

Of course there is the risk of a reciever breaking. New Hudson recievers simply won't be available to buy from now on so what is the best option? Not fire our Modelguns at all which seems such a pity, only fire them very rarely, a lot of money to pay out for such light use but that's how things are for me these days, or use them as often as we want to for maximum enjoyment until there's a catastrophic failure?

The idea of Steel or Aluminium recievers being made to match steel bolts is a good one but unless one of the Factories or Custom Accessory makers start producing them it doesn't sound like a project a home enginneer could take on.
Where does the Law stand in different countries on this? Japanese manufacturers cannot legally use steel for replica guns anyway, which presumably includes recievers, bolts, barrels, where do all the metal parts for Airsoft guns come from, is it China?

In short: regarding the origins of the airsoft metal parts - if it's expensive then it's from Japan or HK (especially those from "Prime") and if it's dirt cheap then no doubt it's from China I'm sorry to say...

Taiwan offers metal parts in various price range...

And I can say nobody will work on metal modelgun parts because it's just not cost-effective for these relatively less popular toy guns (HK prohibit caps while Taiwan already impose bans on the firing ones)...

China...when the Communist decided to get tough they closed down all the airsoft making factories (like AGM earlier so supplies become scarce) until the wave's over in a couple of months...