Thompson Bolt Identification

I have a bolt in my Hudson Thompson which is a bit different to any I have seen and I was wondering if anybody could shine some light on it

Instead if the normal hardened insert it has a sprung pin with a threaded cover The hole in the bolt is only as deep as the insert and it all seems to serve no purpose....any ideas

I've never seen one anything like that before

Does the pin sit flush with the bolt face

It looks like it could be adjusted by that grub screw to allow the pin to protrude out of the bolt face...
As it's at the 6 o'clock position could it be used to push cartridges out of the magazine to stop the zinc edge getting bashed about
If it was screwed out that far, would it stop the cartridge rim sitting in the bolt face and being gripped by the extractor

On all of the Thompson bolts I have seen this is a first.

The pin is about 1/2mm below the bolt face and the grub screw (thingy) doesn’t grip the pin at all.

It almost looks like the firing pin setup on the CMC/Tanaka Thompsons but
A: it doesn’t go all the way through the bolt
B: the triangle striker assy isn't anywhere to be seen

I didn't think it was an anti tamper insert as it can be removed.

It could be something to do with ejection as it's in an almost perfect place but in its current configuration I don’t see how it could work.

8ace

I imagine then that even if the grub screw's threaded in as far it'll go the pin won't protrude out further than 1/2mm below the boltface

Difficult to see what it's purpose is then if it's sunk in there...

Should there be another spring dropped into the bolt first, then the pin, then the spring you've got and grub screw I'm wondering if another spring would push the pin out beyond the bolt face

There seems to be some signs of the boltface rim deforming a bit at the point where it strikes cartridges to strip them out of the magazine, normal for zinc bolts anyway... could this sprung pin arrangement be there to push the round out of the mag

If it was a "Firing Pin" it would be in the centre of the boltface wouldn't it but wouldn't it need to be protruding and fixed

Posted by Doc 23/11/08

Yes I`ve seen those bolts , had one myself ...First look I thought it was something to add strength to the face ...discounted this as soon as I unscrewed it and saw the spring and pin ...I then wondered if at some point Hudson had considered using this as some aid to ejecting the shells i.e back of the pin is struck and it forces the round out against the extractor and the spring brings it flush with the bolt face again ...its sort of in the right place for this ...of course there is nothing else inside the model to support this idea .

Would need to be more central to aid detonation of the shells.

Needless to say if Hudson abandoned the idea they would still have a load of cast bolts that they would need to fit these parts of end up with a hole .

thats my 2p anyway

DOC

Thanks Doc, it certenly would explain what it's there for.

8ace