Post by figaro Hi Cow-Commander,
I'm not a pro-either, with regard to guns, but I do make my living making movies...
I'm also in CA, welcome to the boards.
That's an MGC Replica, I have several of them of different types, if you put a "Stembridge" full power .45 blank in it it would come to pieces in your hand. The MGC is made of very low strength metal material. They were used in many movies by many studios and companies as background props(from the 1970's through to airsoft boom, airsofts were used for background or extras guns in T3, War of the Worlds and M:I:3), my MGC's are still working as I like the heft they have, but they are not for use with, and are not in anyway designed to use, motion picture blanks (which tend to run hot anyway).
Always be careful on Gunbroker when dealing with a seller with no sales rating, also someone who cannot spell either Valentine or Elliot Ness might be red flag, also neither film he mentions was made in the 1930's or even 1940's. MGM Grand is a Hotel not a movie studio, (Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Metro joined with Sam Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer and formed the studio in the 1920's no "grand" in the title.)
The stock is aged with some sort of a varnish gone bad, or burn, the rest of the gun is exactly as any other MGC replica, no different at all.
The guy could absoloutely be telling the truth with regard to what the old man said, but unfortunately the old man had it wrong.
The only good thing is the Mag still has it's internals, these were removed from most of the US guns that I found (I bought cheap replacements from Franky on this site, though).
Hope this is helpful, gunbroker is a great source of model guns, I've bought and helped one or too others buy bargains from that site.
(Type in Thompson and look at the finish on a real Thompson receiver.)
JJ.
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