Thomas .45

[Higgins]

Thomas .45

Anybody ever heard of, seen, handled, shot a pistol called the Thomas .45?

I read about it in an older Gun Digest. Apparently, it was made by A.J. Ordinance, Inc. in Covina, CA circa 1975-1978.

What caught my eye about this pistol was that, according to the brief description given, it was an unusual kind of delayed BLOWBACK operated .45 caliber pistol.

Seems it had a 1911 type grip safety like lever along the back strap. Only it wasn't a safety, it was a breech/slide locking mechanism. When you gripped the gun, depressing the grip lever caused two lugs along the frame to raise up into recesses in the slide. Upon firing, the lugs prevent the otherwise UNLOCKED breech/slide from immediately opening and moving rearward. Supposedly, after the highest point of chamber pressure, and thus recoil impulse, had passed, the gun ceased to be pressed against hand with sufficient force to keep the grip lever depressed. Thus, the lugs lowered from their notches in the slide and residual chamber pressure carried the slide back to cycle.

In essense, the delay of the breech/slide, was governed not by internal mechanical means, but only by sufficient hand pressure on the grip lever. A delay mechanism dependent upon how a gun sits/interacts with the shooter's hand just seems like playing with fire.

Seems crazy to me, but must have worked if they produced/sold the gun for 4 years. There was even a picture. It looked a little like an HK V70, but all steel and a bit smaller. The lever and two lugs were clearly visible on the rear of the frame.

Just curious if anyone else has ever heard of this gun or this kind of delayed blowback mechanism, especially for a .45. Did an interenet search, but came up with nada.

Thanks.

 

[Sloan441]

I remember the gun. It had an evil reputation as a miserable performer.

It's been awhile, but I recall truly horrible trigger pulls (DA gun), prone to feeding difficulties, and there were rumors of catastrophic failures. Accuracy was poor, and the gun wasn't what you'd call cheap.

Pretty much a recipe for failure (like two contemporaries, the Mamba and LES Rogak).

 

[Penman]

Higgins,
It was one of the first DA only semi autos, and one of the major problems of the locking design was the difficulty in feeding a round into the chamber when the gun was in your hand! If you held on to the gun as you normally would hold a pistol, the locking lugs would rise from the frame and lock the slide in place. One reviewer came up with a slingshot type of hold, where he hooked his thumb around the front of the trigger guard and then pulled back on the rear of the slide with his other hand-awkward to say the least and poor in the safety department.

 

[Higgins]

Thanks for the information. Sounds like the pistol was troubled in a number of ways. Apart from the quality, accuracy and poor trigger, though, it sounds like it managed to work at least somewhat.

Still, the whole concept of delayed blowback operation dependent upon one's grip on the pistol just sounds unbelievable.

Makes me wonder if the same method-of-operation approach on a better quality, better trigger, better executed pistol would be any more viable - or - if the basic concept of achieving delayed blowback in this manner is simply a loser right out of the gate.

Just seems like an interesting - if unbelievable - way to operate a pistol. Interesting because if really works, it would lend itself to an incredibly simple overall pistol design and hense easy to manufacture pistol.