Thompson M1 owners, what's this barrel cover thing?
 

Ok, it's rare for me to post such a n00b sounding request, but I need some help from some fellow Thompson owners. I bought mine used, with all the in-box components except the manual.

In the box, was the black cylindrical thing, that I soon discovered goes over the mouth of the barrel, and screws on around the front sight, that forms a silencer of sorts, but it looks horribly odd. Now my question is this, what the living hell is this thing?

I can't imagine it's a silencer, it's too short to silence a .45 acp round, and there's no notches or anything to indicate its purpose. Please...to all other tommy owners, what is this?

I can't even find historical pictures of it on real steel guns, or on the Auto-Ordinance site. Help!

uhh, TM Tracer Adaptor maybe? does it have 4 little screw holes?

Hmm, no, not where they'd be useful, they're on the sides.

It looks like this right?

http://www.airsoftland.ru/news/m1a1/tracer.JPG


Dude it's a tracer. (I got one with my thompson too)...I dont know how the heck it works so I just took it off and its under my bed someware. I think you need a buy a light of some kind to hook it up with the tracer but I never bothered.

Erik

That's it...it's a tracer? But...there's nothing in it...it's just a shell. I guess it's an adaptor for the marui tracer. Funny little thing though.

ColtFarmer, Erik, thanks guys!

It's the tracer adaptor. The fat side attaches to the barrel, the other to the tracer unit. The tracer unit is basically a lamp incased in a silencer looking thing that makes flouresent bb's glow when they shoot, so they look like tracers.

What NomoZ said. The Tracer unit is relatively "universal" for TM guns in that all sorts of adaptors come with it so that it can fit amongst the various models in the TM lineup. For the newer model AEGs they came with their own adaptors so that the existing Tracer package being produced wouldn't have to get modified plus owners of the existing tracer wouldn't be stuck without a way to install the tracer.

Thanks NomoZ...no disrespect intended, but I know what a tracer unit is, I just didn't know this was the Thompson's own personal adaptor. :wink:

Cheers Kwok, I didn't know that. My only other AEG is my PDW, and that had a threaded barrel for just such an occasion.

NP just wanted to clarify it for anyone reading who may not know.