Saving Private Ryan Captain Miller’s Thompson for sale

[rdfact]

Captain Miller’s Thompson sub-machine gun is up for sale at auction. Unfortunately it’s been deactivated.

Captain Miller's (Tom Hanks) hero Thompson sub-machine gun from Steven Spielberg's World War II drama Saving Private Ryan. Captain Miller used his weapon throughout the film, from the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach, to the final, climactic battle in the streets of Ramelle, in which Miller and his platoon defended the bridge from the advancing German army.

The firearm is a Thompson M1 sub-machine gun (also known as a "Tommy Gun"), chambered in .45 ACP, with a magazine capacity of 30 rounds. It has been sympathetically deactivated.

https://propstoreauction.com/m/lot-d...6featured%3Dno

[Maltese Falcon]

[223556]

That wound be a cool wall mount for sure.

[Eat Dirt]

I'll just watch and drool from the sidelines .....

[McNally M.]

Seriously awesome stuff. Too bad it's been buggered up though. The Brits do a pretty brutal deactivation.

[smle-man]

Its funny that they intentionally aged the weapon - pictures that I see from WW2 show that many of the arms actually looked in pretty nice shape. It was the years of use and storage post WW2 that wore down the weapons.

[sbo80]

Its funny that they intentionally aged the weapon.

Except in the timeline of the film, they were not green troops. After the landing you see Sgt Horvath filling up tins of dirt and you see they'd already been fighting in Africa and Italy.

[DaveInOroValley]

I'm guessing the threaded barrel was likely used with a hidden blank adapter so the weapon functioned in filming.

[M76]

wall hanger, coulda been a contendah

[TrappedinCalifornia]

I'd rather have the 1911 given its capabilities against a Tiger tank...

[pitfighter]

Simon Atherton, who was the armourer on this, is retiring and selling up a lot of his stores (Zorg.)

http://www.zorgltd.co.uk/pages/about_us.htm

I bought a box of MP44 magazines for movie use.
There was an MKB42 magazine in amongst the lot, which was a nice surprise.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-apr-04-la-ca-working4-2010apr04-story.html

There is a good chance this is bonafide piece, these movie prop auctions are often borderline BS.
Also, a lot of other good solid stuff in the catalogue.

[rdfact]

Pitfighter, any idea what they mean by "It has been sympathetically deactivated"?

[M1NM]

Baldwin could have gotten the whole crew with the "prop" gun.

[pitfighter]

Pitfighter, any idea what they mean by "It has been sympathetically deactivated"?

As mentioned above, "deactivated" is a legal term in the UK, and specifications for what it requires have changed considerably over the years.

The first deactivated guns had the bolt shaved and the barrel blocked. The actions still moved and could be filed stripped, and mags could be removed and replaced etc.,

As of 2021, I believe they have to be completely welded up, with no moving parts at all, no stripping, no click-clacking of the action, nada, except maybe the trigger moves.

Sympathetically could mean externally there are no obvious giveaways.
Weld marks or drill, cut marks.

I do not believe you can freely sell the older spec deactivated guns, they must be updated to present specs to sell.

[rdfact]

^^ Wonder if it can be made fully functional again. Ya know, for research purposes.