Thompson vs. 1911 Government Model

In April of 2001, my favorite range decided to go to “green” (lead free) ammunition. Prior to the changeover the range tested various types of green ammunition for suitability, accuracy and function. I took my trusty Bridgeport ’28, with Cutts Compensator, as one of the test weapons. Generally, the green ammo shot a little higher due to the lighter weight bullet and larger powder charge. But that is not my purpose this article.

 As the testing wound down, I was asked if I had brought a handgun and holster. I said I only had my Thompson. John Pepper said “Close enough--come on down and do my practical pistol class.” Excluding John, I was the only non-pistolero. Yes, this was going to be interesting, but I had been battle hardened by three of Tracie’s shoots. Since we were all testing the green ammo, it took a little time to develop the aim points for the pepper poppers (which were named for our instructor—John Pepper). For those of you with a Freudian orientation, my aim point turned out to be what I visualized to the crotch area. I have no idea what it means, but that’s when the poppers started dropping damn near every time (unlike Sutton’s which I can never get to fall over--just kidding, Sutton).

The course had three stages. The shooter on stage three would first use a knee on a simulated attacker’s groin, then shove him back with a hand to the face, so he could be shot. As soon as the shooter on stage three shot the attacker, the shooters on the two other stages could start engaging their targets. The stages were separated by thirty feet and the only movement was on stage three which was away from the first two stages, so there were no fratricide problems. Stage one was shooting through a one foot square opening that sat at ground level. My biggest problem was keeping my hat out of my face. My thirty round magazine performed the additional duty of mono-pod. There were two clusters of four pepper poppers each and a stop plate. Stage two was shot seated with another two cluster of four pepper poppers and a stop plate. For stage three, after you shot the bozo you did hand-to-hand with, you had a fast walk to a barricade 30 feet to the side. Did I mention the two targets to shoot along the way? The idea was to keep them ducking and kill them when you were safely behind the barricade. After ducking behind the barricade and blowing those two pepper poppers away, there was another cluster of four pepper poppers to deal with. The final barricade was another 30 feet to the side. You’re almost finished, but you have an interesting double pepper popper to defeat. The plate in back is a terrorist--you hit it, it falls and leaves the hostage standing--a highly desirable outcome from the perspective of most hostages. However, if you hit the hostage, it falls over and takes the terrorist with it. Nine out of ten hostages prefer the former outcome.

I had several advantages. My ten inch barrel was generating a couple of hundred feet per second more in muzzle velocity, so I could still down a pepper popper with a marginal shot. I estimate I used approximately the same number of rounds as the 1911s, but my misses took much less time. I had a much longer sight radius. I was not affected as much by the lesser accuracy of the green rounds. I only had to reload after thirty rounds--in fact, I never had to use all thirty rounds on any stage. An advantage of more than 4 to 1 in capacity. Finally, I was able to knock over targets on the move—hooray for spray and pray. Nobody was more surprised by that than I was!

So what happened? A typical stage one time for a 1911 was 12 to 15 seconds; I was in the 6 to 8 second category. Reloading and re-engaging a missed target dominated the lost time for the 1911s. Stage two the story and times were essentially the same. Stage three was an eye opener. First the two pepper poppers were down before I reached barricade one! Since the scenario required not stopping while engaging the two pepper poppers on the way to the barricade, my spray and pray tactic saved valuable time by eliminating two targets the pistoleros couldn’t and my expended ammunition put down the two targets. A great time and ammunition saver! As on stages one and two, the clusters were easy for the Thompson--2 to 3 seconds to down them. The hostage/terrorist pepper popper should have been a problem, but the Thompson’s weight and accuracy kept the burst on target. Never once did I hit the hostage. Just over one minute was an excellent time for the 1911s; my best time was 31 seconds. One tip given to me after the shoot was to spray and pray the clusters--take the cluster down with one long burst. That certainly would have worked on the first two stages where I had plenty of ammunition. On the third stage, I don’t know if the reload time (Thompsons lose the reload race badly to the 1911s!) would have cost more than that gained from the spray and pray. Maybe next time I’ll have that answer.

I don’t think this is the definitive answer to the debate, but given enough room to maneuver the 10-pound beast and a little distance (20+ feet) to the intended -- I’ll take General Thompson’s “Trench Broom” despite the fact I own a half dozen .45s.