M1A1 BB submachinegun.
This report covers:
- The test
- First target full auto
- Umarex steel BBs
- Crosman Black Widow BBs
- Beeman Perfect Rounds
- Next
- Summary
This is a report that I would not believe unless I saw it happen. Fortunately, I did! The subtitle for today’s report is WOW! Today we look at the accuracy of the Umarex Thompson M1A1 BB gun for the first time.
The test
The Thompson is a BB gun and I always test BB guns at a distance of 5 meters which is 16.4 feet. I tested this one while sitting with the submachine gun resting on the UTG Monopod. I wore my reading glasses that have a +1.25 diopter correction.
First target full auto
I planned to test a target with ten shots full auto. I didn’t plan to do that until I identified the most accurate BB but I didn’t check the selector switch for the first magazine. So the first ten shots went out in less than one second! Fortunately for me the mag was loaded with the Umarex BB that also proved to be the most accurate of the three BBs I tested.
Shooting full-auto 10 Umarex BBs went into 1.831-inches—the distance between the centers of the two shots farthest apart. Folks, many BB guns don’t do that well when I shoot one shot at a time!
Yep! I held for one good shot and got ten instead! Ten Umarex steel BBs went into 1.831-inches between centers at 5 meters. And the group is centered well.
Umarex steel BBs
At this point I did not know what to expect when I shot ten BBs, one at a time. And this is where the WOW! happened. Ten Umarex BBs went into 0.556-inches between centers at 5 meters. Folks, the only BB gun on this planet that can do better is the Daisy 499B—the world’s most accurate BB gun! This is nothing short of phenomenal!
This is the WOW! five-meter group. Ten Umarex BBs are in 0.556-inches between centers.
Crosman Black Widow BBs
Next to be tried were ten Crosman Black Widow BBs. These are often the most accurate BBs in my tests, but not today. Today the M1A1 put ten into a 1.317-inch group at 5 meters. In any other BB-gun accuracy test it could possibly be the best group, but not today.
The M1A1 put ten Crosman Black Widows into a 1.317-inch group at 5 meters. Notice that 7 of the 10 BBs are clustered together. It’s a very good group; the Umarex BBs just beat it.
Beeman Perfect Rounds
I’m out of H&N Smart Shot lead BBs, so I used Beeman Perfect rounds—another lead BB from the past. These measure 4.46mm to 4.49mm so they are on the small side. Ten went into 1.282-inches at five meters. That’s another decent group. These seem more scattered so I don’t think they are really as accurate as the two steel BBs but it’s still a small group.
The Thompson put ten Beeman Perfect Round lead BBs into a 1.282-inch group at 5 meters. It’s another good group.
Next
Normally a BB gun test would be finished at this point, but with the accuracy we’ve seen with the Umarex BBs I’m going to back up to 10 meters and shoot some more. I think this gun deserves it!
Summary
The Umarex Thompson M1A1 BB gun is the second most accurate BB gun I have ever tested. Only a Daisy 499B can beat it and only then in the hands of a good shooter.
The only sad thing about this BB gun is the amount of CO2 you will go through.
B.B.
You have to try the shoot the star target. A red star if I remember.? Appropriate for today’s world.
-Yogi
Yogi,
You know, I might just have to write a blog about that airgun. I packed the last 50 of them that were sold after AirForce bought the company.
BB
And don’t use a red marker!
Tom,
A pleasant surprise is always welcome. An accurate surprise is very welcome. Looks like it can shoot the star out.
Siraniko
B.B.,
Cool nostalgic looks AND great accuracy…yes, that’s a WOW, for sure! 🙂
Thank you for this report and its unexpectedly good results.
Blessings to you,
dave
Mine has always been quite accurate too by BB gun standards. BB guns and peep sights just seem like a naturally good combination. They’re cheap, lightweight and enable most shooters to shoot significantly better. Full-auto is the same way. On a BB gun it’s actually affordable to rock and roll and the volume of fire helps to make up for their inherent inaccuracy.
My M1A1 was acting up today though. Temperatures were around 90 degrees and I’m wondering if that may have played a role. I was getting very inconsistent velocities in semi-auto and runaway bursts on full auto with a cyclic rate that must have been around 3000 rpm. I’ve never had issues with this gun before and to suddenly have them with all three magazines on a very hot, sunny day, just makes me suspicious that the heat was the culprit.
I was shooting it alongside the MP40 and the sights on the Thompson were so much nicer. The MP40 has that slow cyclic rate and full blowback action though, so it just operates more like the real thing.
SawneyBean,
Let’s hope it was just the temperature.
BB
Waiting for the Sten, or considering the rate of fire, an M-10!
OP,
A Sten would be nice.
I am not much of a bb gun fan, but this is pretty impressive. It is a shame that it uses up so many CO2 cartridges in the process. Full auto bb guns all seem to like those things.
Reading this now makes FM want to do a similar accuracy test for the Umarex MP40. Do not expect it will group as well as the Thompson. As to using up a lotta CO2, maybe PCP versions of these machine/submachine guns would be the solution? Of course, that means more complexity and more money too, specially if rifled-barrel pellet versions were offered.
Perhaps the rate of fire could somehow be reduced to something slower but still satisfying.
This is an impressive result. But is it a “one off” result? Anyone else out there with this gun getting these results?
Fred formerly of the Demokratik Peeples Republik of NJ now happily in GA
Fred,
My Thompson M1A1 shot this Umarex Steel BB group (pictured below) of 0.875″ at 10 meters from a bench rested position using single shot mode. Eight of the 10 shots comprised a 0.547″ group.
At 10 meters, 10 Black Widow BBs produced a 1.094″ group with 7 of the 10 shots making a 0.703″ group.
At 10 meters, 10 Avanti Precision Ground Shot produced a 1.031″ group with 7 of the the shots making a 0.781″ group.
At 10 meters, 10 Excite Smart Shot BBs produced a 1.719″ group with 8 of the 10 shots making a 0.969″ group.
B.B.
Very good! I like it. It’s the third most accurate not second though. I think that title still belongs to the Umarex Legends Cowboy Lever Action you tested. From your test of that one: ” Ten Umarex BBs went into 0.212-inches at 5 meters. This is the best group of the test and can challenge a 499!” I also remember the Umarex “Morph” doing very good but sadly that one is no longer with us.
Regardless, nice to see these bb shooters doing so well! Umarex is on to something with accurate BB guns.
Doc
B.B.,
“This is a report that I would not believe unless I saw it happen.”
Nice ;^)
Dream, Believe, Achieve, Repeat…at 10 yards!
shootski
Umarex seems to have their act together with the MP40, M3 Grease gun and now this Thompson.
Next? How about the HK 93 or HK 91 (G3-A3 replica) MG-42 or full-size UZI, already out in airsoft, or a MAC 10/11, in metal this time. Ones more realistic with this firing rate.
We have the UZI pistol, Steel Storm and MP5K and even the AK47 in composition plastic, well-made replicas, and M16’s are all over the place.
Must haves for a collector and today report makes this one worthwhile.
Almost afraid to ask for a DSR1 or M200 Sniper rifle or M60, M249 and MG-42, WA2000 or Galil, have a nice airsoft replica already, all metal and wood. Think a real one sold for $40,000. recently.
But yes, a Sterling would seem to fit in place here.
And for the life of me, why don’t we have a nice dark earth FN SCAR select fire BB shooter? I have perfect, all metal replica Airsoft versions in black and dark earth.
Perhaps it’s just that airsoft people play war games with realistic military replicas and pellet / bb shooters do not. Although sought after by collectors, military replicas may be a little out of place for pesting and target shooting.
Lets hope these military replicas catch on as fun plinkers and accurate shooters as well.
The MTR-77 is a perfect pellet shooting replica, would like more replica military models like it as well.
I’d throw in the StuG-44 into that mix – that could be a good candidate for a PCP auto-fire replica.
BB,
That’s amazing accuracy! Please don’t stop at 10 meters either; keep extending the range until you reach the limit of minute-of-tincan accuracy.
“The only sad thing about this BB gun is the amount of CO2 you will go through”. This BB gun sure is screaming out for a drop-in HPA conversion kit.
Bob R,
I once noticed a license plate frame, may have been a bumper sticker but who puts them on a Customized Corvette?
“Does it look like I care about gas milage?”
The same could be said about exotic select fire replica CO2 airguns. Sure, it would be nice if it used less gas, but I don’t think that played a big part in the decision to get one. The price of performance.
Bob M,
I hear what you’re saying. A huge shot count would be even more fun though. I can’t figure out why most BB guns are still CO2 powered in this age of low cost PCPs.
For mine that would be somewhere in excess of 20 yards, a I was well within soda can dimensions at that range.
Ade C,
That’s very impressive. I’ve had Turkish springers with rifled barrels that could scarcely hit a soda can at 20 yards.
When I was young, early teens and living in Brooklyn, New York City, there were no airguns aloud, so we never really had the opportunity to target shoot or compete.
The only pests around were mice and rats but the background was always too dangerous to shoot. Anyone who did had have one, shot in their apartment or waited till we could go on vacation someplace where it was permitted.
No basement shooting aloud either, apartment property all over the place, and noise.
Then it was just plinking for fun. There was no time for accurate sighting in, we just turned the sight adjustments as we shot but we shot at things close and far so it really did not make much difference.
Our challenge was simply to hit something we shot at sharing the airgun. Hopeful plinking. Airguns were not that accurate especially at distance. I had a Daisy 1894 pump rifle with a small plastic scope. Others had BB pistols, no pellet airguns. Missing the target or should I say the thing we were shooting at, was the norm. The first to do so was the winner, so to speak, but we had good shooting fun.
Never got into accurate shooting till I left NY and started to acquire firearms. Ammo was a bit more expensive, and self-defense was paramount with new family at hand.
It may have evolved into an airgun mind set where accuracy is not a top priority with airgun shooting or I just got too old to care much ;( Having just one really accurate airgun when needed is good for me. The rest are just nice to have and shoot for fun.
But most of today’s airguns have evolved into highly accurate shooters and demand you take advantage of it. It also separated them into plinkers and target shooters for the most part and the difference between the two is hard to determine as they all vary to some degree with accuracy and power.
We are disappointed when a target rifle fails to be accurate and happy when a plinker turns out to be accurate.
Most seem to be in the middle someplace and you usually get what you pay for with accuracy, there are exceptions though and thankfully we have the Godfather of Airguns and his Bloggers to help us decide what airgun meets our desire when limited in our choice and … what we hopelessly addicted air gunners will be getting without much disappointment either way. We like them all.
“We like them all.”
Amen!
Bob M,
“The only pests around were mice and rats but the background was always too dangerous to shoot.”
You didn’t have pigeons?
I had an Aunt that lived on Myrtle Avenue in the Glenbrook neighborhood near a bunch of final resting places with bunches of stone monuments. She lived on the top floor and really hated the pigeons that always sat and more on her skylights. Being the good boy from out of town (Pennsylvania) i was clueless about the rules. I brought a pellet gun on my family’s second weekend brief trip to visit with the old girl i think it was a Benjamin pumper pistol and accurate enough for pigeon. I laid waste to every pigeon that came within range. She told me about the big stink it created when all the dead birds were found for the rest of the week on nearly every nearby rooftop on our next visit. But a few folks liked it as much as she did including a number of nearby cemetery grounds managers who were more than happy to have me visit and paid for all my pellets from then on.
I just needed be discrete and bag the dead birds and not let them rot in place.
shootski
Shootski, you got lucky no body called the police on you. They could have been part of someone’s roof top pigeon coop. A big thing back there in those days. Too many people too close together.
Bob M,
Yup…young, stupid, and lucky!
It might have been in Queens and not Brooklyn the place she lived was actually called Glendale.
“Too many people too close together.” That too!
I didn’t know much about Messenger Pigeons. I didn’t find any leg bands on the ones i bagged.
Or…did those folks who had coops eat those birds?
shootski
For sure they could not have been Passenger Pigeons. 😉
Recently FM was offered the opportunity to do some “iguana removals” at a nearby retirement community. However, as he pointed out to the friend and resident of that community who extended the invitation, the vast majority of the folks living there hail from states, particularly one, where mention of the word “gun” causes fear and loathing. So FM declined the honor because he did not want the experience of being confronted by the local law and possibly having to deal with a confiscated airgun, even though Florida actively encourages removal of iguanas and other invasive types. Could picture one of the inhabitants calling law enforcement, shrieking “there is an armed terrorist in our community!” and having the SWAT team come barreling in; no, thanks.
Guess those retirees are ok with cleaning up iggy poop, the salmonella they carry and getting their fruits and flowers eaten up by the beasties. Not in our backyard!
FawltyManuel,
I suggest you wear ORANGE coveralls with PEST REMOVAL in large letters on front and back ;^)
If a few of the “pest” residents go missing just file a Missing Persons Report….
shootski
Dress up as a purple gorilla (or some other fanciful character). No one will believe retirement community reports of a purple gorilla terrorist, especially if the community administrators are approving of your activities.
Or could just have their heads explode by wearing an orange suit with the word “Terrorist” on back. Something along the lines of Bluto Blutarsky (Belushi) wearing that shirt that had “College” on it, in “Animal House.”
The thing is, fear this push-the-envelope attempt at humor would be taken seriously and FM wind up locked up with some real terrorists in Gitmo.
My name is Bob and I am an airgunoholic.
Pigeon men and their roof top birds.
Old imported bird hobby from around the world to the eastern US in the 1600’s. A subculture, especially strong after the 1940’s. They train them, fly them, race them, breed them for specific traits and try to hijack them from other coops. 59 types of pigeons.
Laurence Fishburne, the Bowery King in the movie John Wick 4 played the role of a pigeon man. Not a typical one for sure.
The most pigeons I ever encountered was in London’s Trafalgar Square in 1967. You could not walk without unintentionally kicking one. They banned feeding them a while back, but it did not go well.
They are not as bad as a flock of Seagulls … Never walk under one, in fact run away for shelter. I think they target humans for fun when they fly high in flocks .
I learned that lesson at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state up north. All I heard from a shipmate looking up was “Run!” and I followed him without question thankfully.
Probably where the Navy term ‘Sh–bird’ came from. (Annoying Pain in the As- Butt)
Another surprise bird encounter was in Hawaii; Barbers Point Naval Air Station. At sunset I think every bird on the island flew into the aircraft hangar to sleep in the rafters. Hundreds of them. We had to stop working on our helicopter.
Fortunately, the Enlisted Club was nearby, and we were rescued. You know the saying, “War is hell !” there are many types of war, some not as deadly.
“It’s not just a job … It’s an adventure” See the world! … The real one.
B.B. and Readership,
A number of readers want Tom to shoot the M1A1 at longer range.
“You have to try the shoot the star target. A red star if I remember.? Appropriate for today’s world.”
said – Yogi
Perhaps this article will inspire him: https://isportsmanusa.com/news/by-a-long-shot-ukrainian-sniper-sets-new-record/?utm_source=isportsman.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=hot-weather-bass-and-record-gators-with-isportsman&_bhlid=923da48ff399618c7252fc8dfdb3670327d5e652
shootski
Looks like all the Sniper had to do was pull the trigger to participate in the event. This goes way beyond just adding costly high-tech gadgets to your rifle to sight it in and shoot it.
Aiming with a drone that probably transmitted the targets GPS coordinates from space to the AI aiming device that in turn calculated the bullet trajectory and scope setting would sure help.
Sounds something like those expensive bullets that can be programed by the aiming device to explode when it reaches a designated GPS position. Like just over a fox hole or inches beyond a cement wall where the target is hiding.
The sights on the Tommy Gun are fixed and probably designed for spray and pray accuracy at long distance. Not a big help there. Locked down in a shooting rest would be a good way to determine the guns accuracy for long range. Or he could mount a curved bottom weaver / picatinny rail to it and scope it. The top of the receiver it not too flat.