Original Content
Nobody expected that the Third World War won't end the human civilisation, but it definetly affected handmade gun manufacturers creativity. In today's episode of Weapons that should've been forgotten, we have...
... Atkins SMG. In no way was this an official designation, and in no way does it even resemble the gun itself, which is, by all accounts, an assault rifle, and not an SMG. This gun was confiscated when a band of vagabonds attempted to organise a heist at a jewellery store in London, and the whole gang wasn't expecting that cameras and telephone lines had already been restored and repaired, and when the gang of former raiders tried to leave the building, they faced the Metropolitan Police. They were armed with various firearms, but in today's episode we're taking a look at the gun of Robert 'Bobby' Atkins.
At its base, we can see that this is a... M1A1 Thompson, an antique weapon from the early 20th century. Because there weren't many skilled firearms engineers in Britain at the time, this gun has minimal changes to its machined parts, just to make it possible to use 5.56 NATO rounds, which, if you think about it, is not the best calibre , to say the least, for a simple blowback mechanism.
Here you can see a Picatinny rail, which was, presumably, taken from another gun and mounted over a metal bridge that was simply welded to this gun. Here we can see an ACOG sight, and, what's interesting, this sight was originally mounted on this gun backwards, which is noticeable when you take a look at the camera footage. It seems that Atkins didn't know how to use this sight and mostly used this gun in a 'spray and pray' manner.
Here we have a medal, and it reads... 'For God and the Empire'. Experts were able to identify this medal, and it's an Order of the British Empire. Well ... it's supposed to be. It seems that Mr. Atkins was scammed, because, as you can see, the other side of the medal doesn't have any identification number, which means that this medal is fake.
The wood. You may wonder how a gun from the 1920s could've survived to the 2120s with its wooden furniture. And here we can see cross-sections. It is a reconstruction. Despite its appearance, this is not the original wood. It even lacks a rubber buttplate, which only confirms that this is a reproduction.
A muzzle device. It is made of very thin metal. It's mimicking the muzzle device from the original Thompson SMG, but not from the M1A1 but rather from the previous model. It's unknown whether it helped to reduce the recoil, but the intention is clear.
What's really interesting is that this October, the entire Atkins gang will be leaving prison, and Bobby Atkins himself has said that he would like to tell more about this gun and other bizarre handmade firearms at ReUK.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed this video . Thanks again to the London Metropolitan Police Service for making this video possible, and see you next time!
did you ..... did you just made Thompson Light Rifle but even heavier and harder to control? It's so ass! I want one ..... if only it was real. One can dream
Also, assuming you are not aware, Thompson Light Rifle is bigger thompson chambered in .30 carbine
What the... You're telling me, someone unironically in real life tried to make an assault rifle from the worst gun that can theoretically be converted into an assault rifle??
'Atkins' was made out of necessity, because there's not a lot of .45 ACP bullets in the postapocalyptic UK, what could've possibly been the reason for making an assault rifle out of Tommy gun? It just sounds like someone was money laundering, knowing the fact that this won't work!
Honestly, Atkins is cool concept and i want to know what you will cook up with knowledge that thompson was chambered with so many different ammo types, one even stronger than 5.56
I know merely nothing about firearms. Especially about the calibres and ammunition. I can't remember what calibre the L85 was chambered in, so I tried to think of any that I've heard in media. 5.56 was the only thing I could remember and, keeping in mind that it was made during the active RP session, nobody was too bothered with fact checking, especially considering the fact that it sounded like "This gun was rechabered from pistol rounds to assault rifle rounds" to our DM.
To be fair I should've rechabered my Atkins gun(which is, as you can guess is a pun on Tommy Atkins and Tommy gun) to a pistol round. I don't know why, but I didn't think about it during the game.
Thompson 1946. I don't think it was a rifle calibre though it's still called an SMG in game. Magazine seems larger though. Maybe a longer more potent .45 to deal with more advanced German body armour
Not at all. .45 LC has too similar ballistics to .45 ACP to justify any changes, especially the difficulty of getting a magazine to feed rimmed cartridges at a full auto fire rate reliably.
If it's not .30 carbine it's gotta be a rimless Rifle cartridge or likely an entirely new cartridge altogether. Chances are since in wolfenstein the Nazis did mass produce the STG and managed to get it a burst fire mode that 8mm Kurz is the round used even by the allies (copied of course)
We had a postapocalyptic-themed RP with friends and... a big spoiler was that society restored the order, mostly. Our gang... just didn't... know that
We got arrested. By a bunch of cops.
A gang of survivors/raiders. With guns.
It was both hillarious and quite embarassing at the same, because our DM was constantly hinting us that we were the only ones acting like it's still apocalypse, while in reality, postapocalyptic wasteland was just in like... 4 counties. And Wales.
I feel like something so M1A1 would exist with just some more modern attachments.
I think it needs to give heavy vibes while being more its own thing. I could definitely see a tilting bolt or lever delayed tabular receiver gun that definitely looks like this. I think it needs a few more passes though oven but im a huge fan of this concept. Im kinda going for a similar vibe with some of my weapons but its more caused by regulation pressures of what you can buy.
That was a prototype chambered in big boy 30-06, but they had another in 30 carbine as another user pointed out. Completely ridiculous in every way. Coul only imagine the recoil!
It isit is just a random mishmash of two weapons. It is neither logical sound, beautiful or mechanical interesting. It also doesn't stimulate my brain in any direction.
May sound harsh to your particular picture but these feelings and impressions I do get by practical all pictures here.
I'm surprised that you didn't notice the trinket on the stock, which is bloody useless and exists here just because this gun was made in a radioactive slums.
This gun is impractical, it's said several times in the description.
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You know, I saw a lot of pistols with useless blocks of steel under the barrel, and even less practical guns than this Birmingham typewriter.
It's strange that you decided to unsub after seeing someting creative, and not yet another generic middle-ages-esque stylised ultra-heavy pistol.
Did you notice that there is a post attached to this image, and that the image exists entirely to illustrate a funny story about an incompetent and misguided semi-post-apocalyptic gunsmith?
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u/Urarazaki 9d ago
did you ..... did you just made Thompson Light Rifle but even heavier and harder to control? It's so ass! I want one ..... if only it was real. One can dream
Also, assuming you are not aware, Thompson Light Rifle is bigger thompson chambered in .30 carbine