- Amt Firearms Serial Numbers List
- Amt Firearms Serial Numbers Identification
- Amt Firearms Serial Numbers For Sale
- Amt Firearms Serial Numbers
Analysis of Serial Numbers
In 1998, Galena Ind., of Sturgis, South Dakota, purchased the rights to produce most of the AMT-developed firearms and manufactured several models from 1999 to 2001. In 2005, the rights to several AMT models were acquired by Crusader Gun Co. Of Houston, parent company of High Standard Mfg. Also see listing for Auto Mag. Numbers were issued sequentially, beginning where Ordnance had left off with serial number blocks assigned during WWII. The letter X preceding the serial number designated it as a replacement. The new serial number was hand stamped on top of the receiver behind the rear sight, in the vicinity of the prior serial number. Irwindale IAI AMT Automag IV RCZ-1.45 Win Mag Semi-Auto Pistol, 1990-1991.
The Colt Patent Firearms Company of Hartford Connecticut was contracted by Auto-Ordnance to manufacture the first 15000 Thompson sub-machine guns from April 1921 to May 1922. Contract was signed on 18th August 1920. All were marked “Model of 1921” and bore a serial number which was placed in four locations on the gun on the first 1000 and then in three locations with the rest.
The first commercial production gun was numbered 41 and was shipped on 31st March 1921– numbers 1 to 40 were all considered prototypes and remain to this day in Museums in the US. Early guns were designated Model of 1919 and some were belt fed ammunition and only full automatic.
The sixth gun manufactured was serial number 46 and was the first gun consigned to Auto-Ordnance in the name of their salesman George Gordon Rorke on 2nd April. This gun was sold to the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
During first month of production, 28 Thompson guns were shipped to the IRA via George Gordon Rorke, salesman for Auto-Ordnance.
During February 1921 a group of men , all with obvious Irish surnames, ordered 50 Thompson guns from a salesman of Auto – Ordnance under the name of P.J. Gentry of New York who was a saloon-keeper on Manhattan’s Lower West Side and frontman for the IRA.
On May 25th these were delivered and within days, the guns, the men and Mr. Gentry had disappeared.
In March 1921 the first Thompson guns were produced by Colt and were sent to Auto-Ordnance for hand finishing and inspection. The first two guns were shipped in the name of a Mr. Wise, a front man for the IRA.
These guns were tested by their Irish “purchasers” Sean Nunan (later to become Ireland’s Ambassador to the US!) and Laurence de Lacy (also known as Frank Williams) at the 69th Regimental Armoury. The two guns soon left for Ireland hidden in the luggage of Irish American military officers Cronin and Dineen (later to take commissions in the Irish Army) who were sent to Ireland to train the IRA in the guns’ use.
Auto-Ordnance salesman Rorke placed and order for his Irish clients on April 5th comprising 500 guns, 125 (x100) drums, 250 (x50) drums and 1000 (x20) box magazines.
Clann na Gael, Irish fund raising organisation in the US, maintained an arms dump at La Fontaine Avenue in the Bronx , New York. Other weapons of all ages were stored here along with ammunition destined fro the struggle in Ireland. 25 Thompson guns arrived there during April 1921 , another 30 on May 6th, another 45 on May 11th with further deliveries of 240 guns in total on 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st May. By end of May 400 Thompsons were amassed at the Bronx warehouse.
A number of addresses of convenience were recorded in the meticulously kept Auto-Ordnance company records. This enabled guns to be sold to the Irish but give the impression of different business customers. While it is not certain all were IRA conduits, some were. Of interest were:
American Railway Express Companyof 46th Street, New York
were used as a front for the purchase of guns sold by G.G.Rorke for in April, May and June some 306 were ‘shipped’ there. A definite IRA purchase.
Milton Kohn Export Corporation on Panama Railroad & Steamship Company of New York
were shipped 29 guns.
Moore-Handley of Birmingham Alabama
were shipped 16 guns.
Logan Hardware & Supply of Logan, West Virginia
were shipped 5 guns.
W.S.Brown, 523 Wood Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
was shipped 7 guns.
P.J. Gentryof New York
was shipped 50 guns. A definite IRA purchase.
Thomas F Ryan, 3 East 67th Street, New York
was shipped 2 guns. The senior Director of Auto-Ordnance.
Morgan, Salesman for Auto-Ordnance
Was consigned during April guns #69, #75 and #66 – the latter now with Bapty & Co. London, movie prop business.
Captain Geo T.Wise, Washingtom DC
was shipped 7 guns. Serial numbers 42 and 43 were shipped on 24th March in his name and with connection “USMC Navy Order”. From the Auto-Ordnance very first shipping chart week ending 9th April 1921, the third line records the sale of two guns #42 and #43 dated 24th March 1921 destination Capt G.T. Wise C/o Frank Ochsenreiter of Washington. The order had been pre-paid. With the order came 10 (XX) magazine, 4 (L) drums, 2 (C ) drums, 2 webbing gun cases, 6 webbing magazine cases, 1 handbook.
Ochsenreiter was a salesman colleague of George Rorke and fellow member of the Friends for Irish Freedom. He worked for another of Fortune Ryan’s companies at the time.
Interstingly gun #811 sold to Geo.Wise was captured by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland in an IRA arms dump.
Captain H.B.C. Pollard, London England
was shipped 14 guns – four on 26th April plus 10 on 5th May. The Captain, Hugh Bertie Campbell Pollard, was born 6th January 1888, served as an Officer in WW1 in Intelligence, and in 1920 was appointed as an Intelligence officer on the Staff of the Chief of Police Ireland. He was an authority in modern and ancient firearms and had written several notable books (The Story of Ypres in 1917, The Book of the Pistol and Revolver in 1917, Automatic Pistols in 1921 and Secret Societies of Ireland in 1922).
He was a journalist for the Daily Express from 1912.During WW1 he was on the Staff Intelligence Directorate at the War Office and then was listed at the Irish Office 1920-1922 based at Dublin Castle. His title was Press Officer with Police Authority Information Section. He was instrumental in putting the British side during the propaganda was with the IRA and would have been under the threat of assassination by the IRA during his Irish stay. During 1936 he was personally involved in the Spanish Civil War by flying Franco to Spain. During WW2 Pollard served as a British M16 officer.
In his work “Secret Societies of Ireland” published in July 1922 fresh from his stint as Press Officer in Dublin Castle, he made reference on several pages to the Thompson gun in Ireland. He described it as “no longer than a carbine, and weighing only 8lbs, is to all effects a short range machine gun, capable of firing one thousand rounds a minute. It is extremely portable and very easily concealed”. He refered to the capture by the British of IRA documents in May 1921 outlining the deployment of the gun around Ireland and identifying of targets.He recorded that the British had been interested in the gun too and had confronted John Thompson and manager Morgan when they were in Britain demonstrating the gun.The two denied all knowledge of the Irish shipment and as a result the interest was dropped.He said that it was the British who blew the whistle on the East Side shipment.He was aware that serial numbers could be traced. Of the 600 purchased, only 495 were seized on the ship, the balance he wrote, had made their way to Ireland before and after the July 1921 Truce.
Several times Pollard wrote that the first use of the Thompson Gun in Ireland was during the IRA burning of the Customs House in Dublin on 25th May 1921 which resulted in large scale capture of IRA men and materials. He said the gun ‘jammed badly and inflicted no casualties on the police engaged’. The IRA records do not support this assertion.
This was an ingenious cover for IRA purchases.
In police arms seizures back in Ireland, two guns shipped to H.D. Folsom Arms Company of New York turned up, one shipped to Watson Hardware & Company of Ashland Kentucky, one shipped to State Police Hartford Connecticut.
29 from the first 100 produced were sold to the IRA.
The following figures cannot be exact as dates shipped overlapped different months;
April 1921 –96 manufactured numbered 41 to 136 (28 shipped to IRA agents)
May 1921 – 707 manufactured numbered 137 to 843 (413 shipped to IRA agents)
June 1921 – 1480 manufactured numbered 844 to 2323 (96 shipped to IRA agents)
Thompson gun serial no.1117 was the last recorded gun shipped with IRA connections on 6th June 1921.
Two serial numbers 701 and 901 were recorded as being on the East Side seizure.
Some 55% of the first two months production went to the IRA.
Hemmingway’s novel “To Have and Have Not” carries in its Penguin edition a jacket picture of Thompson serial no. 66. This gun was shipped on 11th April 1921 and “taken abroad with Morgan” (Auto-Ordnance salesman) and is now with film prop company Bapty’s & Co. of London.
Interarmco in the US bought up a batch of Irish Thompsons in 1957.
Hundreds of Model of 1921 guns have been seized by both the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in N.Ireland, the Garda in Eire and the British police in Great Britain – all originating from the East Side cache. Some have had legible serial numbers while others have had their numbers defaced. Guns still remain in concealed arms caches to this day.
From 1922 to today, the RUC reported 61 guns seized in arms finds of which 21 serial numbers were recorded and of these 15 were from East Side.
One gun is RUC hands was #811, shipped to George T Wise, Auto-Ordnance salesman on 10th June 1921.
During period 1935 to 1981, the Garda seized 227 Thompson guns of which 40 carried legible serials. Of these 29 were East Side traceable.
Interesting serials captured from the IRA in Ireland included #372 shipped to Connecticut State Police, #722 shipped to Folsom Arms Company of New York, #894 shipped to Watson Hardware Company of Ashland Kentucky.
Defacing serial numbers was common as 395 out of the 495 guns found on the East Side were obliterated.
Amt Firearms Serial Numbers List
There is even an IRA Thompson in a Museum in Norway.
The Irish Free State Army from 1922 used Thompsons until the 1950’s.These were sold off to foreign collectors at that time….records not kept.The guns were sold to Interarmco (Interarms) in the US.
Interestingly during 1923 after the devisive Civil War the Free State army held 20 Thompsons while the IRA held estimated 60 guns.
Mikes Machine guns fine website records Irish Thompsons serial no.’s 389, 586, 708 and 993 are in a collection in New Zealand.
An analysis of the serial numbers for which records were kept and retrieved for the first 1000 guns thanks to the East Side case where they were used in court.
1921 | Dates recorded / dates shipped |
March | April | May | June | |
Guns | 6 | 112 | 590 | 1451 |
Amt Firearms Serial Numbers Identification
1921 | Purchasers |
PJ Gentry | G.G. Rorke | A.R.E.Co | Wise | details none | |
Guns | 46 | 184 | 306 | 1 | 104 |
Amt Firearms Serial Numbers For Sale
Serial 811 shipped 10th June 1921 was consigned to a George T Wise of Washington DC – this weapon was captured by the Royal Ulster Constabulary years later.
I have been able to track down serial numbers and locations as per chart below. As expected, Museums in Ireland north and south have plenty of examples. Interesting to note that Imperial War Museum London (thanks to Paul Cornish) has two and that serial no. 383 has a defaced number on frame. Also the two guns in National Firearms Centre (formerly Pattern Room) have their serial numbers defaced. This defacing was refered to in court during the East Side trial. During the 1950’s captured weapons were sold off to the collectors market. Hundreds of Thompson guns have been captured by the Irish police, British Army, and Royal Ulster Constabulary in arms seizures from 1921 to 1981.
Many of these were destroyed under the law.
Current Location | Serial number | Date shipped | Sold to | Consigned to |
Collins Barracks Dublin | 847 | 07/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co. NY | G.G.Rorke |
Collins Barracks Dublin | 815 | 27/05/1921 | G.G.Rorke | |
RUC Museum Belfast | 301 | 11/05/1921 | Auto-Ordnance NY | G.G.Rorke |
RUC Museum Belfast | 719 | 21/05/1921 | American Rail Express Co. NY | G.G.Rorke |
RUC Museum Belfast | 460 | 03/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co. NY | G.G.Rorke |
RUC Museum Belfast | 876 | 03/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co. NY | G.G.Rorke |
RUC Museum Belfast | 925 | 03/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co. NY | G.G.Rorke |
Irish Army Barracks Museum | 832 | 07/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co. NY | G.G.Rorke |
Kilmainham Gaol Dublin | 232 | |||
Kilmainham Gaol Dublin | 1083 | |||
British Army Warminster | 482 | 18/05/1921 | American Rail Express Co. NY | G.G.Rorke |
Wexford Museum Enniscorthy | 1080 | 07/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co., NY | G.G.Rorke |
Imperial war Museum London | 383 | |||
Imperial war Museum London | 880 | |||
Military College Curragh | 914 | |||
National Firearms Centre Leeds | erased | |||
National Firearms Centre Leeds | erased | |||
New Zealand | 630 | 25/05/1921 | P.J. Gentry, NY | |
New Zealand | 389 | 18/05/1921 | American Rail Express Co.,NY | G.G.Rorke |
New Zealand | 586 | 20/05/1921 | American Rail Express Co.,NY | G.G.Rorke |
New Zealand | 708 | 03/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co.,NY | G.G.Rorke |
New Zealand | 993 | 03/06/1921 | American Rail Express Co.,NY | G.G.Rorke |
Firearms International |
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Overview
In 1995 Larry Horner, owner of Liberty Armory in Liberty, TX was contracted by several individuals for the assembly of M1 Carbines their company intended on selling. Horner identified their company as Firearms International in Houston, TX. Horner was a member of The Carbine Club and had many years of experience as a gunsmith with M1 Carbines. After Horner began assembling the carbines the owners of Firearms International incorporated Israel Arms International (IAI) and decided to use this name on all of their firearms, instead of the name of Firearms International.
Amt Firearms Serial Numbers
Firearms International, Gamma Products, and Israel Arms International were owned and operated by the same people at the same address. The carbines with the name of Firearms International were the predecessors of what would become the carbines with the name of Israel Arms International several years later. Differences in the name, markings, and receivers have prompted presenting the history of the Firearms International carbines separate, and as a lead into, the carbines made by IAI.
The name 'Firearms International' has been used by several different companies since at least the 1960's. The Firearms International this page is devoted to was started in 1993 in Houston, TX. The company name was later sold to a different group in Houston in 2004.
Firearms International: 1993-2004
Firearms International was incorporated in October 1993 by Richard Nahman at 5709 Hartsdale in Houston, TX. The same day Nahman incorporated a second company, Gamma Premium Company, at the same address. Gamma Premium became the exclusive distributor of the firearms imported and sold by Firearms International and later, Israel Arms International.
Prior to Firearms International Nahman had been operating as an importer under the name of JO Arms at 5709 Hartsdale in Houston, Texas, which he incorporated in June 1984. JO Arms imported handguns manufactured in Israel that were exported from Israel by K.S.N. Industries in Kfar Saba, Israel (refer to the review of the 9mm Golan Model in the Dopebag section of the August 1996 issue of the American Rifleman).
The import/export business can sometimes be confusing as to who was/is actually doing what. Who actually made the handguns is irrelevant to the history of the M1 Carbine. For the sake of background it may be of value to know both K.S.N. Industries and JO Israel Arms were incorporated in Israel as arms exporters located in the city of Kfar Saba, while in Houston, TX K.S.N. Industries (June 1964) and JO Arms (June 1984) were incorporated as importers of the handguns with the name K.S.N. Industries Israel.
Israel Arms International incorporated in Texas in November 1996 at 5709 Hartsdale Dr. in Houston. Texas corporate and tax records identify Richard Nahman as the company President. From this point onward the carbines assembled for Nahman by Liberty Armory were marked with the initials IAI instead of Firearms International or F.I. For the history of IAI please refer to the pages devoted to their carbines.
The Twenty-Eighth Edition (2007) of the Blue Book of Gun values lists Firearms International and indicates 'While IAI (Israel Arms International) was originally established to market firearms by Israel Arms Ltd. through Firearms International Inc, IAI defaulted on this agreement without any sales being made.' The Blue Book does not indicate it's source for this information. Given Nahman was the president of Firearms International and Israel Arms International (also known as Israel Arms Ltd).
In September 2004 the Firearms International name was acquired by a merger of the assets of Firearms International, High Standard, AMT-Auto Mag, and Arsenal, and continues to operate under the Firearms International name as a distributor of the guns sold under the other names. By September 2004 Richard Nahman was no longer able to operate as an arms importer or distributor due to events that occurred while he operated as Israel Arms International.
The Firearms International M1 Carbines
Information from Larry Horner indicated production was slow and sporadic the first couple years as Nahman and his partners acquired the various parts and manufacturers for not only their M1 Carbines but also the other guns they intended on selling. Everything related to the M1 Carbine was sent to Liberty Armory in Liberty, TX for assembly after which the assembled carbines were turned over to Firearms International.
The highest serial number observed to date is FI00164. We are not aware of how high the numbers went before they switched to using the name of Israel Arms International. We are aware of several prototypes made under the name of Horner's Liberty Armory along with at least one additional having different Firearms International markings and a different serial number sequence though it's believed this was also an experimental carbine as it has a wide recoil plate tang.
Firearms International
Serial Number: FI 00045
Firearms International
Serial Number: FI 00164
(photos & information courtesy of John Kildea)