Original Item: IMA now has three different Thompson cleaning rods to offer: the brass 12.0-inch rod that we?ve been selling for a few years; the steel 12.0-inch rod; and the brass 13.0-inch rod with both jag and slot for a cleaning patch. (The length is measured from the tip of the rod to the beginning of the handle ring.) We are offering the rods in a set of three.

Thompson Rod Primer

Many military and civilian cleaning rods use a ?jag? to support the cleaning patch. A jag is cylindrical and just a bit smaller than the bore diameter, and it?s advantage for cleaning is that the patch is pressed against the bore uniformly around the jag. The entire surface is cleaned on each pass through the bore. The alternative to the jag is a slotted cleaning rod tip through which a patch is inserted. A patch in a slotted rod does not clean the bore uniformly and requires more passes through the bore for equal cleaning. The jags are threaded for cleaning brushes.

The 12-inch Thompson rods are most common. A patch pushed through the bore of an M1928 or M1928A1 with a 12-inch rod is just barely pushed into view in the ejection port. It can be removed with the fingers, but if the the rod is pulled out, the patch may go back with it. The 12-inch rod works better with the M1921 without compensator and with M1 and M1A1. Original 12-inch Thompson rods did not have a patch slot.

The 13-inch rod works better with Thompsons fitted with the compensator. The rods also have different-sized rings, the ring on the 13-inch rod being smaller. Photographs indicate that both a long and a short rod were used with early law-enforcement guns. (See Thompson: The American Legend by Tracie L. Hill, page 354.)