Mystery Choke Devices

[Alfred Houde]

It looks like something that Cutts may have done. Just speculating based on the number of experimental items of his that I recall that are held in the collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

I have attached probably the most detailed article on Cutts and his son. It was authored by USMC Captain John Sheehan while he was a Special Assistant at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

[Bill Murphy]

The odd part of the Cutts story is that it was designed to keep a Thompson sub machine gun from rising in recoil at the time of discharge. However, the wildly popular Cutts Compensator sold for use in shotguns did not have vents that prevent the rise of the muzzle on discharge. The vents are equally situated on the top and bottom of the compensator body. After at least fifty years of using guns with Cutts Compensators in dozens of different shotguns, I still don't understand why the compensator body has vents at the bottom. The pictured, probably modified, Pachmayr Power Pac in my opinion is the proper use of vents in a shotgun barrel, in the top only. I agree with Researcher, the compensator in question is a modified Pachmayr Power Pac, never marketed in that configuration.

[Bill Murphy]

Al Houde, thanks for the article I have never seen. I haven't read it in it's entirety yet, but I will. I remember attending an auction in Rockville, Maryland, of Colonel Cutts' personal property, hoping to find some gun related items. Unfortunately, no gun related items were included in the auction. I still shoot a rather large collection of Cutts equipped shotguns and am looking for a proper rifle to utilize a rare and unusual Cutts Compensator made for a 30 caliber rifle, according to the information on the box.

[Double Lab]

Alfred, thanks for the fascinating article on an item that eventually made it's way to the public. I have a 1950's Model 12 with one and really love it. Growing up all the skeet shooters had them on their M12's, 11-48's and Model 11's. I saw you mentioned in the footnotes, so if you served, thank you for your service. I'm not sure the military industrial complex is much different today, only on a larger scale. To me a Thompson doesn't look complete without the Compensator.