44 Automag is back

[Leadmelter]

Anybody hankering for the Auto Mag is in luck. A new copy is making the pistol in South Carolina.
http://www.automag.com/
Leadmelter
MI

[HATCH]

$3500 for a complete pistol.
I thought it was cool until I got to the price.

[Moleman-]

I thought $2500 was way too much for an original last time I saw one for sale back when I was single and not married long enough to have kids in high school. Always had hoped that with CNC the price would come down so cheapskates like myself could get one. Already have a set of case forming dies!

[Ramjet-SS]

yeasmall batch MFG drives the cost up I would rather have a $4K side by each 28 ga shotgun....��

[9.3X62AL]

yeasmall batch MFG drives the cost up I would rather have a $4K side by each 28 ga shotgun....��

28 bore........I would settle for one of the Ithaca 37s allegedly available these days.

[Valley-Shooter]

I have always wanted an auto mag.
Maybe there's a chance now.

[Drm50]

I had 2 brand new 44 Auto mags back in 1972. I had gotten a A.Fox SxS 16g and a LGS wanted
it very bad. I had no interest in auto mags at the time. Anyway got them on the deal with some
other new guns that he considered sleepers at the time. I sold both of these guns for $250@
which was probably about wholesale at the time. This was in the days that a new Colt 1911 was
$100. It's all 20/20 hind sight.

[country gent]

About 2 years ago I watched a 475 wildey sell for $3500.00 at a local aution. There were 5-6 clips and factory ( wildey loaded) ammo there they sold these off separate. The gun had the manual and card board box no presentation case and 1 clip. I had been watching them sell on different sites for $1600-$2000 with extra clips, presentation walnut box, cleaning kit and sometimes cases ammo and dies. Its amazing what an auction does to people.

[Artful]

After watching the breakage during my Sillywet days and bowling pin days - no thanks.

[roysha]

$3500 for a fairly modern design and unique caliber application and people are complaining. BUT, a lot of folks don't even seem to think twice about paying that and more for a copy of a 110 year old design with rather mundane calibers. Oh well.



28 bore........I would settle for one of the Ithaca 37s allegedly available these days.


A gauge is a measure in the diameter of a shotgun barrel that is equal to how many lead balls will fit into the bore that make up a pound. Thus, 12ga, takes twelve balls to make a pound. 20ga, twenty balls will make up a pound, etc. Except .410, that is measured in inches and is a bore, not a gauge.

[AndyC]

To resurrect an older thread, I'm on the list for one of those new models - paid in full.

In the meantime, I have a TDE 6.5" model which landed in my lap on Wednesday - have the Starline brass, dies and 240gr (Hornady XTP) bullets so I'm gonna crank out some loads this weekend. Still, being a caster it makes me wonder whether anyone has used lead boolits in these things before...

[OnHoPr]

It's definitely a hand cannon. A guy let me shoot one once back in '78 at a gun range I was a member of. Two hand hold off the 4' carpeted bench board at the range put 5 shots in a 2" group near the bull @ 25 yds for my introduction to the beast. If I can remember correctly it was an 8 or 10" barrel. It had a hard back and twisting to the right recoil, not quite as comfortable as the roll of the SBH. Though, I do have somewhat average to smaller hands for gripping such a cannon. Double stack pistolas seem a little bulky to me over the single stack pistolas. I wonder what the courts would say if you used one for an EDC SD pistola and had a SD incident. Magnum Force with ole Clint

[bob208]

how many people lost money on the last automag scheme?

[1Hawkeye]

Interesting but funny how the only pictures on the website are of original automags and one of those is from the movie sudden impact.
I wish them luck but I think I see another Bren 10 in the making.

[LUBEDUDE]

I used to shoot a 44 AM and 357 AM back in the 90’s along with 45 Win and 475 Wildeys. They were a lot of fun and recoil was less than expected. Reloading took more effort and concentration.

Sold the AMs when I lost my job at the time. Have since replaced the 44 and rarely shoot it.

I wish the new AM company well.

[LUBEDUDE]

Interesting ...........
I wish them luck but I think I see another Bren 10 in the making.

You would think with all of modern day computer driven machines that gun resurrection would not be that hard, but:

A new Automag has already failed once.

A new Bren Ten has failed twice, Voit and Vltor.

A new Merwin and Hulbert has failed twice.

These failures just seem to add to driving the prices of the originals so far out of reach for the common man.

[stubshaft]

I had one back in the 70's and vividly remember making brass out of 308 cases (what a pain). It was a fun gun but I got rid of it and have no regrets.

[country gent]

What I noticed on their sight and video is they talk about modern engineering and manufacturing techniques. Supposedly all state of the art machines and processes. Yet No cnc machines or machining centers were shown in the video all older manual machines running insert cutters from 20-30 years ago. The casting process they show appears to be a sand cast process While I would like to see the auto mag become available again. I don't think there is a market to support them on just it. Given what they talk and then what they show I'm just not sure on this one.
Other fire arms reproductions do well in a niche market like the Sharps, CPA 44 1/2 Stevens, and some others these manufacturers cater to the buyer with many options allowing the rifle to be built to exactly what is wanted. C Sharps has several different rifles in their line up also Sharps, highwalls, Hepburn's. Shiloh as several versions of the Sharps available. BRC has barrels and the brochardt. CPA has the 44 1/2 in several versions, loading tools, moulds. These rifles have a long history and mystic behind them.

[OnHoPr]

Seems like the Desert Eagle cut in on the AM niche, but it didn't come with 15" barrels. To bad they couldn't have modified the clip a little to accept the 284 Win case. That case cut to length and necked down to accept the .430 boolit would have made a shoulder and a lot easier reloading not to mention another 100 + fps with the extra case volume.

[country gent]

The 475 Wildey was on a 284 case shortened and necked down. Its an impressive looking round.

[lar45]

Has anyone actually received one of the new ones? You would think that they might upgrade the stainless steel to 17-4ph, like the Freedom Arms and BFR's revolvers are made of, to end up with a stronger Automag that could handle heavy loads and not be as prone to breakage.

[rintinglen]

how many people lost money on the last automag scheme?

I very nearly did. I was a Corporal in the Marine Corps and had finally scraped up the purchase price, which was over half a months pay, 240.00 bucks, IIRC. I put my order in through an Oceanside gun shop. The proprietor told me he was going up to Irwindale and would pick up my pistol himself, since he had other business in the LA area. It was lucky for me that he did, because when I came into pick up the gun after the then 7 day waiting period, he told me that the Company had gone under (again.) I think mine was made by the short lived TDE company from left over parts after the original Automag company had gone under. But regardless, mine was an inaccurate piece o'garbage that I never could get to feed properly. At the time, the only factory ammo was the hard to get and expensive Aguila stuff from mexico, which was dirty and too weak to function. I reloaded mine using a 30-06 shellholder with 44 mag dies. I made some brass from 7.62 cartridges and managed to load up a few score loads using data from the then Brand New Speer Number 9 manual, but the gun would only function (ocasionally) with really hot loads. I sold it to some other mug at a Great Western Gun Show for a modest profit after messing around with it for about 6 months.
I became convinced that George Nonte and Lee Jurras were liars who had conspired to help perpetrate a fraud on the gun buying public. I will never buy another one, not even if they come free with box tops.

[Tackleberry41]

One would think that with modern techniques they could come to a reasonable price point. No they went super expensive, so will have slow sales. And how long before yet another failed attempt at automag is over?

Funny they talk about the collectors value of the older ones, yea until you try to actually sell one. I ended up with a compact 22 autmag. Friend died was in his things. So not like I paid for it. Yea I tried to sell it, gunbroker listings are over $1000, best offer I got was $200. I took mine apart and fixed the slide lock. Maybe it was not designed to work, or just shoddy build. Drill out the burrs left internally, and it locks back on the last round.

[AndyC]

Has anyone actually received one of the new ones?
I understand that the number of the Founders' Edition (8.5" barrel) so far sent out is in the 20's out of 77 - factory estimates that if they have no further issue with frames and magazines, they'll be caught up in a month.

[AndyC]

Update from the CEO:

"Fifty of the latest version of the frames started being poured last Friday. We should receive them by the end of next week and start machining and tapping them for final assembly. As soon as we confirm these frame are correct they will start the next batch of 150. With no issues we could be assembling them over the following two weeks."

[Ramjet-SS]

28 bore........I would settle for one of the Ithaca 37s allegedly available these days.

I have one it’s been a bit problematic Ithaca fixed it once but it seems to being doing the same thing again. Mag tube dump when I pump one round then of course the double load in the chamber......