Ah, good old AMT.

Arcadia Machine and Tool.

Back in the 80s, I thought they were cool for producing an entire line of stainless guns when the major manufacturers were just beginning to dip their toes in the water.

I never owned one, but of course I have my own "I knew a guy" story, so here goes:

Around 1990 (IIRC) a local "catalog warehouse store" (remember those?) had mistakenly priced some Winchester 22 Magnum ammo at 22 LR price.

They fixed their mistake quickly, but not before a very close and long time friend and shooting buddy (now deceased) could pick up a few thousand rounds.

He had been burning through an inheritance at the time, and chose a new AMT Automag II to burn up his new found ammo fortune.

I was with him on its "maiden voyage" and on the very first mag, it spit about half of its firing pin back in to his face, just below his left eye.

Luckily he wasn't seriously injured, the dealer took back the AMT, refunded his money, and he sold the 22 Mag ammo to a mutual friend with a rifle.

After hearing more stories about sporadic AMT quality, I started to think there was something to them.

John