In a major role reversal me BIL wants to give me his .22 mag pistol. It`s in very nice condition and a neat looking little pistol, but what it is for???
I have a few revolvers with interchangeable cylinders,which I never swap ,so .22 mag is kind of foreign to me.
What is the value and reputation of this pistol?
Don`t get me wrong I am not looking a gift horse in the mouth , but I am not at all familiar with this one, and might move it along and give him what ever i make off of it.
your thoughts and advise is appreciated.
Jack

I have an AMT Hardballer 1911. Around here, AMT had a very bad rep. I bought mine at a time when money was tight. Wanted a 1911. Couldn't afford a quality gun. First trip to the range and problems popped up. The disconnector was so poorly finished that half the time it would not reset for the next shot! Got home that evening and cleaning the guns, I found a hole in the side of the slide. The slot for the barrel bushing was cut too deep and the side of the slide had blown out. I thought that if I sent it back that I would just get another one just like it. Took the gun apart, polished all the poorly finished parts and then it worked OK. Over the years I have had the rear sight blade break in half ( during a Pin match), had the slide crack and the barrel lugs crack. I keep it as a reminder: If you can't afford what you want---wait until you can!
AMT stands for Amarillo Machine & Tool. I've always said it stood for Attsa My Trash

There are a couple of reviews at gunblast.com.

I bought a 6" .22 mag Automag when they first came out in the 70s. It had a terrible trigger and numerous feeding problems. After several trips to my trusted gunsmith failed to correct its problems, I sold the gun and retained a very low opinion of AMT.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago and a friend asked me if I wanted to shoot his 3" and 4" AMT .22 mag Automags. Both guns ran flawless and had good triggers. I asked him if any work had been done to either gun and found out that both guns were stock.
As luck would have it, I was able to find and buy a 3" and then a 4" AMT .22 mag Automag a short time later. The above guns both run perfect.

Mark

I think that AMT is short for Arcadia Machine and Tool. I do agree with your last sentence. I've owned two Hard Ballers and neither one would go through a magazine of ammo without a jam. I thought that I could fix about any problem a 1911 could have but I couldn't get either one to function correctly. When they did shoot they were accurate though.

A friend wanted one about 15 years ago. So I went along with him to buy it. It was a private sale. The seller warned him that it was a jam-0-matic, but he'd been looking for one a long time and couldn't be persuaded not to buy it. We had some fun shooting it. For the longest time the gun had never, even once, managed to go through a full magazine without a problem.

So one day I was flush with cash and just bought a box of every brand/style 22 mag i could find. Yes, that was in the last century and it was cheaper then. We went shooting. And the game was to fire ammo until the gun jammed. Then we'd put that box away and move to the next. It didn't take long to put each box away. Then we tried a box of Winchesters. I forget the load, but it ran all the way through the box with only one jam, and that was 3 or 4 magazines down! So we tried the rest of them and those jammed, too. So we put our shooting stuff in the car and instead of driving home, we went to the dealer where I'd bought the ammo. He had more so my buddy bought it all! Then he gave me 2 boxes to pay back for the stuff we'd fired.

The gun was loud, wait, LOUD. Caps tells it better. Every 22 mag I've ever fired is loud. Right now I only own one, a 351 PD and its a great little gun, but it makes its noise, too. Its an ideal CCW gun, complete with laser. If you shoot anyone, or shoot at them, neither of you will hear for a while. If you hit the gun or kill him, you don't need advice to not talk to anyone, including the police. You won't hear their questions. You can see their lips move, but you'll be deaf for a few days, anyhow. The automag has a longer barrel, but semi-autos sometimes are even louder than shorties.

It now costs about $15 a box of 50 rounds. You get rimfire performance at centerfire prices. I used to be a little shocked at paying $3 a box for the stuff. Now its 5 times as expensive. You can't call it bargain shooting. But then you're the guy buying the gun, and you know how rich you really are.

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Dick Burg

One of my favorite places to drop money has taken in trade and sold the same AMT Automag II five times in the past two years!
It just came back last week. Buy it, try it, move on to the next gun.

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Virtue,Liberty & Independence

I've always wanted one regardless the bad rep. I still do. Must be stupid.
DW

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"NUTS"

I traded into one (22 mag) years ago (early 90's) and IIRC it was very ammo finicky. If memory serves me the Winchester ran the best for functioning. Don't know I ever got the chance to check for accuracy before swapping it. Seems that AMT even recommended trying the winchester.

Have a friend that has one in 22 mag and 30 carbine. He doesn't have many problems. Must be lucky I guess. The 30 carbine is a fire breathing dragon!

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

The lineage was OMC - Ordnance Manufacturing Corp.
3-5 different versions/locations of AMT - Arcadia Machine & Tool.
and finally IAI , Irwindale Arms Inc.

Their guns were of very good design. The problem with later AMT or IAI guns is that they sandblasted every square millimeter so coarsely , the moving parts felt like dragging a brick thru wet concrete. A bit of stoning and polishing really slickened these guns up. I recall the .22 mag would run only with either Win or Fed ammo. Can't recall which one. Yeah , they had a good bark and muzzle flash too.

I slickened up mine and several others .380 Back-Ups and they've proved very reliable.

So, we took it out to the range yesterday and had a lot of mal-functions. I think it needs a good cleaning ,so I`ll reserve judgement for awhile ,and try it again first.
No body has chimed in on a value. What is this puppy worth? I can`t imagine wanting it for my collection , so I`d like to sell it and give the "Brother" the proceeds.

The AMT "Auto Mag" series of guns are actually pretty good for what they are and have increased in price. Check Gunbroker for SOLD auctions and you'll see that they often sell between $600-700 now!!

The Auto Mag II in .22 WMR really ONLY works with Winchester ammo and I think the manual even says so. I believe they are gas operated, or at least gas assisted, and the powder used by CCI and others clogs up the ports in pretty short order. Something like that. My dad bought one when he went to a gunshop with me to buy a gun and I now have his. When using Winchester ammo, it has been completely reliable. Yes, it is loud. Yes, it has a HUGE fireball.

Ballistically-speaking, it DOES have a slight advantage over .22 LR, even in pistol-length barrels. I recently purchased a NAA Mini convertible, so have been looking at this topic. Even in the 1 1/8" barrel of the NAA, there is about 100 fps advantage to the WMR. As you add barrel length, the advantage goes up. My AMT is the 6"-ish version. As an example, the CCI Maxi-Mag +V WMR 30 grain load averages about 1062 fps (per NAA). The 32 grain Stinger LR from the same barrel length is only 788 fps. And the Mag can have better bullets as they are not merely plated lead heeled bullets. NAA's data from their guns can be found at North American Arms Ballistics

Another test can be found at BBTI - Ballistics by the Inch :: Results where they test by starting with a long barrel and chronographing loads, then chopping off an inch at a time until they reach 2". They show the CCI +V WMR at only 884 from the 2", so there is some disparity between them and NAA.

Anyway...so while there does appear to be some velocity advantage to .22 WMR over .22 LR, even in a pistol, the bigger advantages are in available bullet types and construction, and that .22 WMR seems to be more reliable (I don't think I have ever had a .22 WMR round fail to fire due to priming issues).

Rob

See my reply just after your post for my thoughts on value. Check the CLOSED auctions on Gunbroker to see what they have been selling for. Like I said, it seems to be $650+, though some only bring $500. Not seen any actually sell for less.

What ammo were you using? After you clean it, try only Winchester ammo and see how it functions.

Rob

I had one about 15-20yrs ago which functioned perfectly with Winchester ammo on advice by the gun maker. As I recall the trigger was a little rough.

Well we agreed to go to my Good Ole LGS just to look, but, while there we ended up swapping the AMT for a new Ruger LCR .22 magnum with two boxes of ammo and a T-shirt.
We gave the Ruger to the BIL`s wife, so all in all it was a most peculiar deal.

I traded a gun for a t shirt. I`m beginning to think I mighta got screwed here.....What do you think????

Does the acronym "BOHICA" suggest anything to you?

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Oh well, what the hell.

Zag, I must be too dense today or still in shock from my "Deal" What does BOHICA mean?

"Bend over, here it comes again!"

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Oh well, what the hell.

I had the 5" for a while, and really liked it.

It shot like a lazer- extremely accurate with any load, but it was problematic, but it functioned flawlessly with 50gr Federals in the red box- I don't think they make this load any more.

I wish I had it back.

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Lost it all in a boat accident