Don't forget the Automag V in .50 caliber A.E. I don't think I want to pull that trigger.
No,
please forget about the Automag V!
The 80s-90s “Automags” made by AMT and IAI (specifically numbered II, III, IV, and V) are generally amongst the worst of Jam-O-Matic turkeys you could buy at the time! So many guys got burned! The build quality and tolerances were really lax.
They were designed haphazardly to be manufactured and sold at affordable prices to unsuspecting buyers looking to fulfill their cravings created by the “Sudden Impact” Dirty Harry film.
Harry Sanford had a long series of headaches trying to get his original design Auto Mag built by various manufacturers with varying degrees of success.
The demand for original Auto Mags got a huge boost due to the movie, but there was little chance to revive the design, at least for a reasonable retail price. And, originals were skyrocketing in price on the used market.
So, Harry, understandably wanting to cash in, concocted a bunch of new designs that looked the part (sorta) and were cheap to build. The Automag II was a copy of a Ruger mk.II, but built from stainless steel with a long barrel incorporating the iconic Auto Mag barrel rib. But, it was a .22 and people wanted magnum blasters.
So, next were the III (30 carbine), IV (45 Win Mag), and V (50 cal).
It went downhill from there until AMT, then IAI went out of business in the mid-90s.
I never took the plunge for an original, but I was briefly in contact with Harry Sanford’s son. About 20 years ago, he decided to liquidate his Dad’s estate. It took several years, but he sold off everything from rare prototypes of the originals, to partially completed parts sets, to tooling, dies, etc, and also tons of documents.
All of this stuff was pertinent to the original Auto Mag.
The late AMT models were simply not talked about.
