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In the late 1960, I remember reading in Guns and Ammo about a new handgun being developed by Harry Sanford: the 44 Automag. It was to sell for a little over $200 and required a deposit. The manufacturer was the Auto Mag Corp. The pistol finally came out in 1971.

The initial cartridge was the 44 AMP (Auto Mag Pistol) and soon there were various necked down versions such as the 41 AMP, 357 AMP, 30 AMP, 25 AMP and probably more. The more successful was the 357 AMP which launched a 158 gr slug from a long barrel at a velocity close to 2000 fps (from what I remember). The cases were cut down 308 cases.

The original Auto Mag Corp apparently was underfunded and folded after producing some 3000 pistols. Over the next 11 years, several other ventures would buy the assets and start producing Automags but then declare bankruptcy.

In the mid-1070, Gun Digest had a multipart series about the wonderful Automag, discussing the various calibers and barrel lengths and noted gun writers that uses these pistols.

While there were stories in several magazines about shooting and hunting with this pistol, I never seemed to find one to shoot. That changes about 10 years ago. The one that I found shoots very well. The ammo is easy to reload using Starline brass. However, from what I read, many of the original Automags have functioning problems.

Around 2015, another company (Auto Mag Ltd., Co – www.automag.com) was formed to produce Automags. Auto Mag Ltd bought the remaining assets from the Harry Sanford’s son. However, Auto Mag Ltd decided to reengineer the pistol to make it a reliable big bore pistol. From their blog, they reviewed every aspect of the pistol, constantly making modifications. Much (if not all) of the work is performed in house to eliminate supplier quality problems.

The new Automags were recently featured in the following YouTube videos which you may enjoy watching:

https://youtu.be/ORUCly0nrbI
https://youtu.be/erbxUVpsrs8

I may break down and buy a new Automag with an 8 ½” barrel.

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RB

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