There’s no reason this gun should shoot ….

[Japle]

so well!

After all, it’s a .44 AutoMag. It’s huge. It has a ton of recoil. The trigger runs about 5 ½ lbs and is a long way from smooth. But it’s a freakin’ tack driver.

My first target today with the Hornady 265 gr over 22.0 gr of WW296.
(All targets fired at 25 yds, two hand standing.)

Then I tried the Sierra 180 gr JHC over 31.0 gr of WW296.

Last was the Nosler 240 gr JHP over 23.0 gr of WW296. This load chronographed at 1281 fps. I need to bump it up a half grain or so.

Except for the shot I pulled with the 265 gr load, all the groups went into about an inch.

Next week I'll shoot some 50 yd groups from Creedmore position and see how it does.

 

[Tactical Jackalope]

Wow! Immaculate shooting on your part. Never seen that gun before. Looks really nice, shoots great in your hands. I'd love to shoot one of those some day. Nice range report! Thank you for posting.

 

[TunnelRat]

This is kinda silly, but is that the gun in the later Dirty Harry movie?

 

[Scorch]

This is kinda silly, but is that the gun in the later Dirty Harry movie?

Yep!

 

[Spammy_H]

Is that a blowback design? Pretty impressive.

 

[CharlieDeltaJuliet]

I love it. Reminds me of a Ruger MkI/II/III or a Browning Buckmark... But with a hell of a punch...

 

[Japle]

This is kinda silly, but is that the gun in the later Dirty Harry movie?

It was used in "Sudden Impact". Harry had one with a 7 1/2" barrel, one inch longer than the standard one I have.

Is that a blowback design?

It uses a rotating bolt, much like the M16.

If it's kept reasonably clean and you feed it hot enough ammo, it's very reliable. The twin recoil springs are stiff. I mean stiff! It won't function with light or medium loads. The 180 and 240 gr loads I was using are right on the lower limit. I need to get a 240 running at 1350 fps to be sure of 100% reliability. That should take 23.5 or 24.0 gr of WW296 with a mag primer.

Back in the '70s, I had a pair of AutoMags in .357AMP and .44AMP. I shot a ton of jackrabbits and coyotes with them, especially the .357. My favorite .357AMP load was the Sierra 90 gr 9mm bullet at 2495 fps. It would turn a jack into pink mist and kill a coyote in his tracks.
Here's what that load looked like at night:

For deer with the .44AMP, the 265 gr Hornady at 1510 would go all the way through any deer in the world and the next three pine trees it came to. Fantastic penetration.

I was a fool to sell those guns.

 

[Tactical Jackalope]

Awesome picture.

That's a hell of a fast 9mm bullet.

All that sounds great..Need a .44AMP in my life -__-



I'm scared of having that regret. I don't ever want to sell another one of my guns again. I've already sold about 10.

The 3/4 I don't regret were rust buckets anyways. The others...I kind of miss already.

 

[IDAHOMIKE]

That's quite the fireball there. And a good shootin Automag.

 

[Spammy_H]

2500 fps out of a pistol - that's just nuts.

I want one.

 

[Sparks1957]

That's wild. Would like to try one of them out.

 

[Japle]

2500 fps out of a pistol - that's just nuts.

The bullet was designed for 1400-1500 fps at most. Pushed to 2500, it would expand on a raindrop.

 

[Japle]

Am I the only one that is skeptical of the target claims. Whose would be good targets using a bench.

I can shoot a little. Only been doing it for 55 years.

 

[chris in va]

Just out of curiosity, what was the intended purpose of the Automag? Did the manufacturer just make it and consumers later find a use?

 

[g.willikers]

Who needs a purpose to something extra ordinary.
Think of it as like a Ferrari.
They made it just 'cause they wanted to and could.

 

[Japle]

Just out of curiosity, what was the intended purpose of the Automag? Did the manufacturer just make it and consumers later find a use?

The designer, Harry Sanford, intended it to be the ultimate hunting handgun. When it came out, it was significantly more powerful than the .44 Mag revolver. It was designed to take 55,000 CUP and Harry, Lee Jurras, George Nonte and others loaded it at least that hot.

I used to do a lot of work on AutoMags when I had my FFL. Many people overloaded them, but it was tough to break one.

A guy in Idaho sent me one that was misfiring. When I broke it down, I found half a dozen tiny metal discs in the firing pin channel. The guy was loading so hot he was piercing primers (CCI 350s) and the pieces were stuck in the firing pin channel. Even with abuse like that, the gun wasn’t damaged at all. I’ll admit to loading mine to the point that I got totally flat primers. What the hell, I was young and parts were pretty cheap. I broke a bunch of bolt rotation pins, something I don’t want to do now. They cost $75 each!

I used my .357 AutoMag to win or place high in several of the early Handgun Metallic Silhouette matches. I held the world standing record for a while with that gun. My best silhouette load was the 150 gr Sierra JHC at 1850 fps. I shot some javelina and two Arizona whitetails with that load. It was too powerful for those little critters. It blew them up pretty bad.

 

[Japle]

Here’s the best shooting I ever did.
Freedom Arms Mini-revolver with a 1” barrel.
Six bullseyes, three shots each.
Average group, 1.02".

Conditions:
Range, 200 meters.
2AM.
During a thunderstorm.
While drunk.

See, I can lie if I want to!!

 

[rightside]

God , I love that gun ! Always have, just couldn't afford one. Back in the day a new gun didn't come out every day, so this one made quite a splash .Congrats.

PS- I believe your shooting skills.

 

[Mystro]

The design of the Automag is inherently good and points very natural.

 

[orionengnr]

Beautiful AutoMag and some dang nice shooting.

I remember Magnum Force...probably my favorite of the Dirty Harry series, in no small part due to that AutoMag. I was a teenager at the time and all I knew (barely) was my dad's WWII 1911 and my uncle's (probably S&W) revolver.

About ten years ago I was at a semi-small gun show and saw a .357 AutoMag for sale for (IIRC) $1100. Don't recall the manufacturer, and really did not know much at all except that it was an AutoMag...which was enough. Didn't have the money in my pocket, but probably could have worked something out, but I didn't. Maybe i saved myself a lot of heartache, maybe it was a POS, but some small part of me is still kicking myself in the butt...