44 Automag?

gdawg

gdawg

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hey - Ok so this is pretty much my dream collectors piece. Just curious, anyone own, owned or shot one? Experiences?

I see them come up for sale in the US but only once in Canada, maybe 20 years ago. I'm guessing they would run close $3-5K now?
 
I do realize you are talking about the pistol ,but I did convert an old 1910 winchester rifle to use the cartridge and it does hit as good as the 44 rem mag in a carbine
 
There are some here in Canada. I don't think you will find auto mag's for a reasonable price in america anymore. As, they didn't make more than about 9000 guns
for the four contracts. ammo isn't easy to find. About 20 years ago there were many for sale because of the wildey pistol. But it didn't go very far.
 
Some one who's more expert on the subject could accurately inform you but iirc they went out of business 4 times. While quite ###y it was a difficult gun to build and based on it's history one that was next to impossible to make money off of.

As a collector type novelty/wall hanger they might be fun. But if you want a big bore semi it's a Desert Eagle or nothing.
 
pmatuk said:
I do realize you are talking about the pistol ,but I did convert an old 1910 winchester rifle to use the cartridge and it does hit as good as the 44 rem mag in a carbine
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I've often thought that a semi-auto carbine in .44Automag would be the cat's patoot for all sort of tactical/practical applications, but the chicken or egg problem kept creeping in...no guns because no ammo; no ammo because no guns.
 
MTLGUN said:
Some one who's more expert on the subject could accurately inform you but iirc they went out of business 4 times. While quite ###y it was a difficult gun to build and based on it's history one that was next to impossible to make money off of.

As a collector type novelty/wall hanger they might be fun. But if you want a big bore semi it's a Desert Eagle or nothing.
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Yes the fascination with it is from the collector perspective. I think they were notoriously unreliable, particularly the later versions (from TDE I think) not to mention probably impossible to find ammo unless you make your own from 308 (though i see corbon made some somewhat recently). Nonetheless I've always been fascinated with the big bore semis like the LAR Grizzly, Wildey etc and the Automag is the grail.

for a shooter, i did pick up a DE50 a couple of months ago from Profit River. Now just waiting for the 44 barrel so I can shoot it more often.
 
.44 Automag, Nice :evil:

600px-DH4AutoMag-6.jpg
 
There is a retired guy in Oregon who rebuild's Auto Mag's to new condition using old spec's. I have seen his work and it is great, the gun come's out exc. Wildey's and
Desert Eagle's just don't have the look of the Auto Mag. One should consider the AMT 50 Colt 45 style pistol, same cal as the desert eagle. You will have to find a used one now.. It has nice line's and fun to shoot.
 
gdawg said:
hey - Ok so this is pretty much my dream collectors piece. Just curious, anyone own, owned or shot one? Experiences?

I see them come up for sale in the US but only once in Canada, maybe 20 years ago. I'm guessing they would run close $3-5K now?
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I saw one show up at Wanstalls and I nearly #### my pants. I called a friend who has always been a dedicated fan. He snapped it up. It came with some goodies too. He'll probably see this and post here. He has WAY more info on the lineup and history than I do. I love the gun. I hope to get a chance to shoot it some day.
 
KeltecFan said:
I saw one show up at Wanstalls and I nearly #### my pants. I called a friend who has always been a dedicated fan. He snapped it up. It came with some goodies too. He'll probably see this and post here. He has WAY more info on the lineup and history than I do. I love the gun. I hope to get a chance to shoot it some day.
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nice. if you get to shoot it, definitely post your experience. i'm resigned to living vicariously through others unless i miraculously luck out and find one while simultaneously being flush with cash.
 
There are two of them lying around the gunsmith shop at TSE. I don't think either works but they are neat to handle.

I have seen both Automag's and Wildey's show up from time to time over the years but these are def rare collector pieces. Prices in Canada would likely be in the $2500 - $3000 range as ammo is hard to come by and they only really appeal to collectors.
 
I don't imagine that ammo would be a great problem, even when the gun was at its most popular, ammo was made from cutting down .308 brass. I never had an Automag, but I did make a small run of .45 auto from cut off .30/06 one time just to see if I could make it work. It worked, but doing it right is a nuisance (the inside case diameter is too small for a .45, so you have to expand the thick case enough for the shank of the bullet) and I imagine it was pretty hard on the Colt extractor. Even back when the Automag was displayed prominently in the gun rags, its niche wasn't particularly apparent. A handy 4 pound carbine version might have been accepted in the marketplace better than an over sized auto pistol.
 
You have to do more than cut down .308 brass, it needs to be reamed as well - it's labor intensive. Luckily Starline now has brass and Mystic can bring it in!
 
Isn't that strange. Just Wednesday evening while looking for some lost action screws, I came across my single round of Norma 44 AutoMag that I acquired well over 25 years ago. Then I see this post popped up the next day! I was gonna show it to the young fella at work and see if he could figure it out. I've forgotten more than he knows about firearms but I let him ramble on anyway. I believe I sold about 6 or 7 boxes of 50 (oddly, one box had a few rounds missing??) to a fella in Winnipeg. If I look around, I'll bet I still have his name and phone number from back then. He was happy to get them and had never even heard that Norma made the ammo at one time. I said I'd buy it if he decided to sell, but never heard from him again. Oh well.
 
tgt40 said:
You have to do more than cut down .308 brass, it needs to be reamed as well - it's labor intensive. Luckily Starline now has brass and Mystic can bring it in!
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I know a guy who did this a few times, and he finally opened his wallet to buy brass. It is cool that he could make his own though.
 
I've been drooling over these since they first made the cover of Shooting Times.
I think I still may have that issue.
 
I have had 3 over the years. It seems I keep forgetting what an unreliable, hard to reload for gun they really are.
Making brass for 06 casings is a PITA! Getting the elusive Starline brass is near impossible.
The 1st 1 was an original Jurras, it worked ok but not great last 1 was a TDE and it hardly ever would run a full mag without a stoppage.
My Desert Eagles on the other hand just plain work. I guess that explains why I sell the Auto Mags after buying 1 and having for a season.
 
Paatz said:
I've been drooling over these since they first made the cover of Shooting Times.
I think I still may have that issue.
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the first time i saw them was in Gun Digest. it was the 70's, i was 10 and thumbing through my dad's latest issue and then, bam, an extended article on the automag in all the amp calibers (25, 30, 357 and 44). there was another article on the automag in GD the following year. i have wanted one ever since.
 
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