"This is the . 44 Magnum AutoMag, and it holds a 300 grain cartridge, and if properly used it can remove the fingerprints.”- Inspector Callahan.

My uncle Jimmy worked as a contracting machinst for Automag Pasadena/El Monte and AMT. Part of the problem was they never paid properly a lot of workers and so their was a huge turnover of workers and sometimes sub contractors barely got paid. Machinist usually bring their own tools and many had their tools grow 4 legs and disappeared ( stolen by other workers BTW as my uncle usually found his expensive machinist tools at pawn shops in the LA area). There was several times my uncle said his paychecks bounced so much that he asked for cash only. Other workers were not pushy about it and just left and most likely because of their immigration status. Also, there wasn't any paperwork on what was done to various parts. It was all based on assumptions that maybe the heat treating was done, maybe the anodizing was done, maybe the correct metal was used for casting, maybe the tolerances were correct on final maching in the CNC machine. It was all based on assumption from the engineering staff. IOWs, there wasn't a smooth like production for parts. My uncle left in the 80s when he finally had enough of the bounced checks and poor work environment. He worked for barsto on the side when it was at 29 Palms and also Weatherby for a brief time. He knew Dickie Stembridge who gave him project guns to fix and machine new parts for various rental guns. In the end, he accumulated the most parts and accessories from his machining days from Automag , AMT, High Standard, etc, because his checks kept bouncing and they would give him parts to make up the difference. He would fix and assemble some parts that were in specification and sell them at the Great Western Gun show in Pomona and also to B and B guns in north Hollywood( the gun shop being infamous for loaning ARs to LAPD during the North Hollywood Bank heist fiasco). In the end, it was a fly by wire, edge of the seat operation made up of promises never kept and checks that kept bouncing. They could have saved so much time and money if they would have just kept better paperwork on everything. Reinventing the wheel every time does start to add up when you can't find the TDP and other stuff and it keeps getting tossed around like a cheap rag. I have one AMT hard baller long slide from my uncle when he passed away and it works correctly with no issues. I fired that pistol back in the early 90s like a crazed monkey at Angeles Shooting range while he was watching and loading magazines full of 45acp and it worked perfectly. Gun manufacturing was really a circus act back in the 70s and 80s in Southern California.. Different times..different era. Thanks for doing this video, I will likely buy one in honor of my uncle Jimmy. RIP.

Anyone willing to take an absolute albatross of a firearm like the AutoMag, take 7 YEARS to basically re-engineer it into a working gun, I think, deserves a measure of success, and while it may not be my cup of tea personally, I certainly wish them well.

I'm sitting here giggling at the thought of Ian at the back up gun match with this hand cannon. Then further giggling at the possible thoughts and the expressions of every other competitor when he brings this monster out.

I took delivery of my new automag this past December, just before Christmas. I have wanted one ever since I first saw one of the original guns in a gun store, when I was about 15 years old. As I remember, the price at that time was marked as $350.00, which may sound reasonable, but back in the early 70s, that was a lot of cash. The gun is big, but very comfortable in the hand. Recoil is not harsh, as the ergonomics of the pistol are exceptional. Factory ammo is scarce, but SBR ammunition is producing quality cartridges. For handloaders ,starline is producing brass, and RCBS and Hornady are both producing dies. I have found that my pistol functions flawlessly with several different loadings, and is just a dream to shoot. On my last outing, I fired a total of 125 rounds, with no malfunctions. The price may be high, but in my opinion, it was worth every penny, to finally own what for me is one of my bucket list toys. I would not hesitate to use the pistol for hunting deer, hogs, or most any north american game.

-That's your Backup Gun? -Yes. -What's your main gun then? -A howitzer.

I had one of the originals and bought it out of sheer luck. There was a small gun shop in my old neighborhood. I stopped in one day and he had just bought one from someone who was having trouble with it. It was near mint condition, beautiful. I bought it on the spot and was offered a thousand over the buying price the same day. Nope. After working out the right hand load, it ran perfect. The only problem I ever had with it was the magazine floor plate weld failed one day. I took the magazine to Briley in Houston, and they fixed it. It looked and worked perfectly. I ran into Harry Sanford one day at the SHOT Show. We ended up having a long and very enjoyable conversation about the gun and things that go bang in general. I really liked Harry, very nice guy. He certainly made a big entry in firearms history. I eventually sold it for over four times what I paid for it.

What impresses me with the Desert Eagle, is that while Auto Mag and Wildey did the smart thing and went rimless, Desert Eagle actually got the rimmed magnums to work. (Not that I have a dog in the fight; if I want a handheld thumper I stick to my Ruger Bisley.)

The real purpose of the accelerator is to start extracting the case from the chamber when the barrel is still moving, so that, when the barrel stops, the case doesn't suddenly pass, in respect to it, from "0" to maximum speed, since the too abrupt extraction can damage the case and even cause case head separation. It also reduces felt recoil, since part of the energy of the recoiling barrel is transfered to the frame before the end of it's travel.

I remember hearing a story that Clint Eastwood in Sudden Impact actually hated how the unreliable the original gun is. Your comparison makes me feel like the 180-D seems to be a labour of love. I guess we can all appreciate even just that.

New marketing slogan "Automag 180-D: It Actually Works Now!!!!" Always loved the Automag just looks so cool :) Great that they have got it working right as it was a really cool idea let down by lack of funds and development hopefully things now are different. I would guess also with all the advancements in CNC and CAD stuff has made it easier to produce correctly as well.

I shot the new AutoMag at SHOT Show this year. I was excited to shoot an Automag since reading about it in Mack Bolan books as a kid. The coolnest factor was off the hook! As a shooter, it's a huge gun with a lot of recoil but not painful recoil. I only fired a magazine and I would love to run more rounds through one on a range day.

If your local despots have decreed that rifles are illegal, simply purchase a portable pocket howitzer!

There's something very positive in this story. Ian showed his integrity again by saying "Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna shill stuff that doesn't exist" and the manufacturer said "Sure" and sent him a serial production gun with confidence that it's going to work as advertised. Also there's something very American here- many slackers have failed, but finally someone went in, took the risk, did honest, hard work, finally got it right and might actually benefit from it. It feels good.

Ian showcasing a new production gun. Ian: " Is this the end of the Automag curse?" Narrator:" It may have been the end of the Automag curse, but unfortunately it will fall to the Forgotten Weapons curse." If Ian thinks its neat, its probably not market viable.

"So, you want an AutoMag that runs real smooth eh? do ya think you'll get lucky punk!? well do ya?" or "Will it fire 6 shots or jam on the first?" Hopefully they do have it sorted, always been an exciting looking pistol, though I've always preferred the AMT AutoMag III Longslide, just a flat slab of a thing.

they really nailed the aesthetics with this one. the old automag 180 looked cool, but the 180d really kicks it up a notch with that finish and the grips

Ian takes on his long time Nemesis using the legendary Automag.

Automags look cooler than desert eagles in my opinion

Every time I see one of these taken apart and see how it functions mechanically I can’t help but be reminded of early auto pistols from the 1900s when there were still a bunch of different ideas floating around and the basic form and functions of semi auto handguns were still undecided.

I like hearing a story about a company taking over a failing gun manufacturer, figuring out what's wrong and then fixing it. It's kind of the reverse of what happens to the rest of the firearms industry these days.

Opening line: Automag investors flinch. 😁

Ordered mine last July. Should hopefully be ready by the end of this month. Mine's something like number 177. Can't wait. I've wanted one my whole life.

After seeing the original design used in several old movies I wanted one. After reading some reviews of the actual original design by a few people that desire went away. I hope this new company has really laid to rest all the issues of the original design. I’ll wait a bit to see how well this improved design works in the hands of new owners. I hope for all involved the new design performs and sells well.

My Dad had a very nice Pasadena model when I was a young man. It was an amazing pistol. His was very reliable as long as the ammo was loaded to factory spec, and it was loaded with a total of 6 rounds or less in the mag. The gun needed a relatively hot load of a 240 gr bullet at around 1400 fps +. The gun was very accurate. It was nearly as accurate as my S&W mod 29. The recoil was very heavy due to the high bore axis and the method of short recoil vs a gas operated gun such as the Desert Eagle. The gun operating system is basically made like a small rifle. If I loaded my S&W mod 29 8 3/8'' barrel with the same velocity and bullet weight as the AutoMag the AutoMag perceived recoil to me (I was a young adult of around 21) was about 30-40% higher with the AutoMag. Even though the guns were very expensive, the manufacturers costs were actually as high or higher than the retail price. The thought was that if they sell some of them at or below cost, the demand will increase and then they could sell them for a profit. This never panned out. Also, the quality of the parts was never consistent, so the end product was inconsistent. I seem to recall the price was around $800.00 in 1978 which in today's money would be around $3600.00. Dad got his as a gift from my Uncle (who had owned it for a while) back in mid 80's so I don't know what the cost of that pistol was when new. He sold it in 2000 for $1500.00 and thought he'd made a good deal. That pistol today would be worth a whole lot more

Excellent video, Ian - it's nice to see someone explain the functioning of this pistol so clearly. As for this new version of the AutoMag, I have one of the first 77 models (called the Founders Edition) and I'm delighted with it - so much more reliable than the original models (one of which I also own) and the staff at Automag in South Carolina are very responsive.

When do we get the 2 gun match where Ian goes all 'Mack Bolan' and only uses a Beretta 93R and an Automag as his combo?

For some reason, I've always liked how automag looks even when I've never held one in my hands. Especially these new ones look so nice.

I still think the SOLE Reason the mystique hung around as long as it did was Don Pendleton's "Executioner" Series.

The AutoMag, so legendary it sits in the same lofty realms as the zip22, but for different reasons.

The cool feature of the Automag, if some bad guy sneaks up behind you on your right side while you are shooting, the empty brass case ejecting from the pistol will knock them out cold, if not outright kill them.

Gun's so shiny, you can use it as a flashbang

It really is a very cool pistol. It looks like they have done a great job on the fit and finish. I hope they are able to stick around!

My uncle has had a 30 carbine auto mag for 30 years and it’s worked great the whole time, got lucky I guess

THANK YOU FOR THE VIDEO. MY BROTHER AND I BOUGHT MATCHING AUTO MAGS IN THE 70S ON THE WAY TO ALASKA AS WE HAD HEARD GOOD THINGS. VERY VERY SURPRISED AT THE RELIABILITY. AS I RECALL NEITHER OF US COULD RUN A FULL MAGAZINE WITHOUT A JAM. HE IS MORE PATIENT THAN I AM AND TRIED DIFFERENT LOADS, DIFFERENT BULLETS, DIFFERENT SEATING DEPTH, ETC ETC. HE EVEN FLATTENED PRIMERS WITH ONE LOADING, TRYING TO GET HIS TO FUNCTION. AT BEST HE REDUCED IT TO A TWO JAM MAGAZINE(SEVEN ROUNDS) AND CALLED IT READY. I SOLD MINE AND DRAGGED OUT MY MOD 29 FROM THE SAFE. DIDN'T CATCH THAT MANY FISH AND NEVER EVEN SAW A BEAR SO IT ALL WORKED OUT. AFTER YOUR REVIEW I MIGHT TRY ANOTHER AUTO MAG, BUT DOUBT IT AS THE THING IS JUST TOO BIG AND HEAVY. A LOT OF MONEY FOR A MAYBE!

When I was a kid, I helped my father turn 7.62x51 blank cases into 44 AMP cases. There was a barrel of brass, and I'd cut the cases off with a hacksaw then file it with a trim die, size, and chamfer. Then they'd be run through a case tumbler and boxed up. Lots of work, but they sold well for a few years. Especially after the Dirty Harry movie. I'm 90% sure I still have the case forming dues in storage from my dad's estate.

Never mind the issues or practicality of these guns but they still look gorgeous in my eyes.

I'm glad to know the manufacturing issues have apparently been ironed out. It's such a cool design. Now the question is can I really spend almost four grand on a completely impractical pistol?

The first I became aware of the .44 Automag pistol was in the comic book "The Warlord" from DC Comics (art & stories by Mike Grell) in the mid-1970's. The main character, USAF Col. Travis Morgan crashes his SR-71 while flying over the North Pole and ends up in a dangerous and barbaric inner-Earth. His emergency pack carried a .44 Automag that he had chosen as his sidearm for after emergency bailouts.

Thanks for the update. Back on the list!

My biggest allure to the Automag is the shape and action. Its like any .22 target pistol you might start out with as a first time shooter, followed by the shock value of its size. Like I can imagine a lineup of fellows at the plinking range. One shows up with a Browning Buckmark, one shows up with a Ruger MkIV, and then _that one guy_ shows up with an automag.

now all we need is a 12-16inch barreled, stocked version as a primary carbine for a two gun match. but it has to keep that smooth curved space age like silhouette for the stock as well. which will be challenging to pull off.

Looks like a beautifully made gun. Unfortunately, I don't see anyone buying one of these when they can spend 1/3 the amount on a 44 desert eagle, which is even more iconic and in a caliber they'll actually be able to find. Not as nice but in the gun industry people do have a tendency of going with the cheapest possible option.

18:45 A .44 Auto Mag is a perfectly acceptable backup gun if your main gun is a Barret .50 ;)

There's something about how the guts of that thing looking like a rifle that makes me incredibly giddy. Would love to have one of those if only for the novelty of it.

Torsion spring seems a nicer solution than a forward assist. Tidy detail improvements. Great video, thanks Ian.

Usually it's the refrigerator door that they hide behind in movies and that didn't even stop a .22 Long Rifle. Another one that Hollywood has been selling us since they have been making movies is the wood table. Our hero flips a saloon or kitchen table on it's side, takes cover behind it, and it soak up bullets like a Kevlar vest. Another one of my favorites is the couch. Which seems to be in every hotel room they go into in moves. How many times have you seem a couch in the middle of a room in a hotel? That's beside the point. Our hero always dives behind the couch where bullets come through but never seem to hit him.

Nice explanation of all the improvements!!

It's hardly surprising that the Auto Mag was so problematic; it was, after all, designed by Sanford and Son.

I would LOVE to see a video on an AT-4 training "launchers." Those ones that fire those special 9mm tracer rounds. I wonder if any are even on the civilian market. They'd probably be fully California legal tbh, lol. Use one as a truck gun in LA.

These videos showing the evolutions of designs are always interesting!

I absolutely love quirky guns and guns with unique actions. This design is really cool. 10/10 would get. I've been in love with the luger, the 12-16 shotgun, the desert eagle, the re-loading action made for break barrel shotguns, and a million other things that are out there in the wild and featured on this channel. I've been a subscriber of yours for well it's gotta be a decade or more and your content is as reliable and dependable as this refitted automag. Keep up the good work, Ian.

Great to see they may have finally gotten the automag to work as well as it always should have. And ya gotta love Ian's approach, "of course I'm taking an 8.5" barreled .44 AMP to a back-up gun match." 😅 My kinda guy!

Not that I really know what I am talking about but I've always felt the Automag was a gun that failed in part because it tried to more affordable than it should have been. One of those things that was probably best marketed, at an eye-watering price, to people who really wanted an epically awesome toy and had the means to pay an eye-watering price for it.

Matt from Demolition ranch has one,he had an issue with it that looked like nothing more than one of the hex detention bolts loosened up and fell out and the spring came out, quite Minor compared to all the years of problems the gun had,most likely was not tightened properly at the factory

I had no idea they were manufacturing these in Loris SC. Crazy to think Ian just reviewed a gun that was built 20 min away from my house.

After hearing this gun went through multiple companies and bankrupted 7 I have to wonder what they saw in this gun. The desart eagle seems to do the job with half the fuss.

It nice to see the Automag finally come to fruition, will we get to see some more time on the range with it Ian?

It's nice to see improvements to the engineering of the gun that make it usable. Thanks!

Nice review lan, strip down was very informative.

As I recall, the original Model 180 used cut down .30-06 and .308 brass for the .44 Auto cartridge that it used.

I had no idea these would cost over $3000. Hopefully if there’s a lot of demand and they have some sale volume that price could come down

a friend of my dads had one back in the 70's at a local IPSC match.. and it malfunctioned so many times.. he showed clear and chucked it... I was 12, so asked my dad if I could get it... he said no... lol... so glad they FINALLY got it right (hopefully)

I have an original Pasadena AutoMag with a serial # in the 500 range. I will not say in never had malfunctions but they are pretty rare. I shot metallic Silo with mine and it did very well. Accuracy is superb. Feeding was never an issue but the occasional stove pipe on ejection was. I found that stove pipes were directly related to limp wristing and more common when single hand shooting. Yes the gun is maintenance heavy, the recoils spring guides have a tendency to back out during sessions so I replaced the helicoils with self locking types and the guide rods never became loose when shooting again. The case is based of the the 308 Winchester and I used cut down 308 cases for most of my loading but I hear that starline now makes brass. Factory ammo was a JHP made in Mexico and is was very dirty and near impossible to find. I think this factory ammo was responsible for most the negative reputation of the AutoMag. Honestly I never understood all the negative talk about his gun. Would I take it on a Bear hunt - not on my life - but is was just as competitive as my Dan Wesson 444 in metallic silo and lots of fun to shoot. I'm glad someone has taken the AutoMag seriously and has made positive refinements. If you enjoy odd and unique designed guns; the AutoMag is for you.

Some 15 years ago I owned an AMT manufactured Automag 5 in .50AE... What should i say, it certainly was very unreliable with a full mag, once it did throw the rear sight at my face (still have the scar on my forehead), the threads and the screws that hold the grips on the frame didn't hold up to the task and at long last, the safety lever / piece holding the firing pin in the slide broke in two pieces, then i finally got rid of it. But it was great on the range, good fun and always had a fanclub around me after emptying the first mag. This new 180-D just looks so much better, fit & finish-wise compared to my rough cast looking and poorly finished Automag 5.

Having owned a 1911 ACP I believed I was prepared to shoot an automag, I was very wrong. 😳

I've wanted one of these since I was a young kid. My dad and I used to make the long drive from Texas to vacation in Colorado a couple times a year. He'd drive while I'd read old pulp novels out loud to him to pass the time, pre-Audiobooks. We'd watch the landscape slowly change into the Rockies, while following the adventures of John Carter from Mars, Doc Savage, and Mack Bolan. This gun was in one of those Mack Bolan books, and I was hooked on the idea that such a thing existed. Later in life, when I could actually own whatever guns I wanted, I shot one and found out about all the problems these guns brought with them, and had given up the thought of owning one. This news makes the kid in me happy.

I hope this effort to produce the pistol works. Thanks for the great review, and good luck in the shoot!

Automags are so cool, I wish they didn’t suck

this is like one of the few gun channels that isnt shilling garbage sponsors or e-bikes on their channel. Will Ian hold out and remain legit? I think so.

In 1975, I purchased an AMT .44 Automag, and a box of factory ammunition. The ammo was made in only one plant in Mexico, and had I known then what I know now, I would never have fired it. I don't remember how much I paid for a 50 round box, but the last time I checked, the original Mexican ammo was priced at $900 per box, and the AMT gun at $1200.

Another splendid, most enjoyable, informative, cogent presentation... The usual...

It's already on forgotten weapons again

Aesthetically speaking, the auto mag is one of my favorite weapons to ever exist. It looks like a scaled up .22 pistol lol

Thank you for a great review. Take care!

This was the most informative video out there for this weapon. Two other channels used the AMP and both had major problems with the NEW Auto Mag. Their reactions are funny.

Making a gun out of stainless steel and casting some of it, huh? Better call Bill Ruger.

I've wanted an Auto Mag since they first came out. Because I'm a dumbass. 50 years later, watching this, I realize that now I'm an old dumbass.

As I was watching Ian review it, I was wondering how hard they had to work on him to get him to do the review. I'm glad he shared that with us, and that he kept his convictions to wait.

I really hope those guys can successfully release this pistol since they seem like really cool guys and this gun is just so damn sick.

Give it a detachable stock, Mauser style.

I ordered one a couple of months ago and hope to have it by Christmas. I’d been debating for some time about it, then came across some ammo for it and I did what any gun nut would do…I had thee ammo so now I had to buy a gun to go with it. It makes sense on some level, somewhere. 😁

Amazing. Now repeat the process for one chambered in .30 carbine so I can actually shoot it without taking out a loan and I’ll preorder it today!!

Fascinating video. Would love to hear more about how they pinned down the problems and solved them. An interview with the engineers would be a great watch.

Legend has it that all the money dumped into the Automag pistol could have solved world's hunger

Someone has to contact the Battle Gnome to make a holster for it. The Desert Eagle one on the polenar shop is crazy. I wonder if it'd mess with reliability to magna port the barrel.

👍 Beautiful, Thank you Ian for taking it apart and comparing them. Take Care!

Great review, Ian! I look forward to the match video! Any idea what these might go for?

Ian: automag video Me: 👁👅👁

"Insanity is, doing the exact, same fucking thing, over and over again, expecting shit to change." Hopefully the design changes and a price increase will finally make this pistol profitable. It's a good sign that the new Automag Ltd. isn't just buying the old tooling and kicking it with the same parts, materials, and specs. After all, this is damned close to being a boutique pistol, sales will be limited as long as they're being made, and a boutique pistol that hasn't properly functioned until its current iteration is going to make distribution and marketing an uphill battle. That said, that's a very big pistol, and I'm very turned on right now.

I have original Automags 44/357, I love both of them... The old guns really needed the Ammunition tuned to the gun, Once you had a working load. Stick with it... I would love a 25 Automag barrel.... One can only dream.....

I really like the improvements. Avalibilty of ammo will guage my purchess. Great review. Greg 😊

My fave pistol ever... though I'm scared to fire one

I would be very concerned about out-of-battery discharges as there appears to be nothing preventing it from being fired if the bolt hasn't rotated into the locked position.

Ordered mine a year ago. Still waiting but I'm okay with that. These guys are nothing but awesome. Every time I call them I talk with them about this gun and they are the real deal. Seriously some of the most passionate people I have ever met about building a gun right!

Accurate and quick follow up shots with that looks really difficult.

I think one big question is, how does the Auto Mag (as a family, not just this latest model) compare to the Desert Eagle? It always seemed like the Auto Mag had all the same opportunities as the Desert Eagle, being a giant, unwieldly mess of a gun but appearing prominently in some very popular action movies - yet the Desert Eagle remains iconic and widespread, while the Auto Mag suffers and is only really known in gun circles. What happened? Why did the Desert Eagle become the superstar, while the Auto Mag became a C-lister at best?

Ah yes, the only gun choice for a man of refinement and culture: a true hand cannon. Glorious. Glad to see they are making decent Automags now. Always thought it was a cool idea of a gun.

" Magnum Magnificence " . Ian, you just " Made my day" with that remark.

*Correcton* 11:25 the cam track is only for *opening* the bolt. Bolt is closing under spring pressure. This spring in in the back of the bolt.