Of Its Time And Place
The Automag III is equal parts remarkable and challenging — an AMT design in a nutshell. On one hand, the gun was eminently practical: There was still a lot of surplus .30 Carbine floating around in the early 1990s, and the company designed a niche handgun to gobble up that supply. As far as I know, it’s one of only two autoloading pistols built for the .30 Carbine, and the other (the Kimball automatic) is, at best, a footnote in firearms history.
Additionally, AMT didn’t need to reinvent the proverbial wheel. The gun operates and takes down mostly like a 1911, barring a few quirks, so cleaning and basic maintenance has a very familiar “manual of arms,” so to speak. The barrel bushing, in particular, is nearly identical to the type found on John Browning’s most famous pistol.
At the same time, just about any sensible person might look at the .30 carbine round and ask, “Isn’t this round a little long to stuff into an autoloader? Wouldn’t the magazines be really odd-looking?” And the answer to those questions is a resounding yes!
Make no mistake: The Automag III is weird and ungainly. It kind of feels like holding one of those big “universal” TV remotes in your hand lengthwise. As a small-handed guy, the pad of my index finger just manages to reach the trigger. Ergonomically, it is decidedly not great.
I’d be remiss not to mention the Automag III shares many hallmarks of AMT’s execution and build quality overall. Plagued throughout its production history by financial woes, the company used some inferior stainless steel compounds as a means of keeping already excessive production costs in check. Their guns — including the Automag III — had a reputation of galling if not properly lubricated. What’s galling, you ask? A phenomenon whereby two flat metal surfaces can tear away at one another through excessive friction, especially when rubbing together at high speeds. Yikes.
While I suspect I got one of the better ones, my Automag III works most of the time, with a preference for the hotter-loaded American Eagle and “blue box” Federal JSPs. My friend Jeff Bregman, owner and gunsmith at American Gun Works, suggested I pick up a tube of Rig +P, a lubricant specifically formulated to protect against galling on stainless machinery. Thus far, my Automag III seems to run well with it applied.
Read the full article here