Two months out from receiving my Automag. Here are some observations. First, I found the front sight is way too high. The gun needs to have the rear sight cranked up considerably, to get a 25 yard zero, with 250 gr bullets. This height creates something to snag on, plus it is an eyesore. In my gun building experience, the rear sight should be 1.5 revolutions, up from bottoming out, with the heaviest common bullet weight used for that caliber, ex, 45 acp 230 gr bullets. Secondly, I feel the front sight should be black nitrided or at least blued, not left as stainless. On a bright day, depending on where the sun is, finding the front sight is quite difficult. I put some orange paint on mine, which helps somewhat.
Another issue, is the bolt does not reliably lock back on the last shot. It will lock back, if I manually retract the bolt. It appears the stud on the magazine may not come up far enough to reliably lock the bolt under firing conditions. I only have one magazine, so I have nothing to compare it to. I took the baseplate off, to disassemble the magazine, and I am so far baffled on how to get the spring out. The sides of the magazine are folded over so far, so removal of the spring will be a minor miracle.
As for load data, I started out with some 250 gr, home cast, SWC bullets, with 19.0 gr of 296, in case formed, 270 win cases. They fed surprisingly well. I did have issue with the disconnecter frequently not resetting. A light tap on the back of the cocking piece, reset the disconnector. I determined the bolt was not getting full rearward travel, due to the load being too light, so the bolt was not coming forward with enough force, to get that little extra bit, to complete the reset. I upped the load to 21.0 grains, and the problem went away.
I purchased a cheap Lee 240 gr 2 cavity RN mold, and powder coated the bullets with Eastwood Ford Blue powder. They drop out of the mold at around 250 grains. After going through my Star sizer, they measure .4295 in diameter. I load them @ 1.685 OAL, and they are chronographed @ 1400 fps. No leading or fouling whatsoever.
Finally, it seems the trigger pull is getting heavier with use. It was about 4 lbs when new, and has increased to 5 lbs now. At this point, I am not familiar enough with the internals of the Automag, to attempt a trigger job, so I am leaving it as is. It is definitely a detriment towards most accurate shooting.
My article above should not be taken as a criticism of the Automag. It is just a review of my initial experience. It is intended to be constructive, not critical.
Re the magazine spring - just rock it from side-to-side and it'll ease on out.
Agree about the front sight color - but at least now they're removable. I had been thinking about buying a spare and modifying it - orange insert or something - but that'll have to wait til production of everything else is normalized.
I did have a bad magazine that was almost un-noticeably slightly squished in the body, which slowed the rise of the mag-follower - it was replaced and I just chalked it up to teething issues of the new magazine machine.
Bullet - I'm surprised you can fit something that long in the mag (I'm running a 240gr flat-nose) but glad it works.
No trigger heaviness here, it's been the same since day 1.
Thanks for your input Andy. I have a mill, and I had thoughts of trying to make a patridge front sight, from carbon steel. That would give a better sight picture, and reduce the glare. I would reduce the height of the base to get the sight lower. I would leave the blade high, cutting it down to get the correct elevation. Patridge blades are easy to cut back, rather than a ramped blade, for aesthetics.
I wish others would give their critique, of what's right, and what could be improved on the Automag.
Update. The failure to reset issue cleared itself, as some of the parts possibly wore in. The gun feeds and functions relialably now, except for the issue of the bolt still won't lock back on the last round. I thought maybe my load was not powerful enough for full rearward bolt travel. I upped the load considerably, with no success. No point overstressing the gun. I would load two rounds at a time for testing. The bolt did lock back on the last shot, briefly, when the gun was new. If I manually retract the bolt with an empty magazine in the gun, it will lock back. I am baffled here on the cause. It's like it's not coming up fast enough during the firing cycle. Maybe something is binding.
I am going to put the gun and magazine in my ultrasonic cleaner, and see what success this might give. I see that the bolt rotation pin is staked in place. Has anyone ever removed it for cleaning or maintenance? It might be necessiary to remove the bolt for access to some of the parts underneath.
It's like it's not coming up fast enough during the firing cycle. Maybe something is binding.
I had something of the kind, but it caused failures to feed - I know it's not the bolt hold-open issue you have but let me explain:
The magazine wasn't lifting the next round from the mag up fast enough for the bolt, and I found (by taking the magazine spring out) that it was caused by the plastic magazine-follower getting squeezed by the sides of the mag at one point - essenially the magazine was imperceptibly "squished" (technical term), so I phoned Rob, explained what was going on and sent it back - the replacement works perfectly.
Your issue could be caused by the same thing - the follower unable to rise high enough quickly enough under fire, in your case to push up the catch.
Still cannot diagnose, or fix the failures to lock back after the last round. I tried lighter and heavier loadings, with no success in my testing. With a 245 gr cast bullet, incrementally, 18 to 22 gr of 2400, and 19 to 24 grains of 296. I only did 5 rounds each of the heaviest loadings, not to overly stress the gun. I was suspecting, that I wasn't getting full travel of the bolt, but that doesn't seem to be the issue. I would put one round in the magazine and fire, seeing if it would lock back. Nope. It will lock back, however, if I insert an empty magazine, and retract the bolt.
I am looking to remove the bolt stop, and see if there is a burr or chip on it, where it catches the bolt. I just cannot get that snap ring off, holding it in. I do have miniature snap ring pliers, but there is nothing to grab hold of there. I hope to eventually get it off.
I am hesitant to return the gun, to the mother ship, as I have had UPS loose another Automag, that I previously sent out to Kent Lomont, for an extractor repair, tune job, and Magna-porting, some years ago. It just never got there. Probably some UPS employee has it.
@gbertolet You mention a reset issue. I'm wondering if that is the same issue I had. When a round is chambered, the trigger does not always seem to engage the sear and won't drop the hammer when pulled. Someone mentioned it may be slightly out of battery but it seems to be pretty tight. How did your resent issue present?
My reset issue fixed itself. I could see that the cocking piece was about 20 thousandths from flush, when I had the issue. I just lightly tapped on the cocking piece, and it snapped flush, and the trigger was reconnected, and the gun would fire. I just thought that it finally worn in. No trouble with that issue since.
Shooting my son’s gun alongside my original Auto Mag the other day, we experienced this same reset issue with handloaded rounds. It has always run fine with new SBR ammo. My handloads run fine in my gun but often wouldn’t work in his. I suspect the new gun has a tighter chamber than mine, and my sizer die isn’t screwed down quite far enough, leaving a tiny bulge at the base of the cartridge the new gun won’t tolerate. We did find that if we chambered the same round several times it would then work, suggesting the chamber was acting like a sizing die each time.
I’m glad the disconnector works so well. It won’t allow the hammer to fall until the bolt has fully rotated into battery. So this reset issue is a feature, not a bug.
Has anyone had issues with the failure to lock back on the last round? If so, what was the fix? Another issue, has anyone had difficulty getting Automag to send you the promised 2nd magazine, that was missing when the guns were shipped? I have been promised numerous times, over several months, that mine was packed, and ready to be shipped, but never has been.
I’m still waiting on my presentation case. They did ship the gun to me with 2x magazines.
