AMT 1911s
Anybody want to offer up an opinion on the AMT spin-off of the 1911?
0
-
Well, the good thing about them would be that they are a 1911 copy, and most 1911 parts will fit, with some professional fitting, along the way. The bad thing, is that the stainless steel alloy, was often soft, and caused galling between the slide and frame...not good, when your life depends on it. One other bad thing, is that AMT is out of business, and while there are still pistols around for sale, there is no warranty. Also there are the ones out there that think these were made so few, that they are RARE, and worth mega bucks. They are a $500.00 at best, at least for me anyway, and then I would be hard pressed not to buy a RIA, or PARA instead.
Best
EDIT 1
On the other hand, about the only real good things to come out of AMT were their copy cat renditions of the Ruger MK II pistol, and the Lightening 25/22 rendition of the 10/22. The 10/22 copy was actually better than the 10/22, as it was ALL Stainless, the reciever, and trigger group, included, whereas the Ruger were both Aluminum alloy.
Best0 -
the original AMT is out and High Standard in Houston Tx. in now the
Amt gun builder brought back to life0 -
+1 for soft, poor QC, my old one is not a good pistol. 0 -
I bought the complete slide/barrel assembly of their long slide, ( 6" ), version, at a gun show years ago. It had never been functional, because the extractor mortice in the slide hadn't been machined correctly. How it was sold in that condition, is a mystery? Obviously it was never test fired. 0 -
Wiki has AMT being closed down due to lawsuits back in 1999, which sounds about right. I used to work a couple of towns over from their place in Arcadia (Arcadia Machine and Tool= AMT) and a lot of their stuff was all the rage in So Cal back then.
I remember the AMT Automag II's in .22 mag were a great idea, as were the Automag III in .30 Carbine (or the rare 9mm Win mag) but these all turned out to be jam-o-matics... as were a couple of AMT backups in .380 that I fired. Those sharp-kicking, non-ergonomic little monsters worked (mostly) with hardball ammo only.
There are better choices out there than the defunct AMT stuff people are asking an arm and a leg for, IMO.0 -
Thanks for the input. I have only had dealings with a couple of the "Back up" 380 and knew that they were either hit or miss but have had mostly good luck with them. I noticed that the price was cheap and figured you got what you paid for. Thank you again. 0 -
The very early Stainless Hardballer had the galling problems, because the same type stainless was used in the frame and slide. AMT was the one to figure that out first, and correct it by changing the composition of the frame metal. The rest of the industry followed suit.
The "fix" for these early models was to lube the slide rails with a mix of Lubriplate white grease, and Quaker State 30wt motor oil. Needless to say, after about 100rnds, your pistol looked like a over lubed ball joint with 100K on it.
About that time, silicon based gun lubes were developed, and a shot of CLP or the like on the rails served the same purpose, without the mess.
QC, when it came to internal finishing, was a problem, as well as feeding problems with any type of ammo, besides hardball. Very late produced guns, had some real sloppy QC.
De-burring and polishing internals, and polishing the feed ramp, with the use of Wilson magazines corrected any of that. With the addition of a Wolff square wire variable recoil spring, my Longslide would cycle everything from light target loads to heavy hardball loads without a hiccup.
AMT was the only one to commercially produce a 7" Longslide version, and spare 7" barrels were rarely available. Myself and several others talked Douglas Barrels into a limited production of barrels for our guns back in the early 80's, when I was shooting speed steel and bowling pin matches. I wore out the factory barrel and one of the two replacement barrels I bought, and the gun was still tight enough to compete with the third barrel.
Had to hock that gun during some hard times, and still kick myself for doing it, best 1911 clone I've ever owned.0 -
I've had one for ten years and it's been trouble free. It was used when I bought it and I've put 700 rnds through it. My cousin bought one of the first year ones and that's the reason I bought mine. His has been trouble free also. 0 -
I've had one for ten years and it's been trouble free. It was used when I bought it and I've put 700 rnds through it. My cousin bought one of the first year ones and that's the reason I bought mine. His has been trouble free also. 0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
9 comments