[kentucky bucky]

Help!! Has anyone done any comparisons of different loads or ammo brands or types in AMT .380's?? I simply don't have much range time and thought some of you guys could eliminate some dead ends and wasted money. Thanks

[Dr.Rob]

If you have the DAO pistol, ball ammo only. Those things are notorious for not feeding hollowpoints.

[Mike Irwin]

With all due respect, get another gun.

AMTs are some of the worst guns I've ever dealt with, and I've had to deal with a LOT of AMTs over the years.

[Jeff OTMG]

RBCD ammo has a round nose profile so no feeding problem. www.rbcd.net

[kentucky bucky]

I have one of the older model .380's and it has always worked with round nose FMJ type ammo. This is the second one I've owned and they both worked great. I was wanting to try to get the most thump out of this short barrel and caliber.


P.S. for you detractors.... I won't give an opinion about your gun unless I'm asked....I don't recall asking yours!


Hey Jeff, thanks for the info.

[Intune]

I HAD a .45 AMT Backup. Too many jams, couldn't trust my life to it. Wasn't the ammo. Don't ask if you don't want to hear the Good, the Bad or the Ugly. ...thought some of you guys could eliminate some dead ends and wasted money.

Hmm...

:D Relax

[Mike Irwin]

"P.S. for you detractors.... I won't give an opinion about your gun unless I'm asked....I don't recall asking yours!"

OK, then I won't explain to you the design problems, including critical safety issues, inherent in the single-action back ups.

Try some blanks. They'll make a lot of noise and frighten someone away.

[Intune]

Cor Bon was pretty hot out of the short barrel. It fed most of the time.

[Keith]

I had a single action AMT .380 backup that ran just fine. I liked it a lot and would still have it if I hadn't ran across a Colt Mustang that I liked even more. The AMT would bite me once in a while, the Colt doesn't...
I use(d) Federal Hydra-Shoks as carry ammo in .380 because they have a feed profile that just can't be beat.
For plinking and practice I use whatever ball ammo is cheapest. The AMT gobbled them all up with no problem.

Keith

[Sean Smith]

P.S. for you detractors.... I won't give an opinion about your gun unless I'm asked....I don't recall asking yours!

Consider it a public service: AMT sucks.

[jem375]

I had a 380 AMT and it shot just fine with everything I put in it........My 45 ACP back-up does also..........try cor-bon and federal hydra-shoks like Keith wrote, those should do the trick...

[Keith]

I've heard all kinds of bad things about AMT. And I believe those bad things... A friend bought an AMT .22 mag (automag?) some years back and he never could get the gun to work right, and he never could get AMT to fix it.
My only experience was with the little single action back-up that I bought used, and THAT gun worked just fine. Other people with the SA .380 Back-ups have reported similar results.

I think AMT got it right with that particular model.

Keith

[BevrFevr]

They are some of the tops in their field.

The field of being a piece of crap that is.

Detail strip... ANYONE? arrrrrrgh!

You know I'm generally pretty tolerant of most guns and designs. There are some features I like better than others of course but if there was ever a gun that I would not take if it was free it would have to be an AMT.

I would prefer a zip gun made with a rubber band and piece of rusty pipe.

But you didn't ask...

-bevr

[tiberius]

There is a school of thought that lower powered guns (i.e < 9mm Para) should be loaded for maximum penetration. Therefore if your gun only feeds hard ball then you should use relatively hot ones like S&B or Fiocchi.

I use Speer Gold Dot in my P-3AT, but since I've never shot anyone I can't really comment on their effectiveness. :)

[Mike Irwin]

"I would prefer a zip gun made with a rubber band and piece of rusty pipe."

Run much hot .380 ammo through an early Backup and that is very likely the only thing you're going to be left with...

[JERRY]

put it this way,

there is a reason amt is out of the gun making business....

[jercamp45]

Remington 102 gr Golden Sabre jhp'
Should feed fine, get better penetration than the 88 grain stuff, not too hot, accurate enough, good expansion.
I have had two AMT .380 and a 45 Back Up...they worked fine...
But went back to a S&W Jay frame for 'pocket duties'.
Jercamp45

[kentucky bucky]

Thanks for answering my question without the know-it-all stuff. Personally to me 1911's are like elephants, I like to look at them but, I wouldn't want to own one. (the same as W.C. Fields said about women) They have their problems too. The only one I'd want would be a collector's piece with a war record. I prefer my Glock. I don't care enough to try to sway someone's opinion about 1911's and I don't cut down someone's gun if they mention something I've had bad experiences with. Now what are you guys going to do, tell me what a POS my Glock is?

[Snowdog]

There is a school of thought that lower powered guns (i.e < 9mm Para) should be loaded for maximum penetration. Therefore if your gun only feeds hard ball then you should use relatively hot ones like S&B or Fiocchi

As a quasi-subscriber to that philosopy, I'll chip in.
I recall a while back Corbon or Magsafe offering a FMJ profile round called "Speedball", a light weight FMJ that had break-neck velocities. According to the literature dedicated to this particular cartridge, one would receive deeper penetration than most all JHP in the caliber, greater tissue disruption than any FMJ in the caliber and the beloved feed reliability of hardball.

I haven't seen it advertised for a while, but for the more anemic calibers where expansion with adequate penetration wasn't a given, it seemed like a good idea.

BTW, don't sweat the comments about your firearm. If your particular specimen is reliable, to heck with their opinions. Much to the chagrin of many of my anti-Llama friends, I am one of the fortunate owners of a truly functional Llama MiniMax, one that gobbles all but lead SWC ammuntion reliably. Will they likely include my experiences when enlightening others to their opinions of Llama handguns?

Accordingly, if I had listened to many of the muckrakers I've encountered in my life, I would never have been able to make any decisive decisions.
Though much of the info/experience (and opinions) found here have true merit, I'm sure you're aware you must include your own evaluations into the equation and make your own decisions.

[kentucky bucky]

Thanks for the info and the moral support.;) If I listened to critics I would get rid of my flintlock rifles that I love so well and get me a modern in-line muzzleloading piece of plastic.





P.S. Just spent some time not far from you around the Grandfather Mtn. area after "dat ho" Isabel ran us out of our Kitty Hawk rental cottage. Did you choose your name because you ski in that area?

[PCRCCW]

People are not really slamming your gun....just their not so PC way of telling you that you may or may not have probs with them. Ive shot AMT's that were as smooth as glass and Ive seen others that were problematic.

Id have traded a much better gun for the AMT DAO backup I shot years ago...it was that nice..but had lots of smith work done to it also.

The higher pressure rounds sound like they may be a problem..high pressure being a relative term when using a .380, I have no knowledge of this being a problem but it may be an issue.

As far as a gun company going out of business because of bad guns, service and financial planning.....AMT surely did and is a point worth bringing up.....
But what was that other company that almost did the same thing......
hmmmmmm,......oh ya......Colt. :neener:

Shoot well

[45crittergitter]

If it will feed them, Cor-Bon or Federal Hydrashock. If it won't, buy a new gun.

[BevrFevr]

Hey

I'm not slamming you or YOUR particular gun. Just offering a friendly caution that it might not be in your best interests to trust your life to one of those guns.

Around here we pick on one design or another for whatever reason:

I don't like x or y cuz of this or that but you rarely find a brand of firearm that many of us will say is a total POS. When that Happens you may want to open at least one ear up.

-bevr

[kalibear45]

I've had good luck with the Remington HPs on my OMC Backup (pre-AMT). I've never had any problems with it feeding hardball ammo neither. The only thing that bugs me about the little guy is the extractor sitting on top of the slide, I guess I could always shoot it "tricky left-handed gangsta style" :D

[Okiecruffler]

I had one, mine was an OMC as well, it worked fine with CCI Gold Dots. Only problem I had with it was that it was the most painful gun to shoot I've ever owned. I had no reliability problems, but what do I know, I carried a Grendel for a couple of years. And don't even get me started on what a peice of fecal matter those plastic Glucks are.