Seismic Automags
First off, I got the nickname by stalling an inboard tip on my hang glider above a ridge at Hager City, Wisconsin and dove into the top of the hill at 45 over and 45 down.. They say my body bounced THREE times on impact and you could FEEL the ground actually shake, but I think they're lying about the last part. Luckily, I don't remember a thing, which was very scary at the time.
Ah yes, the 44 Automag. I got one when they first came out (I was already a seasoned handloader by then) and made my own brass from Norma .308 cases, which was the best brass available back then. Unfortunately, the gun kept breaking bolt rotation pins even with loads that weren't listed by Lee Jurras as being all that hot. In addition, the accelertaor block cracked, and then after I had gotten it back from being repaired (they missed the accelerator block) I loaded it up with some stiff 296 loads, thumbed the slide release with the gun pointed towards the ground. The gun fired and recoiled like hell, and the slug hit just beside my right foot and made apretty big divot in the ground.
It was either a slam fire or the bolt didn't rotate and lock all the way, but it broke the circular ring on the back of the frame and the gun was toast. I shipped it back to Lee Jurras and got a new 45 Hardballer and a 380 Backup in trade.
The ONE thing I did with my 44 Automag that was really cool was up on the North Shore of Lake Superior on a rare day when the water was completly calm, and there was no one out on the water all the way to the horizon, which is 40 miles away. At any rate, I tried firing the gun up in the air at various angles to see how far out you could see the splashes of the big 240 grain bullets, and you could see them at ALL distances that I was able to achieve. In addition, what was surprising was how FAST the bullets got there, even with the gun pointed up at 25 - 30 degrees. I doubt any of the impacts took over two seconds.
At any rate, since then I have talked to a few other original Automag owners, and none of them could keep their guns fixed either. It was an incredibly innovative design for the time, but like the Grizzly LAR in 50 AE it just wasn't strong enough to hold together in the long run. Treat yours like the collector's piece it is, because sooner or later they all break, and there's no point in destroying the value of a $2200 museum piece.
BTW, I have a DE 50 and also a rare .440 Corbon magnum barrel for it, and the DE is everything that the Automag wasn't. It's pretty much unbreakable, and the 6" 440 Corbon barrel will put a 240 gr. JHP out the end at an even 1600 FPS.
BTW2 - I also hang out on the clone club of czforum.com, where ReloaderFred and I get into it all the time. He's about the only reloader I know that's actually older than me, and that's DAAAMMMMMNNNNNN old..... Back when Fred was a kid, there were no guns or cartridges, just rocks and dinosaurs to throw them at...
