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- .44 AUTOMAG
-
- "Harry Sanford's Folly"
- might be the nickname for this
- massive foot-long hunk of
- stainless steel. The concept
- was sound: an auto pistol
- correlative to the M29 S & W
- revolver, achieved by producing
- a rimless .44 magnum cartridge
- from chopped-down .30-06 brass.
- Mr. Sanford, of Pasadena, CA,
- took the idea and ran with it.
- His Auto-Mag Company took the
- money for pre-ordered units -
- and ran with it (actually, they
- probably just mismanaged it).
- The company went bankrupt after
- producing about 3000 units.
-
- To give the Auto-Mag its
- due, it did succeed in its
- designated role as the big bore
- magnum auto - succeeded so well,
- in fact, that the Dirty Harry
- character made use of one in one
- of his several screen
- appearances. In this regard the
- Auto-Mag can be seen as the
- direct forerunner of the IMI
- Desert Eagle, currently the
- darling of movie mayhem-makers.
- Dirty Harry was pretty much
- forced to come to grips with the
- Auto-Mag, since it unseated his
- S & W M29 from its "most
- powerful handgun in the world"
- throne: the big auto pistol
- could withstand higher chamber
- pressures than the .44 revolver
- and thus could be loaded hotter.
-
-