I Bought The Dirty Harry Gun.... Instantly Regret it

Clint Eastwood had a similar miserable experience with his Automag while filming Sudden Impact. His gun kept malfunctioning (I imagine it would be worse firing and cycling blanks), and he got so mad he kept yeeting it at full force during the outtakes. In the movie’s finale at the pier, he threw it right into the ocean in a fit of rage and the studio had to hire divers to retrieve the gun.

“Do you feel lucky, punk?” *sees it’s the automag “Yeah, kinda..”

In 1969 after high school I spent the summer working for Harry Sanford Firearms in Pasadena where the prototype Automag was being developed. It was a very finicky weapon from the very beginning. It required a special lubricant to keep the stainless steel parts from galling. My brother-in-law worked several years for them after the Automag went into production at a couple of different locations under a couple of different owners.

My dad had one of these new and it jammed all the damn time. Don't get me wrong, he loved the gun and had it until the day he passed but it was not reliable nor would you want to be a cop and have to hope it fires when needed to do so. Great video. It brought back some memories of my dad cursing and shooting in our backyard range when I was a kid.

I was going to buy this gun back in the 90s. The dealer himself talked me out of it. Once I got internet, it was one of the first guns I researched. So glad I never got one.

I had the good fortune to own a 44 AutoMag for a short time. I found that they are VERY maintenance intensive. With good maintenance, they will cycle nicely. They ARE a handful, and very tough to find ammo for.

Dirty Harry's iconic handgun - Smith & Wesson Model 29.

the semi auto that converts itself to single-fire the more you shoot it

What you're seeing with that AutoMag is exactly what they were known for, and the main reason that three different companies that tried to produce them went bankrupt. A fourth is currently working on trying to iron the bugs out using modern manufacturing processes and metallurgy... but they've BEEN trying for about four of five years now and they still don't have pistols on the market. Sadly, much like the Bren Ten, the original AutoMag just seems to be such a flawed design that it can't be fixed. And this one time, I REALLY wish someone would prove me wrong, because those are both firearms that I would dearly LOVE to get my hands on an updated, reliable version of.

"so what you have to ask yourself is, do you feel lucky punk? well do ya?" "considering your gun jams on average every 2nd round.... yea ill take my chances"

4:19 his face says it all.

To me the first one you shot, the S&W .44 mag revolver Model 26 with the 6 1/2 inch barrel (they did use an 8 3/8 barrel for some shots, but the 6" was the main one) will always be the "true" Dirty Harry gun. If I remember correctly, the .44 automag was only used in Sudden Impact. I owned a 6" model 29 for years and LOVED it. Although, in order to make it more comfortable to shoot, I added Pachmayr grips and at the range I usually shot .44 special instead of magnum rounds. Shooting for an hour with magnum rounds and the standard wooden grip could definitely give your hand a workout!

Real Facts: The 44 Auto Mag is easily the most contemporary firearm that aesthetically fits in Star Wars, without being a KelTec product.

Fun fact: Sudden Impact, the film Callahan uses the AutoMag in, actually had divers standing by during the climax, because Eastwood kept getting frustrated with the pistol's refusal to properly function and throwing it in the ocean.

To properly test this kind of weapon you need to have some very unlucky punks around.

Automag III .30 carbine, Irwindale mfr., polished feed ramp, FMJ hardball ammo only, no softpoint ammo. Feeds & runs flawlessly. I love this pistol !

A buddy of mine bought one many years ago. We shot it for several months. What we found was that it must be kept spotlessly clean and well lubricated. Even doing that it was very finicky about ammo. Then sometimes it would jam no matter what you did. He sold it pretty quickly.

That's the coolest semi-automatic bolt-action gun I've ever seen.

My father purchased an original 44 Automag in the early 70's when I was just becoming a teenager, when he bought it he also ordered the reloading dies with it, a good friend of his would reload his rounds for him, I remember going to the range with him and he never had any problems with it jamming or failing but after about ten years he did have to get the magazine worked on as the bottom of it broke out from the spring pressure. That was the only issue I can recall him having with it. What a beast it was to see that flame come out the barrel in broad daylight. I never did get to shot it. by the time i was big enough he had passed on and the gun was sold to a gun dealer.