I have a AMT Hardballer that has been in the family since the 80s. I bet it has 50-100 rounds through it. It is all stainless, has a extended slide release and extended thumb safety, ADj sights, Rubber grips that say "supreme", made in Covina, CA. SN A18xxx. Can anyone tell me about this pistol... age and what it might be worth?

AMT is Arcadia Machine and Tool. Check gunbroker for prices. I had an AMT in 30 Carbine. Nice gun. Yours is presumably a 45 ACP.
Peter.

quote:

AMT Hardballer

Is it a Longslide?

Yes 45acp no not a long slide, it is a standard 5"

If there ever was anyone who knows about 1911 guns and their iterations, it's Terry Tussey. He knows these guns like nobody else. He can fix anything any other gunsmith botches and you'll have something upon which you can bet your life when he's done with it. I provide his website and contact info below...

http://www.tusseycustom.com/

He showed up at the Carson City, NV range last Friday. I was shooting my Longslide and having feeding problems. He looked at it, fired it once and in less than 30 seconds, pointed out half a dozen things wrong with it. He told me in October of 2004 that it needed a reliability package when I first showed it to him at a gunshow, but that's about all I remember other than he thought the thing was worth about $400. He even saw the mag release was "30 thousandths too low" in just a few seconds at the range last week. He's good at these guns...

one of the things about the amt 45's - the barrel is in 3 pieces. there is a sleeve that is pressed onto the chamber end that hold the barrel link. this sleeve can come loose and the gun will jam and you won't notice it because when the slide comes forward it pushes the sleeve back forward. i think it took me a year to figure this one out. the sleeve can be silver soldered tight and then it works again, until the link connector comes loose, then silver solder that too. i believe the value today is in the 450-500 class

I just sold the one I bought new back in the mid 80's, it was a hardballer like yours.

Historically, the AMT is significant as it is generally recognized as the first stainless 45. They also have a reputation for the quality being iffy. For example, mine had a hard time feeding wadcutter ammo, I eventually figured out this was from the magazine release being milled a couple thousandths too low so the mag would be a tiny bit too low and the bullets would hang up. I don't remember the reasoning now that I used, but rather than do something with the mag release I altered the catch slots on a couple of mags so they would ride higher and they fed SWC ammo OK.

Anyway, I was not able to get $400 for mine but that was back before the election so prices may be up now.

If yours shoots fine then I'd guess it would be an OK gun.

Oh, Butchloc reminds me of a story for you- I sent it back under warranty to fix the feeding issue, and first they had it for close to 3 months, and then when I got it back I realized how they fixed it was to put a worn barrel with a worn chamber in it! So I called them up and of course that not what they did, but of course they couldn't say exactly what they did do. They said I could send the gun back to them, but I realized it would be another 3 months so the agreement we reached was I'd send them the barrel and they'd replace it and mail me back a new one that would need fitting, which was fine with me.