AMT Hardballer 1911

Recently, I have ran across several types of handguns I have not seen in more than a decade. Among these were not one but two 1911 Hardballer handguns made by Arcadia Machine & Tool spotted the same week after a drought of more than ten years. One pistol worked well and the other had several issues, which seems par for the course from AMT. These pistols were generally available around 1980 and were in some form of production for more than twenty years.

The pistol’s quality control is an issue with one shooter running his pistol since new without complaint and another having no luck with reliability at all. For what it is worth the guns made in the 1983 era seem best. Just the same, I would never purchase this pistol save as a curiosity or range gun; they do not impress me as service grade. We are starting to see firearms such as the AMT Hardballer in the gun shops and on gunsmith benches more often for two reasons, each related.

The first reason, older shooters are selling their collections. As an example, a Ruger Speed-Six and a Colt 1910 Lend-Lease were recently seen in a shop as well as a modified Colt 1911 from 1918. The second related reason, firearms are sold as part of an estate. As more members of the Greatest Generation and Vietnam vets find peace, their children may liquidate the collection.

I would normally steer first time shooters to other guns, but just the same, the pistol illustrated here was brought in for examination by a young shooter who had seen the AMT used in The Terminator movie and recognized it on the shelf at a pawn shop. That is reason enough in my book for buying a recreational handgun! During the past decade or so we have been spoiled by reliable but affordable 1911 handguns.

Those priced in the four hundred dollar range are popular and probably constitute the majority of 1911 sales. General 1911 problems sometimes show up in these pistols. They are of cast construction rather than forged, which is fine if properly done and they have given shooters quite a bit of experience. As a point of interest, the AMT pistol exhibits a casting line on the hammer and the grip safety as well. These handguns area fertile ground for improvement or simply bringing them up to reliable function.

One of the AMT pistols I examined had a safety that did not indent properly. The plunger was putting insufficient friction on the thumb safety even though the plunger tube itself was fine and properly lined up. I replaced the plungers and springs with parts from Brownells. That was the first concern. After this expedient the slide lock safety engagement, while improved, did not have the rigidity I wished to see in a defensive sidearm. Several avenues of improvement were explored.

The safety seemed to be properly engaging the cut out in the slide and functioned so it was left at that. Next, I examined the firing pin. An extra power firing pin spring is an important safety feature in a pistol that does not have the Series 80 firing pin block. Not only does the firing pin spring retract the spring in the inertia-type system after firing, the firing pin spring also prevents the firing pin from taking a run forward if the pistol is dropped on its muzzle.

The pistol was fitted with a Wolff Gunsprings heavy duty firing pin spring and a Wilson Combat Series 70 firing pin. This neatly enhanced the pistol’s safety. Both pistols had functioned and fed, however, one showed signs of a clocking extractor, which is simply an extractor that moves in the extractor tunnel. Anew extractor is often the cure but in this case there was another concern: the firing pin stop was loose.

The pistol functioned but brass was thrown back into the shooter’s face since the extractor was not properly adjusted. I could have peened the firing pin stop but since I had a Wilson Combat firing pin stop on hand I instead replaced the original. Filing was minimal and in the end a good tight fit was achieved. I also noted that the pistol featured a grip safety that was practically a small GI grip safety. Many modern shooters are used to the beavertail design and don’t quite get it with the GI design.

When they adopt the two thumbs forward technique this higher grip can raise the palm off of the grip safety and the result is a failure to depress it adequately. We never deign to make a safety inoperable and instead work to make it easier to activate by tuning the grip safety. To begin, understand how the leaf spring works. If you look from the back of the 1911 you will note that the leaf on the right pushes to the rear and exerts pressure on the grip safety.

You may bend the leaf forward to reduce the pressure needed to depress the grip safety. Replacing the grip safety is another option but for the gun to remain GI in appearance—and for less expenditure—bending the spring is an option. However, care must be taken in this modification as you may increase the likelihood that the inertia of the grip safety would overcome the spring in the case of a dropped pistol. The grip safety doesn’t really need much pressure to be activated but it does need movement.

Remember the contact area is where the bump on the grip safety contacts the trigger stirrup. Moving on, I addressed the issue of galling. This is a common occurrence with early stainless steel handguns including the Smith &

Wesson models, Randall 1911, and a few others. Eventually two types of alloy were used to combat this galling. To the best of my knowledge, Colt never suffered galling with stainless 1911 handguns. Galling is wear from excess friction and can be frustrating to address. Two alike stainless parts will sometimes gall under friction pressure. The materials sometimes actually freeze together. A lack of lubrication is one culprit and a lack of cleaning the other.

It seems stainless pistols are more likely to gall when ran hot for long periods. Galling hasn’t been a real concern in along time with modern pistols, however, with AMT and other vintage guns getting into the hands of shooters—and who knows about Windage adjustment is on the sight body itself while elevation is accomplished by a screw in the long sight bar. foreign guns?—the problem is likely to come up again. A liberal dose of Ballistol or Wilson Combat’s gun oil works fine.

A specialty grease containing copper, aluminum, or calcium oxide works even better. Modern stainless steel pistols usually have a frame with dissimilar hardness ratings compared to the slide but this isn’t a guarantee with the AMT Hardballer as it was the first stainless steel 1911. Parts interchangeability with the AMT Hardballer and other 1911 handguns seems in the middle range. Please note, I am only talking about the example I have and there is a good chance specifications were changed during production.

I have only scuttlebutt to back this statement up! In my experience, most parts work without fitting and others fit after some work. As an example, I had on hand a Springfield Mil-Spec 1911 handgun. This hard-used 1911 is among my favorite beaters. Sure, I have maintained the Springfield but it has seen a lot of use and often accompanies me when hiking or exploring. The Hardballer accepts standard drop-in slide lock safety levers, slide stops, and grip safeties.

The slide slips onto the Mil- Spec frame with little effort and the Mil-Spec slide ran onto the AMT frame with little effort. However, the AMT barrel was a loose fit in the Springfield and the AMT slide would not accept the Mil- Spec barrel hood. The parts likely to be replaced, such as the firing pin, springs, slide lock safety, grip safety, grips, and magazine, all exchange well. The barrel would require fitting. Another concern is the trigger.

I don’t like doing an "action job" these days as I feel that it is better to simply purchase an action set from Wilson Combat. The AMT takes this matter out of our hands. The trigger channel is larger than a standard 1911 so you cannot trade out the trigger. It seems larger than most 1911 triggers. With the company out of business I doubt used parts are available so I would recommend against attempting an action job. The internals are none too well polished and sub par metal doesn’t take an action job well.

I suppose the Colt Gold Cup trigger which is wide might be fitted but this would be laborious.

When researching the AMT I ran across an example with the rear sight missing. I recall having an AMT on the desk thirty years ago with a missing sight but cannot recall the outcome. The rear sight is held in place by a roll pin which is of the hollow type. Replace it as a preventive measure. Hollow roll pins are notorious for giving up the ghost and allowing Colt Gold Cup sights to take flight. A drill bit #60 or an Allen wrench should work for this job.

The pin doesn’t always completely take flight, it may break and not fly away, leaving the sight in place. This isn’t strictly an AMT problem, Colt also had its share of problems with the Gold Cup. Brownells, Kensight, and perhaps a few others offer bags of roll pins at around $4.99. The Real Avid gunsmith tool set star #2 works well to adjust the sight. This sight doesn’t quite look like anything else and I don’t suspect it is an item likely to survive hard use.

This brings us to the final tip on the AMT Hardballer. I think quite a few have been retired or the shooter spent too much money modifying the pistol because the rear sight flew off or came apart. It would be difficult to install a Smith & Wesson revolver sight as an example. Novak or Heinie sights would be very difficult as the top of the slide with its long rib are designed for a specific adjustable sight. As it turned out quite by chance I had on hand several types of sights.

The Ruger GP100 rear sight, common to many adjustable sight Ruger revolvers, is very close to the AMT. I was surprised to find these sights for sale for less than twenty dollars. The dimensions are so close to the AMT one may wonder if perhaps Ruger supplied the sights to AMT or if they were reverse engineered. The sight’s opening for the roll pin is in the proper place and sight height is the same. This would be an improvement over the original AMT sight.

However, since the AMT was functional as is, I did not actually strike out the roll pin and replace the sight. It appears that the Ruger GP100 unit is slightly wider than the AMT so file work may be indicated. Just the same, this is the easiest sight replacement and most economical of the options should an AMT cross your bench. The AMT Hardballer was the first stainless steel 1911. It introduced quite a few problems to the shooting public and gunsmith.

Yet, the pistol is well made in most examples and may be brought up to a higher standard with careful gunsmithing. You just may see one soon! AG