Engraved Automag (Pasadena)

As with everything Auto Mag, the story here is not so simple.

Over the years, several engraved Auto Mags have surfaced that were ordered by a customer directly from Chizar without the factories blessing, like the A00044 gun engraved for Al Kaylor. Two of these guns I have seen have 120% coverage.  Personally I think that too much engraving spoils the looks, or the lines of the gun.  120% coverage means that unseen parts of the gun have been engraved, like inside the magazine well and on the bolt.

When the factory was negotiating with Chizar, they wanted to see what the three grades of engraving would look like before the order was placed.  The factory made three fully polished and marked pre-production barrels and sent them to Chizar to be engraved in the three grades of coverage. The barrels were sent to Japan and returned to Chizar

These barrels were never sent to the factory and were later sold to Ed O'Neil who purchased all of the Auto Mag parts that Chizar had. Ed found an engraved frame in the parts purchase and he finished a gun with the fully engraved barrel and frame he bought from Chizar.  Ed took the gun to the factory and Harry had it marked E-110.

Ed also finished two more guns using the other two engraved barrels and sold them to B&B Sales.  One has the B grade engraving and the other had the C grade of engraving and the frames were polished but not engraved.  Harry had his current production serial numbers engraved on the frames.  

Interestingly, the barrel with the least amount of engraving had the barrel markings roll-engraved before the die broke and they went to the electro-etched marking method.

I do not know if the other two barrels were roll-engraved or not.

So here are a few additional engraved Auto Mags and there are probably more.

Cheers.......Bruce

I ran across a post on this forum that mentioned E-107. I have a couple of 1980s consignment receipts showing E-105 (the gun in my upcoming auction) and E-107 on the same form. Evidently they were owned by the same guy for a while (at least between 1985-1988), after which time E-107 changed hands. The letter from Harry Sanford references E-107, specifically, and is dated February 1975, but it's addressed to a different person. Likely as not, that was the original owner of E-107, who then sold it (sometime after 1975) to the fellow who owned E-105 and E-107. That guy passed away some time ago, and his heir consigned it to Blackwell.

In any case, I assume it would be accurate, then, to include in my description that the E series represented the only factory engraved examples that were offered publicly. 

Thank you very much for your help!