About two years ago I acquired an AMT Automag ll, an old Irwindale gun, in excellent condition with box and three mags from Gunbroker for $250. It has become my favorite handgun, reliable with every brand and bullet weight of .22 WMR ammo I could find. With a Burris Fastfire tubeless red dot mounted over the rear sight location it weighs 31 ounces and carries very easy in a shoulder rig. I've chronographed the 50 grain Federal ammo at 1250 fps, most brands of 40 grain around 1400 fps and up to the CCI 30 grain TNTs right at 1800 fps and the worst of them go into an inch and a half at 25 yards. That gives me a lot of options by just carrying an extra loaded mag or two. Point of impact walks upward as bullet weight goes down but that works out so that if the 50 grain loads are zeroed at 25 yards the 30 or 33 grain loads are pretty close at 100. However, the accuracy mentioned is from bench rest, in the field I am way too shaky to make 100 yard shots on anything much smaller than a 55 gallon drum.
Thus comes my REAL game gun, the Super Comanche 410. These things really do produce a great pattern with 3" .410 loads of #6 or 7 1/2 shot, sure death on small game or varmints within 25 yards. Even in my shaky old hands it can't miss stationary targets within range and I have even taken a couple of grouse on the wing. Some people have gone to great lengths to try to get accuracy from the .45 Colt in the 3" chamber but I don't consider it worth the bother, I just have no use for a singleshot .45 pistol and consider my gun to be strictly a .410 pistol. If I should need a load more deadly for larger critters in some very unlikely emergency, the Winchester 3" load with five 000 buck should do nicely. In that regard, I cut off the rear sight base and filed the top of the monoblock to a smooth, rounded contour. I also cut down the front sight to correspond. I made a new, very slim forend of walnut to replace the ugly black rubber forend. I replaced the black rubber grips with Walnut, extended 1/4" below the grip frame and contoured the grips and frame together to resemble the shape of an 1860 Army Colt, a very smooth and comfortable grip. The bare metal of the monoblock and grip frame blend very well with the nickle finish on the rest of the gun. I don't generally like nickle but since the blued gun has a frame just painted black, in this case I recommend nickle.
The finished gun now weighs just 35 ounces and is a pleasure to carry and handle. With the clunky rear sight out of the way it now is much quicker on moving targets and I break clay birds with ease.
I tried to post a photo but can't get anything down to the 100 Kb limit and still visible. I'm not really computer literate but have posted photos on other sites, maybe someone can give me a simple, really simple method.

Joe your going to have to post a pix of what you've done for our members. Sounds like you've got a handy rig there.

I use photobucket and have an account setup there. I resize my pix so their under 7.5 inches wide. It's easy to paste the link on your post and your pix show up great. You do need to resize most photos to meet the size restrictions on most forums. Here's where to set up a photobucket account. There's some free software available to resize pix or you can do it in photobucket.

http://s136.photobucket.com

The 50-grain Federal load is my favorite .22 Magnum load.
Don’t overlook a walking stick or mono-pod to improve your field shooting.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e245/coyotejoe/comanche2.jpg
Like so?
The brass case in the photo is a handloaded Mag-Tec case. I don't generally reload shotgun shells because you can buy them so cheap at Wallyworld but .410s run about twice the price of the cheap 12 & 20 gauge. The brass cases will hold a full 3/4 ounce of shot even though they are only 2 5/8" long. I use .45 caliber wads in them which better fit the bore compared to .410 plastic wads. I might also mention that while the .410 choke gives full choke patterns, one can also use the .45 Colt tube for cylinder bore patterns. That gives a much larger spread but very uniform and even, without the "doughnut hole" one expects from a rifled barrel, and would be better for close range, out to 15 yards or just a bit more. I like the #7 1/2 shot for a bit higher pellet count than #6s, with any .410 I think pattern density limits the range more than does penetration. I've chronographed the Winchester 3" loads at 960 fps from the 10" barrel. That is about 200 fps slower than factory claims for a 26" barrel but they still drop grouse very nicely.

The 50-grain Federal load is my favorite .22 Magnum load.
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Yes, I like the 50 grain loads, Fed or CCI, because they are not so destructive of edible game. I always try for head shots but sometimes one will stray into the shoulders and a TNT will sure mess them up. But maybe that wouldn't happen so often if I tried your walking stick suggestion!:)

It is amazing how much this handguns receiver looks like a Stevens Hunters Pet or Pocket Rifleframe. The little Stevens rifles were well repected for accuracy in their day and A. C. Gould wrotesome pretty high praise for the rifles and handguns in book.

Funny you should say that, that book just arrived yesterday from Amazon, "Modern American Pistols & Revolvers" by A.C. Gould. First copyright in 1888 when smokeless powder was still on the horizon, mine was republished by Samworth in 1946. No mention of auto pistols at all, just singleshots and revolvers.

I was thinking of The Modern American Rifle but both books are great.
If you have any intrest in small game cartridges and rifles the chapter on the Stevens “pocket rifles” is excellent. The accuracy results for ten shot groups at 200-yards with .22 and .25 caliber black powder rimfire ammunition is difficult to match today using smokless powder and modern bullets.

Yep, I have that one too.

CoyoteJoe:
Have worked with on of those four years are so ago(not nearly so nice....but then again, it doesn't get 'soft duty either). Nephew has it still; he spends a lot more time boating in swamps than I ever did, both hunting and fishing, so it sees a good bit of use.

Agree...makes a poor .45colt...makes a good .410 snake gun.