Re: amt lightning
The 'Lightning' was same specs as Ruger but had integral dovetail scope rail and was stainless instead of aluminum. They made a tapered sporter bbl, the "Target" model with heavy bull bbl and the folding stock with a 16.5" bbl. AMT was making stainless copies of the Ruger pistol which and the 10/22. The lawsuit was mainly about the pistol. Bill R dropped the suit with an agreement AMT would no longer make copies of his pistol but could manufacture SS rifles. They bought 10/22 bolts from Ruger!
My twin brother and I each have a Challenge Edition. He ordered his barreled action new and put into a Fajen laminate stock, I bought mine lightly used from a member here with McM thumbhole stock. Looked 10yrs for one and only seen 3 others for sale over the yrs but my finances and one for sale didn't come together for that long.lol Ours both have Shilen barrels, Jewell triggers etc like shooter65's. Ours both have Ruger type bolts.
They are one sweet shootin well built work of art. Visited with Sam Paredes who had the Custom Shop in his garage at first in Folsom,CA and in short time moved to Diamond Springs. Models with McM stocks were Challenge Edition I(18"-22" bbl), Challenge Edition II(with comp), The "Elite"(16.25" bbl with combo comp/bloop tube) Hunter Edition(with 18"-22" tapered bbl and sporter stock) and the "Flyswatter"(16.25" bull bbl in a Hogue stock) and a few 'custom custom' variations. Total of about 550ish guns total, brother has 500. Shilen made them custom 17 twist barrels but some also had 14, 15, 16 twist. They found the Shilen Ultra Match 17 tw was the main reason they could guarantee them to shoot .3 5 shot groups @ 50yds. Sam said many would shoot sub .2 and some were pretty consistent .1 shooters also.
The custom shop built rifles for Chevy Sportsman's Team Challenge, Rimfire Metallic Silhouette, BR50 etc. Most internal parts such as guide rod etc were all tool steel and bolts were purchased from Ruger. Factory triggers were hand fitted and set to 1.5-2#. Arnold Jewell made his 10/22 trigger in part because of the AMT custom shop and many of them were shipped with the Jewell trigger which was a $200 option in the mid 90's.
When Harry Sanford passed Galena Industries bought AMT from his widow and moved it to Sturgis, SD. The custom shop was renamed Diamond Precision Ind and no longer affliated with AMT or Galena. Olympic Arms made the SS receivers for them. Galena Ind only lasted about 2yrs in Sturgis before going tits up.
Sorry for the long ramble but thought anyone with an AMT 10/22 might find it interesting. My Challenge Edition would be one of the very last rifles I would ever sell.
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Edited to clarify "Lightning" and "Challenge Edition/Custom Shop" receiver differences.</span>
The "Lightning" model had an integral 3/8" rail on top of receiver common to most later 22's for scope mounting and used the same diameter/type of barrel mounting as the Ruger 10/22 which was a slip in/non thread type. It was made by AMT in same shop as other items they sold.
The "Challenge Edition" was made in the Custom Shop at a different location and not directly supervised and completely owned by AMT, they provided receiver and some factory trigger assemblies modified by the CS etc. The Challenge Edition receiver had a Weaver type scope rail integrated in it and was either supplied? threaded to the CS or threaded at the Custom Shop? I never got into every detail with Sam on all the particulars. As mentioned when Harry passed away and name was changed to Diamond Precision then receivers were made to spec for them by Olympic Arms. Never asked exactly how many rifles were made during this time but Sam indicated roughly 550 total. They closed in 98 after CA passed some firearms manufacturing laws that just would cost them more to comply with than they could justify/afford. Sad as Sam and Ron had some great ideas, superb machining skills and their attention to detail produced some super shooters. Guess there was an article in Precision Shooting in 97 or 98 about their guns but I have never read it. Would love it if someone could find the article and email it to me.
HTH
Respectfully,
Dennis