I recommend putting a 1000 pF capacitor in series with the antenna, just to protect your output circuit from DC faults.
If this thing is oscillating at about 1 MHz, your range will be very dependent on the length of your antenna. The longer the better, especially if it is going straight up. You might try using an alligator clip on the antenna lead and hooking it to metal things on hand, like a metal gutter downpipe, or maybe a window frame that isn't painted for example. Unfortunately, your oscillator tank circuit has the antenna tightly coupled to it so every time you try a new antenna, you will probably have to retune the frequency back to where you want it.
Do you have an oscilloscope available? If you do, you can put the probe tip near your oscillator or near your antenna just to see if you are getting much depth of modulation. Perhaps you AM modulation depth is just too low.