Thursday, May 1, 2008

My new acquisition






Hello all ,

My first experience handling a Grizzly was in 1991 when myself and three friends walked into a gun shop in SE Connecticut and saw one chambered for 45 Win Mag with 3 complete conversion kits ( 10mm , 45 ACP , .357 Mag ) . It also came with all associated reloading dies , empty brass , bullets , etc . …… a set – up ready to go .
I don’t remember if this particular Grizzly was a MK I , II , IV , or V …… I do know that it was blued . ( does anyone know what years the II , IV and V were made ? )

I did not have the $800’ish amount in my pocket at the time and left the store with the intended items I originally went there for .

Well , I kept thinking about that Grizzly set-up for a couple of days and sleepless nights . Four days later I went back to that same shop and it had been adopted already ………….. I was bummed .


Fast forward 17 years and 5 children later to the present day , and I had another one fall into my lap . I just picked up my first LAR Grizzly and I’m as excited as a puppy discovering his reproductive organ for the first time .

As you can see , it is a MK I with a blued finish ( click on the image to see a larger photo ) . It comes with a factory muzzlebrake , a couple of extra recoil springs , a couple extra sets of recoil spring guide rods , an extra extractor , four factory magazines , Millet open sights with the orange front post , the factory bushing wrench , ( 500 ) .45 Win Mag cases – half of which are factory primed and un-used , the factory pistol box and all paperwork , and last but not least – a B-Square scope mount ….. all this for $685


A quick call to LAR I learned it was made April 8 , 1987 ……

I do have some questions …. Please excuse me if they have been asked in the past .

1) Are the grizzlys chambered in 45 Win. mag. prone to frame battering ? … I thought that I read something along those lines .
2) Where can I find replacement recoil springs ? … the stouter , the better . Wolff ?
3) How can one decipher if conversion kits are for the MK I ?


Thanks in advance …..


Glen






8 comments:

Chrome Grizzly said...

Glen:
If you send me your phone number to wiselion@nycap.rr.com I will talk to you all abot your grizzly. I have a mark 1 and am getting a Mark V in about a month. My syory is similar to you except I had a Mark 1 in 1991. 17 years later I looked back at all the guns I had and the Griz was the best. I just had to get one. Email me.

Mike

grizzlyglen said...

chrome grizzly ,
thanks for your reply ..... my story is the classic " you snooze - you lose " , or " if I had only listen to my intuition " . Who would've thought in 1991 that L.A.R. was going to drop the Griz from their product line ? Just think what that set-up I spoke of could be worth today ?

In the last 17 years of scouring all the " boutiques " in my area , this is the second one I have ever seen or got to handle . I was not going to let this one get away ....

I will send you a email ......


Glen

Cam Stewart said...

Glen... WOW... you sure got a heck of a deal! I have oowned over 30 Grizzly pistols in the last few years and have never found one at a price like that. Consider yourself very lucky! If you ever need anything, feel free to contact me via email form my email link on the home page of this blog.

Welocme back to the Grizzly fold.

Cam

grizzlyglen said...

Cam ,

Thanks for the warm welcome .....

When I bought this MK I .45 Win mag , I paid blue book price ( 98% ) ..... I wasn't about to complain about paying the sticker price . I wasn't going to let this one get away . Also , I thought I was getting a good deal due to the accoutrements that was coming home along with the pistol .

It wasn't till I got home and did some " googling around " , that I found out these fine pistols are market driven ( selling for more money than book value ) on the internet auction sites …….That’s when I started to glow in the assurance that I did indeed get a good deal .
Also , “ googling around “ is how I found this forum / blog ……. This is a great resource for all thing Grizzly . Please keep it going ( I will do my part to contribute ) , as there is much more people stumbling on the site and reading / learning the information as opposed to posting replies and such …..

grizzlyglen said...

Also , a B-Square " no gunsmithing " scope mount came with the gun . A quick call to B-Square informed me that this mount was discontinued 15 years ago ...... anyone have a experience with this mount ?

Is it sturdy ?

grizzlyglen said...

Hey Gent's ,

I've had the Grizzly MK 1 .45 Win Mag home a little while now ......... a few observations :

I found this pistol to fit my hand better than it did in the gun shop for some reason ..... this is a good thing . I have large hands ( size 16 ring finger ) and it feels like it was made for me . It is equipped with the factory standard Pachmyer grips .

The pistol came with 400 rounds of factory Winchester 230 FMJ ammo . I found this stuff to be fairly stout for factory cartridges . Nice muzzle blast out of the six slotted factory muzzle comp . … the pistol fed flawlessly .

I had no problem hitting a 12 X 18 steel plate at 200 yards with these loads once I sighted them in on paper .

I’m awaiting reloading dies and a Dillon 550B shell plate to be dropped off by the big brown truck .

I noticed that the cartridge is not 100% supported …. Is this going to cause problems with ruptured cases ?

Does .45 Win Mag brass have thicker case webs to handle these high pressure , unsupported chambers ?

tylergnut said...

Grizzleyglen,
The .45 Win Mag case is suppose to be stronger, thicker and have more support. I have never had any problems shooting it, but, if you reload factory Winchester Brass have fun. It seems that they get bent out of shape. I like using the .45 Win Mag Starline Brass- I would love to get some nickel plated.

Unknown said...

Hello everyone
I have a Mark I in .45 Win Mag I recently acquired. After shooting a couple of mags I noticed the brass was slamming into the slide upon ejection. After inspection I noticed two things that were wrong. The extractor has the tell tale signs of a Dremel around the claw end, I assume to fit/tune it. Also the ejector was the very long version of a .45 ACP. By the way the extractor gave up the ghost soon after I guess from losing its temper from the grinding or just poor construction to begin with. So Im looking for a .45 Win Mag extractor now and any other insight into this fine auto any of you might offer. Thanks