Does anyone know how many Grizzly pistols ( all models ) were produced during the 16 or so years L.A.R. manufactured the pistol ? ( rough estimate ) .
How many of each variation ?. I have heard that the MK IV and V are the rarest ... is there any truth to this information ?
I called L.A.R. recently trying to shed some light on this subject , and was told they didn’t know offhand without counting all the entries in the logbook . Also , I asked why L.A.R. doesn’t make the Grizz anymore and was told :
“ LAR discontinued making the Grizzly when the pistol manufacturers were being sued . We stopped production in order to get our company off of the lawsuit . When the lawsuit was found to be frivolous and was dropped , we started to ramp up the production once again only to find out that our liability insurance had tripled . The company decided it wasn’t worth the expense . “
So unless L.A.R. gets a lot of requests for the Grizzly , we may never see them coming off the assembly line again ….. unless the design , trademark and licenses are sold to someone who will be willing to produce this superior pistol . If this pistol does get made by a company other than L.A.R. , we may never see this pistol made to the high quality / high standards it is noted for .
Any insight on the amount produced would be helpful . -
grizzlyglen
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
At one point I had a print out that showed some 9700ish total production of all models.
It's not up to LAR to sell or allow production of the Grizzly pistol now or then. Perry Arnett is the sole patent owner to the Grizzly design. He alone designed,prototyped and patented the design. LAR merely produced the Grizzly's under licsence from Mr. Arnett. In other words LAR gets a thumbs up for building and marketing the production pistols but in no way deserve any acolades for the pistols design or its abilities!
Don
Hi Don,
Thanks for the kind words!
FWIW: I have a 'lot' of Grizzly stuff I'm interested in seeing find a new home, and would be willing to let it go reasonably.
I have more than five standard sized bankers boxes (about 12" x 13" x 18" or so) full of documents and other memorabilia from the very first day of the Grizzly Pistol and the Multi-caliber Conversion Units. No guns, ammo or Conversion Units.
I think I have at least one ccpy of every magazine article ever written on the Grizzly, and in some cases, up to six copies - all pristine. Original photos, baseball caps, brochures, both black and white and color, contracts, legal documents, etc.
All original everything. Mine!
With this stuff, I have some 'hardware' - barrel blanks, magazine bodies, some raw castings, etc. Would make a nice one-of-a-kind collection for someone!
Feel free to holler off-list if anyone cares to, and we can discuss things further. I have a list of what's available and some digital photos.
Of course, I'm always interested in seeing the Grizzly and its associated products resurrected, and I'd like to be a part of that activity if it were to happen.
But if not, then maybe it's time I let someone else enjoy the stuff I have held since 1979.
Again, thanks!
Perry
pjarnett9939@msn.com
Guy's ,
thanks for posting .....
Don ,
thanks for the estimate regarding the total production count . I thought I read somewhere that the total number of Grizzly pistols produced was in the 3000 range ( which I thought to be a little low ).
I knew - from the older posts found here , that Perry still owned all the documentation , drawings , patents , etc .... I just figured that L.A.R. probably still has all the workholding fixtures , jigs , and tooling to continue manufacturing the Grizzly pistol and would only make sense for them to continue where they left off .... I guess L.A.R. doesn't see it that way .
Also ,I hope when/if the day comes that Perry finds a person ( or company ) that is interested in producing this fine pistol once again , they manufacture it with the same quality standards that L.A.R. did .....
Perry ,
I want to thank you for contributing to this blog .... your insight and detailed design legacy is here for all of us to read and pass on . Not many firearm designers had the chance ( or wanted to ) to fully explain the full story behind the development of their great designs .
I thank you for that .
grizzlyglen
I have a Grizzly .45 Win Mag pistol in the A0110XX range , as to verations look on page 140 of the 29th edition of the Blue Book of gun values , in 1988 Great Northern Guns of Anchorage Alaska had L.A.R. mfg. make a run of 20 Grizzly .45 Win Mag's -- Toklat GNG A01 to 20 .
Hi!
I have not much to contribute that comes from my own knowledge, just what others said about this topic.
http://tinyurl.com/6ocmrn
The 6th comment in this thread answers everything and I am pretty sure that JD knows what he is talking about.
Ulrich
Ulrich ,
it's good to see you posting again ....... you did indeed contribute some good info !!
If you cannot lick on Ulrich's link , here is the information from JD regarding production quantities:
"THE MARK 5 STARTED AT V000001, WELL LET ME SAY THIS I KNOW THEY STARTED LOW BECAUSE I HAVE V000004 AND V000005. THERE WERE I300 PLUS MADE OF THE MARK V. THERE WERE ALMOST 12,000 MARK I THERE WAS ABOUT 200 OF THE MARK 2, ABOUT 200 OF THE 8 INCH LONG SLIDES, ABOUT 200 10 INCH LONG SLIDES AND ABOUT 1000 MARK 4. THE EIGHT INCH AND THE TEN INCH WERE BOTH MARK 1. THERE WERE CONVERSION KITS MADE FOR ALL BUT THE MARK 4. "
So I would say that the MK II , 8 inch and 10 inch MK I's are the rarest of all the variations ... thanks Ulrich and JD !
Back in 2003 there was a piston conversion sold for 1911's. If the piston conversions could be worked up in the .45 Win Mag, .44 Mag and the .50 AE Grizzlies that may re-jumpstart production. I still have that article. Another thing that would be cool would be Longslide conversions for existing handguns. Just an idea.
Post a Comment