shiroikuma
New member
OOOOh this is a seriously fun gun.
For those wondering the Grizzly is a LARGE 1911A1 pattern pistol that is out of production since 1999 I believe. The opperative word here is LARGE. I found them interesting especially since I live in the state with the most brown bears and I recently bought a reloading set up. I decided to post a review because I found very little information on the internet about these fine automatics when I was doing some pre purchase research.
Review:
I bought the Grizzly a month or so ago, used as they are out of production and I'm a cheapskate
They come in several variations depending on caliber and barell length. From what I've been able to gather the Grizzly Auto was available in three models, the mark I the Mark IV and the Mark V. The Mark I (mine) came in .45 Win mag, 10mm, 45 acp, 357 mag and is convertable between the calibers. The Mark IV came in .44 magnum and is not convertable. The Mark V came in .50 AE and is also not caliber convertable.
The various models also have barrel lenght variations some with a type of compensator attachment. I believe there was also a long slide version in .45 win mag.
My example is a .45 Winchester Magnum version in Government set up. The barell is 5 1/2 inches and flush with the end of the slide. The sights are very nice adjutable sights with white outline on the back and day glow orange on the front. I believe they are Millet sights. Mine is finished in a baked on dull finish like paint? I'm not sure what it is. It's better than the parkerized finish but not as nice as the hard chrome finish also offered by the factory.
The magazines are specific to the pistol and expensive as heck. My .45 win mag version holds 7 rounds in each mag.
The trigger on the Grizzly is very very nice. In fact I like it better than the Gold Cup I bought (anyone want it?) It's very nice and a grey alluminum adustable one i believe. All the controls are pure 1911 and the safety on mine is ambidextrious and hard chromed. Extended too.
I finall shot if more than a few rounds after my reloading dies and conversion for the 550b showed up. I loaded up some AA#7 and 250 grain lead bullets. According to the load chart from AA the last batch should have been doing 1400 ft / sec. I didn't have a chrony so I'll have to believe them. Recoil if you have shot a .44 mag loaded equivilantly is mild. It recoils much less than a .44 mag revolver shooting the same load. For this reason alone I could love it. But.....
I'd have to love it for two other things anyway. First, it is very very accurate with an excellent trigger. It shoots as well as my CZ-75 which is a tack driver too. I was getting bored shooting at my usuall 7 yards as I was just shooting into the same hole which was about an inch across. I was flinching a lot too as the noise is what you would expect from a .44 mag. It's a very accurate gun. It also had no failures to fire--- I shot about 80 rounds today. I did have some the first time I shot it using someone elses ammo, some factory but I polished up the barell hood and no problems now it seems. I suspect the gun had been shot very little before I got it.
In fact I can only think of a few minuses that must have cause Grizzly manufacturing to discontinue them. First they are heavy and BIG. I took off the factory pachmyr grips and replaced them with some home made wood ones slimming the grip a lot and getting rid of the front strap rubber. That helped a lot but it's still bigger around than a standard 1911 as the ammo is longer. Second they were expensive guns $800-900 new I think. Third the ammo is really expensive and not common in .45 win mag. the 80 rounds I shot up today would have cost about $25 /25rds so upwards of $75 for the days ammo as only a few loadings of premium ammo are available.
Here is a pic:
For those wondering the Grizzly is a LARGE 1911A1 pattern pistol that is out of production since 1999 I believe. The opperative word here is LARGE. I found them interesting especially since I live in the state with the most brown bears and I recently bought a reloading set up. I decided to post a review because I found very little information on the internet about these fine automatics when I was doing some pre purchase research.
Review:
I bought the Grizzly a month or so ago, used as they are out of production and I'm a cheapskate
They come in several variations depending on caliber and barell length. From what I've been able to gather the Grizzly Auto was available in three models, the mark I the Mark IV and the Mark V. The Mark I (mine) came in .45 Win mag, 10mm, 45 acp, 357 mag and is convertable between the calibers. The Mark IV came in .44 magnum and is not convertable. The Mark V came in .50 AE and is also not caliber convertable.The various models also have barrel lenght variations some with a type of compensator attachment. I believe there was also a long slide version in .45 win mag.
My example is a .45 Winchester Magnum version in Government set up. The barell is 5 1/2 inches and flush with the end of the slide. The sights are very nice adjutable sights with white outline on the back and day glow orange on the front. I believe they are Millet sights. Mine is finished in a baked on dull finish like paint? I'm not sure what it is. It's better than the parkerized finish but not as nice as the hard chrome finish also offered by the factory.
The magazines are specific to the pistol and expensive as heck. My .45 win mag version holds 7 rounds in each mag.
The trigger on the Grizzly is very very nice. In fact I like it better than the Gold Cup I bought (anyone want it?) It's very nice and a grey alluminum adustable one i believe. All the controls are pure 1911 and the safety on mine is ambidextrious and hard chromed. Extended too.
I finall shot if more than a few rounds after my reloading dies and conversion for the 550b showed up. I loaded up some AA#7 and 250 grain lead bullets. According to the load chart from AA the last batch should have been doing 1400 ft / sec. I didn't have a chrony so I'll have to believe them. Recoil if you have shot a .44 mag loaded equivilantly is mild. It recoils much less than a .44 mag revolver shooting the same load. For this reason alone I could love it. But.....
I'd have to love it for two other things anyway. First, it is very very accurate with an excellent trigger. It shoots as well as my CZ-75 which is a tack driver too. I was getting bored shooting at my usuall 7 yards as I was just shooting into the same hole which was about an inch across. I was flinching a lot too as the noise is what you would expect from a .44 mag. It's a very accurate gun. It also had no failures to fire--- I shot about 80 rounds today. I did have some the first time I shot it using someone elses ammo, some factory but I polished up the barell hood and no problems now it seems. I suspect the gun had been shot very little before I got it.
In fact I can only think of a few minuses that must have cause Grizzly manufacturing to discontinue them. First they are heavy and BIG. I took off the factory pachmyr grips and replaced them with some home made wood ones slimming the grip a lot and getting rid of the front strap rubber. That helped a lot but it's still bigger around than a standard 1911 as the ammo is longer. Second they were expensive guns $800-900 new I think. Third the ammo is really expensive and not common in .45 win mag. the 80 rounds I shot up today would have cost about $25 /25rds so upwards of $75 for the days ammo as only a few loadings of premium ammo are available.
Here is a pic:
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