Magnum Caliber Semi-Auto Handguns LAR Grizzly

    I owned a very early model which had a red tinted frame and I shot several thousand rounds through it in both 45 Win Mag and 357 magnum. I also put about 500 rounds through a friends 50AE Grizzly and about 200 rounds through another friends 10" long slide 357/45 Win Mag. The trigger pull on these guns all need a little tuning to get the slight creep out, but being a 1911 it is no problem and well tuned, the trigger is exceptional. The guns all function very reliably and work just like a very well tuned crispy 1911 45 ACP. The grip is rather large and feels longer and narrower than the Desert Eagle. Accuracy is very good, but not quite like a Desert Eagle or 44 AutoMag. Recoil is probably the heaviest of all of the big bore autos and in my opinion the 6.5" 45 Win Mag configuration recoils the most, even more than the 50AE. Keep in mind, the 50AE is a larger and heavier gun than its 45 WinMag brother and seems to produce lower recoil velocity despite firing the larger cartridge. When shooting very hot loads through the 45 Win Mag, the gun has a tendency to twist up and left in your hand. If you do not have a good grip on it, or have rather small hands it can get away from you and rotate nearly perpendicular to your target after firing. I kind of like shooting a big nasty recoiling gun myself, it just seems so much more invigorating than shooting a little popgun. The 10 inch long slide Grizzly has no where near the tendency to spin sideways in your hand and makes the gun very mild to shoot especially in 357/45 WinMag caliber. These guns do tend to pound the recoil spring guide to pieces. This part must be replaced about every 1000 rounds due to it mushrooming out where it is slammed between the slide and the frame. The 357/45 Win Mag is basically a 357 AutoMag, but LAR runs a thinner neck wall, so the 357 AMP round won't chamber. This causes the reloader to inside neck ream the cases whereas in the 357 AMP, you just buy Starline 44 AMP brass and neck it down as-is. All in all, a very nice gun, and one worth having around. Unfortunately, LAR stopped production recently, so those spare parts which are not common to the standard 1911 will be very difficult to find. Caliber swaps are very easily accomplished, however they do require resighting the gun for each one, since each barrel locks up in the slide a bit differently.