Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns LAR Grizzly Mark I

Hello everyone, I have long been interested in Magnum handguns, the less common ones especially, and now there are two Grizzlies for sale near me.
I'm wondering if anyone here has experience handling and shooting these guns and if someone can give me some advice on what to look for.
Thanks!

I've liked the Grizzlies since they came out. If a 45 win mag happened my way, I'd be very tempted. I remember shooting one back in the mid 90's, when I RO'd a range. Don't remember the specifics other than thinking the grip was huge. I think a 44 mag revolver covers anything the Grizzly can do, maybe even better, but there's just something about a 1911 shooting a 44mag equivalent.

I shot one belonging to a friend, but that was 30 years ago. I would field-strip it and look closely at the barrel lugs and the barrel link and the area the link is pinned to. Look for any cracks or splits in the steel. The 1911 is a good strong action, really, and they were/are pretty good pistols, although I didn't like the Millett sights much, as I prefer a deeper rear sight notch. They are a handful, if you have smaller hands like me. Check the sights, too, Millett sights were never known for robustness.

I use to own an LAR Grizzly in 45 win mag, only thing I remember about it was that it was a real thumper, heavy when fully loaded and the grip was huge. I'd put it up there with the Desert Eagle size wise.

I worked at LAR in the mid eighties and got to fire a few of them. They were a handful but were fun as heck to shoot.

I’ve seen a bunch that the Millet Dual Crimp front sight flew off of. Not quite as heavy and cumbersome as a DE but pretty dang chunky. The 45 Win Mags always seemed to work best of the available calibers but were hampered by lack of suitable ammo for hunting or bear gun duties.

One of my old partners bought one and carried it on duty for a while. I shot it., you’ll remember it. They would make an awesome hunting platform.

Only time Ive ever seen one was in the movie “Sniper”.

Thank you for all the advice. After looking into the gun and it's innards a little it's kind of a mystery to me that nobody has ever tried bringing these back into production after LAR discontinued them.
Seems like a significantly more reliable gun than both the Desert Eagle, Wildey and Automag while only needing 12 proprietary parts. Not even to mention the genius caliber conversion system Mr Arnett invented.
Would probably sell like hotcakes in my country, since you can only own 4 handguns but an unlimited amount of caliber conversions.
Does anyone know what Mr Arnett doing these days and if he has ever given a thought to bringing it back?

Can't comment on the others, but I had a .44 Rem Mag Desert Eagle since early '89,... and I found it to be utterly reliable. It wouldn't handle wimp ammo, but everything reasonable ALWAYS worked.

Mine was the alloy-frame version, intentionally the lighter-weight version for hunting... and it was the first. 44 version I could get my hands on after seeing the early .357 intro model circa '85 at the big gunshow in Berchtesgarden.

Only just sold mine a few weeks ago, actually. Early on, when I was using it for hunting and occasionally competing in silhouette matches, my hands were bigger. Or maybe the DE grip was smaller.

-Chris

The LAR Grizzly = basically a 1911 with a gland disorder .

I currently own a Grizzly MK 1 chambered in 45 Win Mag that was manufactured in 1987 . Mine has the factory barrel bushing / compensator . I also have 5 magazines and the factory box and all paperwork .

My story / fascination with the LAR Grizzly goes back to 1990 . I walked in the local firearm boutique and there was a gently used one for sale with ALL the available conversion kits ( except the .357/45 GWM ) .

The package included all reloading components , dies , accoutrements , etc …. I forgot the used price ( 1990 ) , but it was peanuts compared to todays value . As a fool I walked away mumbling to myself at the price . Well , two days later I came to my senses and went back to buy it and yup , everything was gone .

Fast forward to 2006 and I found one local in 45 WM that I still own . For additional $$ I got 200 rounds of Winchester factory 230 FMJ grain loads , and 500 Winchester factory primed cases .

I last time I corresponded with Perry Arnett was in October of 2015 . As far as I know , all LAR Grizzly technologies ( blueprints , jigs , fixtures , tooling , intellectual property , etc ) is for sale , license or joint venture .

I would love to see someone resurrect this great platform .

It was in Sniper ?

That's very interesting, bulkie. I might just have to write to some local gunmakers to see if anybody likes the idea. Maybe even run some surveys on who'd buy some.
I can imagine real well that at least a new run of magazines and conversions would sell pretty well. The weakest link I see in the whole system is the .45 Win Mag and it's unicorn status, but hey there's always the Mark IV.

Anyways... What about this one? I'm not too sure about the two-tone finish. If anyone would share an opinion that would be nice.