Bye
.45
The 1911 Steps up to .50
And Gets A Rail.
Story By Dave Anderson
Photos By Ichiro Nagata
Actually there are practical reasons — big game hunting and self-defense come to mind. Currently we have excellent 50-caliber factory cartridges for either purpose. The big Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum was designed to be the world’s most powerful factory handgun cartridge, a goal it certainly achieved. If you want to hunt big animals with a really big handgun and cartridge with tremendous power and recoil, the .500 Magnum will oblige.
Guncrafter Industries had a different design objective, and they too have met their goal brilliantly. The objective was to put a 50-caliber cartridge in America’s classic handgun, the 1911 autopistol. Where the .500 S&W is primarily a hunting cartridge, the .50 GI is primarily a personal defense round.
Theories of handgun stopping power have been propounded and discussed since the handgun was invented. I wouldn’t mind having back all the time I’ve spent reading and listening to the various theories. About the only things I’m (fairly) sure of are: shot placement is critical, and the only bullets worse than lead roundnose are jacketed roundnose.
Julian Hatcher was a military officer and student of firearms and ammunition. John Taylor was an African big-game hunter. Both date back to the first half of the 20th century, both were smart, observant men and good writers. Both concluded bullet cross-sectional area played a significant role in stopping power. Both included bullet diameter in formulas rating the relative effectiveness of various cartridges.
Without debating the various theories I’ll just say the .50 GI follows Hatcher’s and Taylor’s model — a big-bore, heavy bullet at moderate velocity. If that’s the model you prefer — and many people do — the .50 GI is the ultimate defensive pistol cartridge.
The .50 GI came about from the efforts of Alex Zimmerman and Vic Tibbets, founders of Guncrafter Inc. Previously Zimmerman was Director of Research and Development for eight years with Wilson Combat. Tibbets spent 17 years at “Wilson Combat University” before leaving to make his own highly regarded 1911 Classic Fighters.
Concept To Life
While bringing the concept into reality no doubt took a great deal of planning and work, the cartridge itself is simple and uncomplicated, much like a .45 ACP case, just a wee bit shorter and bigger around. The case head is rebated, so it is the same diameter as the .45 ACP.
Rebated case heads cause no reliability problems provided the magazine is correctly designed for the cartridge. I’ve used other cartridges with rebated case heads such as the .284 Win., .41 Action Express, and .50 Beowulf, all of which proved completely reliable. The .50 GI proved no exception.
Factory ammunition is available through Guncrafter. Starline makes the brass and also makes cases for reloaders. The quality of Starline brass is excellent. Lee Precision and Hornady make loading dies, and .50 caliber bullets in various weights are offered by most all of the major bullet manufacturers. For load data check, the Web sites of American Handgunner (Charles Petty, Sept./Oct. 2004 issue) and GUNS Magazine (John Taffin, Sept. 2005 issue).
For testing I had three factory loads. The table shows factory claimed velocities and chronographed averages (10 rounds each) measured 15' from the muzzle with a Millennium chronograph. This is high-quality ammunition, consistent, accurate and reliable.
The original Guncrafter Industries Model No. 1 is virtually identical to a modern, full-size 1911 autopistol. Guncrafter recently introduced a second model, called, with impeccable logic, the Model No. 2. The difference is the front extension of the frame extends the full length of the slide. The extension has an integral accessory rail for those who wish to fit white or infrared lights, laser aiming devices, or maybe a custom-made bayonet. I tried several white lights and laser aimers on the gun. All fitted properly and locked securely in place.
Quality of the Guncrafter Industries pistol can be described in one word: Superb. OK, I know one word isn’t enough. This is an outstanding pistol, beautifully machined and fitted. It isn’t inexpensive, quite the contrary, but the quality of materials and workmanship is commensurate with the price.
As with the original, the Model No. 2 is built on a forged-steel frame and slide. There is no perceptible play in the slide to frame fit. Out of the box I thought the fit was actually too tight. It took a pretty good effort to retract the slide, but after 125 rounds, hand cycling was slick and smooth, still with no trace of play. Finish is a non-reflective, low-luster Parkerizing, smooth, even, and durable.
Of course the pistol incorporates all the features of the modern 1911, including a beavertail grip safety with “speed bump” to ensure it is depressed by a normal grip; extended, ambidextrous thumb safety, semiextended ejector, frontstrap and mainspring housing checkered at 20 lines per inch for a positive grip. The mainspring housing incorporates a very neat and unobtrusive lanyard attachment point, especially handy if you spend a lot of time around boats or parachutes. If you don’t need the feature you’ll hardly notice it is there.
The rear sight is the excellent Heinie Slant-Pro, strongly mounted in a dovetail slot, adjustable for windage by loosening its locking screw and drifting the sight right or left. The sight is serrated on its rear surface, nicely rounded to prevent snagging on clothes. The front sight, also dovetail mounted, is ramped just enough to prevent snagging while presenting a sharp image to the shooter
An interesting feature of the front sight is its shape. At the back (that is, what the shooter sees while aiming) it is .125" wide. It then tapers from back to front, so at the front it is just .115" wide. Any buildup of powder residue on the front of the sight during a shooting session does not affect the sight picture. Both front and rear sights of the test gun were fitted with Trijicon tritium night sight inserts.
The big .50 uses a bull (make that a bull) barrel, expanded at the front to fit the slide without a barrel bushing. There’s a reverse recoil spring plug and recoil spring guide rod. The Wolff recoil spring feels to me like a 20 or 22 pounder. There’s a polymer shock buffer on the guide rod, and a spare in the attractive carrying case (extras are five for $6.95). Barrel fit is as good as it gets, with zero perceptible play front or rear.
Rifling of the stainless steel barrel is of conventional design, but with eight lands and grooves rather than the four or six more commonly encountered. I guess the makers felt what the heck, we’ve got a 1/2" of space here, let’s add a couple of rifling lands. Rifling twist is 1-18" to the right.
Accuracy testing consisted of five, 5-shot groups at 25 yards with each of the three loads provided, hand held from an Outer’s Pistol Perch. Depending on the load, accuracy ranged from very good to downright spooky. The 300-grain jacketed flatpoint (JFP) loads gave the biggest group average, this despite a rather amazing velocity spread of just 19 fps. The five-group average was 2.24", still better than most service autopistols.
However the jacketed hollowpoint (JHP) loads, both 275- and 300-grain, absolutely shot the lights out with an overall average group size of just 1.14". Both bullet weights shot so well I couldn’t see a significant difference. Shooting tight groups with small bullets is fun. Shooting tight groups with big, heavy bullets is really fun. Overall trigger quality (consistency, smoothness, take-up, overtravel) was very good, though at five pounds four ounces a bit heavier than I like.
Functioning proved flawless through firing 125 rounds, not as extensive a test as I prefer, but all the ammunition I had available. I’m sure some of the credit for reliable function goes to the top-quality magazines (two supplied with the pistol). These seven-round magazines are made of heavier gauge steel than standard 1911 magazines, with Wolff magazine springs and slick-feeding polymer followers. Both mags locked readily in place, activated the slide stop to lock the slide back when empty, and ejected freely from the pistol whether loaded or empty
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I suppose I have to discuss recoil, though frankly it is hardly worth mentioning. Anyone who can shoot a standard 1911 .45 can shoot the .50 GI. The 300-grain/725 fps loads feel much like standard 230-grain .45 ACP ball. The 275-grain/900 fps load has a bit of snap to it, much like 230-grain +P loads in a .45.
A couple of shooters at the range asked if standard 1911s could be converted to .50 GI with a simple barrel, recoil spring and magazine swap. It would be nice, but it can’t be done. The .50 GI magazines are a bit wider to accept the fatter cartridge, which in turn means the magazine well in the frame and the trigger bow are also wider, but not by much. Compared to a ’70s era Colt, the grip frame of the Guncrafter pistol is .025" wider. With the slim aluminum Aluma-Grips the .50 feels like a standard 1911 in the hand, but the magazines won’t fit a standard frame.
You can convert the other way. Guncrafter Industries offers a kit (barrel, recoil spring, and magazine) to convert the .50 GI to accept .45 ACP ammunition. These kits are custom fitted to the slide and frame by Guncrafter, giving the shooter one of the very best custom .45s available, with the option of using .50 GI ammunition as desired. A .50 caliber 1911 is a great idea, and Guncrafter Industries has done a wonderful job of making it a reality.
air and is back on target with the 275-grain reduced velocity load.
and is demonstrably bigger than the .45 ACP (right).
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