Tag Archives: 45 Winchester magnum

GWM: The Grizzly Winchester Magnum

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Formed in West Jordan, Utah in 1968, L.A.R. busied itself with bolt action rifles and upper receiver assemblies for AR-15 style carbines until SHOT Show 1983, when they appeared in Dallas with eight different caliber conversion units for M1911 pistols, and a gun they tentatively called the Grizzly Winchester Magnum, or GWM. Designed by L.A.R. owner Heinz Augat and Perry Arnett, who held accurizing patents for M1911 style handguns, the Grizzly was something special.

Like 6.5-inch extended barrel, .45 Winchester Magnum kinda special.

How about a 27-pound recoil spring?

More in my column at Guns.com.

Paging hand cannons, paging hand cannons

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Recently I’ve been fooling about with some rarely-encountered but nonetheless very cool guns:

The Auto Mag .44AMP of Mack Bolan fame… 

…and a Wildey gas-operated .45 Win Mag of Charles Bronson vintage 

Both are aristocratic hand cannons from a different era. We call it the 1970s and 80s.

With that in mind, I’ll be in Las Vegas for SHOT Show all week, so stay tuned for updates on cool guy stuff.