Recently, a friend and fellow-CZ'er decided to sell a few safe queens and I was one of that decision's beneficiaries. Among other things were a couple of unfired Guncrafter Industries 1911's chambered in .50 GI. I remembered hearing about .50 GI from time to time. It had been around since 2004 but I hadn't heard much else about it since Guncrafter came out with the Glock 20/21 conversion kit that turned your .45 ACP Glock into a .50 GI Glock. I think that was around 2010? .50 GI never became wildly popular among shooters due to it's .45 ACP-like performance but, with the right load, .50 GI proved itself to be excellent for competition, particularly, in bowling pin matches where a 1911-sized gun shooting a low-recoiling, large, heavy bullet traveling at moderate speeds is a distinct advantage.
(L) 300gr JFP .50 GI (R) 230gr JHP .45 ACP
.50 GI is the brainchild of Alex Zimmerman (owner, Guncrafter Industries) and made its debut at the 2004 SHOT Show. Zimmerman had worked at Wilson Combat for several years and had been a competitive shooter in his native Denmark before starting GI in Huntsville, Arkansas. .50 GI has the same sized rebated rim of .45 ACP which makes it possible to chamber it in a 1911-sized pistol and it delivers some very impressive defensive performance in the 185gr and 230gr JHP loadings (1250/1100 fps respectively) and offers re-loaders a lot of flexibility in terms of bullet weights. I'm planning to contact Tom at Accurate Molds to see what he would charge to make me some in .50 GI. Casting bullets would certainly do wonders to lower the costs of re-loading .50 GI.
Guncrafter Industries Model 3 Bobtail Commander
30 rounds of 300gr JFP @ 10 yards (5.1gr Hodgdon's Titegroup, Large CCI pistol primers)
Guncrafter Industries Model 1 Government
Got the Model 1 out of 7-day wait jail yesterday and hit the range this afternoon for a little practice on pins using the 300gr JFP load: 5.1 grains of Hodgdon's Titegroup powder and CCI large pistol primers. I haven't sat down and actually done the math but, I'm guestimating the power factor is 245-250ish? This load looks ideal for shooting a match where .45 ACP might be your first choice: 720-730 fps out of a 5" barrel with recoil very similar to 45 ACP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTczSkW2pkMMy only complaint about .50 GI, so far, is that at fifty cents-a-pop I find myself somewhat obsessed about retrieving empty cases. Otherwise, it's a pretty awesome cartridge. Even marginal impacts on a bowling pin still generate enough oomph to get them off the table and solid hits just send them flying.
As far as the Model 1 goes, it was exactly what I expected it to be: freakishly accurate and flawless in performance. Time to go load another 500!
