Big-Block Glock: Guncrafter Industries.50GI Conversion

Guncrafter Industries.50GI conversion is the best option if you want your Glock with momentum en masse. A 9mm +P+ with JHPs of 115 grains is the best option if you prefer KE. If you prefer momentum, you can choose something chambered with.45. A.45 ACP can fire a bullet of 230 grains at 850 fps or a Colt with a bullet of 255 grains at 750 feet per second. This is the equivalent to small-block V-8s with high-compression engines. (We won’t talk about alcohol-burning race engines at 12,000 RPM. But what if you want more momentum? How about we reduce the 9mm+P+ velocity by half and increase the 9mm weight by more than twice? You could even exceed the.45-weight. A 300-grain JHP running at 700 fps should suffice. How do you achieve that? Guncrafter Industries comes to your rescue with the.50 GI. The Guncrafter.50 GI upper on a Glock G21 Lower. Massive MomentumThe.50 GI gives you all that in a self-loading pistol. This is a Glock that was originally loaded in.45 ACP, but lost its.45 identity somewhere along the way. It now has a.50-GI conversion upper. Unload your G21.45 Glock. Set aside the entire upper assembly. As if you were reassembling your.45, grab the.50 GI upper. You’re done. You’re done. Guncrafter also made a slide and barrel that would fit the.50 GI. Then, he added the standard Glock internals to the slide and a recoil spring for the extra slide mass. Everything works as you would expect. You can swap out any other type of sights if you need them. This is the benefit of good engineering and planning. Guncrafter’s slide can take standard Glock sights. You can also swap out any of your favorite sights for the.50 GI. Guncrafter offers conversion barrels for those who wish to go that route. You have the option of a 4.6-inch barrel or a 5.3 inch barrel threaded 5/8-24… or a 6-inch barrel if you need a bit more speed. The case is wider to hold the.500-inch bullet. However, the full-up length for the.45 ACP cartridge is the same as the.45 ACP. Converting Glocks is easy because the.50 GI loaded round is the same length as the.45 ACP. It is a 300-grain FMJ with a flat nose. At 700 fps it can knock down steel and broom pins with brio. The.50 GI cannot be held in a single-stack magazine. There isn’t enough space side-to-side. Guncrafter will provide a custom 1911 to make a.50 GI 1911. I have used them in the past and they are a great choice. This is not about the Glock. The G21 uses a double stack magazine so fitting the.50 GI in a mag is easy. They hold fewer rounds but that’s the price you pay to get a larger bullet. You should also pay attention to a small detail: Mark your magazines. Glock 45 magazines are required if you have a Glock in.45 ACP you want to use for your.50 GI. You should mark your 50 magazines so you can distinguish them. A larger magazine will have a different feed lip spacing and geometry to a smaller magazine. You could theoretically take.45 Glock magazines and make them match the feed lips of a.50 GI magazine. To do this, you would have to either be extremely bored or very, very incorrectly poor. You’re going to buy ready-to use, modified-to-60 GI magazines for $60, and a thousand-dollar milling tool (the cheapest available). Even if you don’t make any mistakes learning how to cut mags (which you will, I have no doubt), it wouldn’t cost you anything until you had made your 29th magazine. Alex Zimmerman, Guncrafter’s owner, explained that it’s more than just passing an edge mill cutter over the feed lips. You won’t be disappointed if you buy. The Glock.50 GI conversion uses a Glock Frame, but the magazines have been modified to feed.50 GI cartridges. The magazines are modified to hold nine rounds of.50 GI compared with the 13 that come with the.45 ACP mags. Feeding MomentumLoad ammo is much easier. Your brass will last a long time because the.50 GI operates at the same pressure as.45 ACP. The required resizing force is minimal. The bullets and cases are large and easy-to-handle. The rim is smaller than the case. It can be fitted to a.45 slide because of this. It can be fitted to a.45 slide if you have an automatic case feeder. You will have to manually feed the empties. It’s not a major deal and you won’t be loading 5-gallon containers of.50 GI bullets. However, you do have options. Once you have found what you like (and your pistol), how many options do you need? Bullet weights can range from 255 to 350 grains on either the light or heavy end. Although velocity is in the moderate range, we are still looking for momentum. 300-grain bullets at 700 fps have a 210 power factor. This is more than many.45 ACP+P loads. With the right powders and the ability to endure recoil, it is possible to push bullets faster that you might think. The 275-grainers can run at just over 900 FPS, while the 300s and mid-800s can go up to 800 FPS, and 325-grain bullets can go up to 800 FPS. 350-grain bullets can go up to 750 FPS. These range from a power factor between 255 and 262. These are great for thumping. The brisk.50 GI loads have the same momentum as a mild.44 Magnum. This is because the pistol doesn’t have a sharp bar. The brass is the only thing that’s not included in the conversion barrel or upper. Guncrafter is the only place that can supply it. Guncrafter is the only company that can make it. It cannot be made from any other case and even if it could, the cost would be higher than buying GI brass. Guncrafter currently charges $60 per 100 new empties for.50 GI brass. This is twice the price of high-performance brass. Unless you use your.50 GI pistol for “lost brass” matches, the initial cost is not significant as they can withstand dozens of loadings. Low-pressure cases and tungsten carbide sizing tools make loading easy. However, your bullet options will not be as extensive as the brass. Guncrafter also offers bullets and cases. A quick search reveals a few other bullet providers. What you need are cast, coated, plated or jacketed bullets of .500-inch diameter, and ones short enough to fit in the case and under the cartridge-overall-length of the .45 ACP and .50 GI. This excludes some of the.50 handgun cartridges. You won’t be able use the heavyweights that you might load into a.500 S&W or.50 GI magnum. The.50 GI bullet weight range is between 255 and 350 grains. You can use your.50 GI just like any other firearm once you have a supply bullets and brass. It’s easy to load for benchrest once you have all the components. You don’t have the time or expertise to create.38-40 cowboy loads. The.50 GI can be loaded easily because the case has a.45 ACP rim. You can use a press shell plate or shell-holder for a.45 to load the case. And dies? My dies are from Hornady, where they made a run a while back. There are other die-makers, such as Lee (available at Guncrafter), and the case is straight-walled. This allows you to choose a tungsten carbide sizer. Pin shooting is an area where the.50 GI excels. At 210 PF and higher, a 300-grain bullet or heavier brooms pins with efficiency. You’ll get your empty.50GI empties back if you are kind to brass rats. A.50 GI is the best choice if you’re looking for a thumper. However, it should not be used as a backup to your Jurassic Park-style long-gun. My friend and 1911 pistolsmith Ned Christiansen has a set of.50 GI guns on pins. The muzzle brake on one of them is quite impressive. It’s not because he needs it to handle the recoil of a.50 GI (it’s not much more than the others). You can’t afford to lose when you want to win and stay the most successful. Storm Tactical’s impressive target pack includes62 printable targets for rifle and handgun range usage. Target grids and bullseye sizes can be downloaded in MOA. This is a great option for long-range shooting. Enter your email address below.