Glock 21 - .50 GI Review

i'd first caught wind of this cartridge back in 2005. info had been swirling around the www about an easy shooting, short .50 cal cartridge that had been introduced at the shot show a year earlier. i was instantly intrigued. a cc, personal defense type weapon was indeed the purpose i had in mind. but i quickly had to shelf the desire. a zimm was indeed proud of the product he had created and the prices of the custom 1911 .50 gi reflected this. i never did look interest in the round but kinda forgot about it over time.

then in 2008, i tripped across an article that told of a conversion kit that was available for glock 21's for, of all things, the .50 gi. i was back in business. i went right to work getting my conversion kit delivered. the kit included a ss slide, ss barrel, spring and spring guide. $699 had it in my hands by december of that year.

as easy as the slides are to manipulate on these glocks, that's how simply the conversion went. it took less then a minute to remove the old .45 slide and secure the new .50 into place. it was ready to shoot that quick. there had been reports across the net of some minor smithing adjustments being required with some conversions but not mine. it was a perfect, snug fit. an extended 9-round magazine was run in and the gun was completed :



i'd had some factory 275 and 300 gr. ammo delivered as i was waiting for the slide and once all was together, wasted no time testing things out. i was floored. i ran nothing over the chrony in the dead of winter but if the performance of these rounds was anywhere near the advertised numbers with the comfort and easy of shooting, i'd certainly found myself another primary cc weapon.

load development was completed a couple weeks ago. as reported in another string, my go to load will be a 275 gr. rainier hp averaging 925 fps. function's flawless. exactly what you'd expect of a glock. guncrafters industries did an awesome job melding their complete slide kit to this 21 platform. performance is about 50 fps beyond advertised numbers. comfort wise, you wouldn't know you're shooting anything larger then a .45 acp 230 gr. load. and accuracy is far better then required to make it a very bad day for anyone looking to do harm to me or mine. in every respect, this package has exceeded my expectations :






when i got into this cartridge, my standard for comparison was obviously going to be the .45 acp and the time-tested performance of its 230 gr. bullet at 900 (+/-) fps. with all i've seen handloading for and using it, to say i'm happy with the purchase would indeed be an understatement. i love my bersa .45acp and would not hesitate using it for my personal defense but the glock 21 .50 gi has indeed proven itself to be a very powerful, cc, personal defense type alternative.

k