Back in 2004, I first heard rumblings of a fella out of the Denmark who had moved to the U.S. to make a .50 cal cartridge on a 1911 platform.  I thought this was kinda interesting until I saw the price.  Holy Moly.  I got in contact with the guy through email and found out he was working on getting conversion kits ready for other platforms.  Most interesting to me was one in the works for a Glock 21.

While waiting for that to drop, I was still trying to evaluate the usefulness of this kind of cartridge compared to the .45 ACP, which is the service niche it was competing with.  A couple years passed and I still hadn't made a move.  The Glock conversions were now available and in Sept of 2008, I figured it was time to give it a try.

I scoured GunBroker looking for a good deal on a used 21 and in Oct got the conversion kit and reloading dies ordered.  It really is one of the easiest conversions there is.  A complete upper is delivered ready to drop on the 21 frame and existing 21 magazines are opened up a bit to accommodate the larger diameter case.  By Dec, I had my .50 cal Glock 21 put together.

Factory ammo was available but expensive at the time.  I haven't looked recently but this really is a handloading venture.  The 230 gr load I had worked up for my .45 ACP at 860 fps was kinda the target velocity I would be shooting for in this new cartridge, but using a 275 gr hp that Rainier was making.  By the time I was done, I had a reliable, comfortable load registering over the chrony at 920 fps.  I was pleased.

She's a fat little sucker.  The .50 GI has the same oal as the .45 ACP with a rebated rim the same diameter as the ACP for easy drop in conversion.  I have since learned that Rainier has dropped their 275 gr .50 hollow point but have been assured that a replacement hp in that same weight is being worked on and may already be available.  I haven't checked for some time.

Anyway, if you're interested in a pretty neat conversion, have a look at this one.  A .50 cal bullet out of a glock is certainly unique.  lol.  Full disclosure, the conversion kit cost almost 200$ more then my Glock 21 did so that might be a negative for some folks.  k