Hunting handgun questions?

Question

I have a few questions about the handgun I recently purchased. I don't know much about it, and most info that I'm looking for is elusive to me, so any help is great.

I start by saying that I purchased a L.A.R. Grizzly Mark I with a 6.5" barrel chambered for the .45 Winchester Magnum. It is dual-tone, with the slide being blued and the frame being satin silver. There is an earlier factory compensator installed on this unit from what I understand. It has no box, one magazine, and factory grips. The bluing on the slide is wearing off on the sharp corners and along the edges where the slide meets the frame. it still locks up like a bank vault, the action is extremely smooth, with a capital E, and the magazine seems to have a spring loaded ejector for some reason (it kicks out the magazine when you press the mag release), and I paid $995 with tax, so a grand total of $1,083.56. Here are my questions:

1: Was this a good price based on how I have described the firearm in question?

2: There are numerous conversion kits that were made by the manufacturer (if you don't know the brand, L.A.R. Grizzly stopped making the pistols after 1999). I was wondering if the 9 mm Winchester Magnum could fire 9 mm Luger, or a cheaper 9 mm round.

3: Does anyone know what kind of accuracy these can get? I heard of a guy who took a white tail at 140 yards from a stand with this thing and it just dropped, but that just sounds like a lucky shot more than what the actual capability of the firearm is.

4: Here is a list of the conversion kits that I know about:

9 mm Winchester Magnum

.45 ACP

.357 Magnum

.357/45 WMG

10 mm auto

.38 Super

Out of all these conversions, what would you get and why? (I'm thinking of getting the .45 ACP for home defense, and maybe the .357 for plinking)

Thank you for your time.

Lone Wolf

Answer 1

Yes, that sounds like a good price on a large, high-quality autoloader. It's unfortunate that they cost that much, but at my gunshows that's the going rate. A thousand bucks is pretty standard.

I couldn't begin to tell you about 9mm compatibilities, as I don't own any 9 mils. I use one when assigned, but that's it.

Any pistol, and I mean any (even in rifle calibers), is beyond its intended range at 140 yards. Whoever made this shot (assuming they are not exaggerating) was reckless to even try. Lucky shot, with a very high-power caliber (10mm) and you're still not there yet.

I'd get the 45 ACP for defense, the 9mm for plinking (9mil is a lot cheaper ammo than 357) and maybe the 10mm for hunting/machoism.