Bond Arms Grizzly 45 Colt / 410 Derringer 3 in. Stainless – Proven Big Bore Backup

Description

The Bond Arms Grizzly derringer is a two-shot stainless handgun that answers a very old question in a very direct way: what do you carry when a rifle is not practical and a snake, a dog or a bad afternoon is. Two barrels, two big-bore rounds, no magazine, no slide and nothing to go wrong in a pocket.

Chambered for .45 Colt and for 2.5 in. .410 shells, it swaps between a heavy pistol bullet and a load of buckshot without changing a part. The grips are rosewood with a grizzly bear laser-engraved into a medallion on each side, the frame and barrels are stainless throughout, and a leather holster ships in the box rather than as an upsell.

This is the trigger-guard version, which matters more than it sounds. Bond Arms sells several models without one, and the guard is the difference between a gun that rides comfortably in a jacket pocket and one you handle with extra deliberation. Everything else is standard Bond Arms BAGR specification, which is to say heavier and better finished than the price bracket usually allows.

Two barrels, two calibers, one decision

• Top and bottom barrels fire in sequence from a single trigger, so there is no selector to remember under pressure.
• .45 Colt gives you a 250-grain-class bullet at close range with no choke, no spread and no wadding.
• A 2.5 in. .410 shell turns the same gun into a short-range scattergun, which is why this pattern has lived on ranches and in tackle boxes for a century.
• The barrel assembly is interchangeable with every standard Bond Arms barrel, so one frame can become a .357, a 9mm or a .22 later on.
• A 45 Colt 410 derringer carries flat and square rather than long, which is a different and often easier shape to conceal than a service pistol.

What Bond Arms builds into every frame

• Patented rebounding hammer, which returns off the firing pins after the strike.
• Retracting firing pins, so nothing rests against a primer at rest.
• Cross-bolt safety through the frame.
• Spring-loaded, cammed locking lever that pulls the barrels tight to the standing breech rather than merely holding them closed.
• Stainless steel frame and stainless barrels, not a plated or coated alloy.
• A fitted trigger guard, making this a two shot derringer with trigger guard rather than the bare-trigger classic.
• Blade front sight and a fixed rear, machined into the top strap.

Bond Arms Grizzly derringer specifications

• Manufacturer part number: Bond Arms BAGR (BAGR-45)
• Calibers: .45 Colt and .410 bore
• Chamber: 410 bore 2.5 inch chamber, roll-marked on the barrel
• Barrel length: 3 in., double barrel
• Capacity: 2 rounds
• Weight: approximately 1.3 lb.
• Frame and barrels: stainless steel
• Grips: rosewood with a laser-engraved grizzly bear medallion
• Sights: blade front, fixed rear
• Safety: cross-bolt, plus a rebounding hammer and retracting firing pins
• Trigger guard: fitted
• Barrel interchange: accepts all standard Bond Arms barrels
• In the box: leather holster
• Built in: Granbury, Texas
• UPC: 855959002892

Two and a half inches, not three

This is the single most important line on the page, and it is missing from most listings of this gun. The barrel is roll-marked GRIZZLY BEAR 45 COLT / 2-5 INCH 410. That means a 410 bore 2.5 inch chamber. Three-inch .410 bore shells will not chamber, and trying to make them is how people damage guns.

Plenty of .410 on a shelf is 3 in. magnum, so read the box. The 2.5 in. loads are common enough, they simply sit beside the longer ones and look nearly identical through packaging. Buckshot, birdshot and slug loads are all made in the shorter hull.

One thing the distributor sheets get wrong

One of our wholesale sources files this model under the Bond Arms Rough Series. It is not one. The Rough Series guns wear a deliberately unpolished finish and rubber grips at a lower cost. What you see here is satin stainless with rosewood, which is the standard line. If you came looking for the rough finish, the Rowdy in .45 Colt and .410 is the gun you actually want, and it takes the same barrels.

Honest limits

Two rounds is two rounds. There is no reload that is fast under stress, the sights are rudimentary by design, and .45 Colt out of a 3 in. tube is loud and abrupt in a 21-ounce gun. Nobody should buy a Bond Arms Grizzly derringer as their only handgun or their range gun.

What it is very good at is being present. It rides in a coat pocket, a saddlebag, a tackle box or a glovebox without complaint, it does not care about lint or damp, and it puts a serious projectile on target inside conversational distance. That is the whole brief, and it has been the brief since before cartridge guns had safeties.

Why the Bond Arms Grizzly derringer earns its place

• Stainless throughout, so it survives storage in places a blued gun would not.
• Interchangeable Bond Arms barrels turn one frame into a small collection over time.
• The included holster is real leather and fitted, not a nylon afterthought.
• Four separate mechanical safeties for a gun with no magazine and no slide.
• Made in Texas, with a company that has been building this one design since 1995.

If you want the same two calibers with a longer tube, the America 250th in 4.25 in. stainless gives you more velocity and a slightly better sight picture. If budget matters more than finish, the Rowdy is the same mechanism in workwear. For something different entirely, the Roughneck in .45 ACP and the single-barrel Cyclops in 45-70 show how far this frame stretches.

Feed it properly. Hornady 255gr .45 Colt is soft-shooting practice fodder that will not beat you up while you learn the trigger, and Sellier and Bellot .410 in the correct 2.5 in. hull, loaded with 000 buckshot is the serious end of what this gun does. Read the hull length on anything else you buy.

See the rest of our handguns category or the wider firearms range. More on the platform is available direct from Bond Arms, and every transfer here goes through a licensed dealer.