I've had the BR to move up to $50NL for a little while. I've tried a few times and started each time with a greater loss than I wanted to deal with.

Well, I punched up into NL$50 this week and again took what felt like heavy losses - 2 buy-ins just about out of the gate. That's a bit more than I had taken in the previous attempts, but I also stuck with it longer.

Looking back through the hands, some was impatient play, some was lack of cards. Once I settled down, things went much better and, lo and behold, about a week later, I've got my 2 buy-ins and more back and I'm feeling better about this move up.

Is this a typical experience when moving up?

It sounds like its just due to variance in the run of cards you have been getting. Since you say you have made some small attempts you probably have a very small sample size. Also, it takes a bit of time getting used to the increase in bet sizes. But NL 25 and NL 50 should be very similar is skill level.

I experienced more bad beats today. Down a couple more buy-ins.

Then I didn't step down, I steppd out. And into some S&G tourneys, where I finished 4-4-1-1. Guess why I bounced out in 4th, just out of the money, twice.

In any event, I'm not giving up yet. But I like tourneys better at the moment, I think.

It happens, first of all it feels like something new, and if you are not ready to deal with the fact that if you get stacked you loose 50$ and not 25$, the you will not play your A game.
When I moved up to 50Nl I had a nice run of about 10-15 buy inns in the first week and the I tested the 100Nl for a few days and quickly got back to 50 after paying my dues, but I did suffer some bad beats along with the stupid moves that I did, so it's ok
I like to stick with a limit untill I am totally confident that I can move up and I have at least 25 buy inns for the next limit, but that's just me
This way you can play relaxed till you get familiar with the size of the bets and loose the fear of droping some money
I f you play relaxed , of course tight aggresive, and make some money then after a while you can try some fancy moves
Players are the same,just most of them have more experience, but you would be surpized how many idiots there are , I've seen the wors plays at 100nl and not at 50 or 25, or at least it looked that way too me
good luck to you

and by the way , in my experience S&G just messez up my style al ring games, maybe it's the same with your game , I try to play less S&G lately and focus on my game so I don't have to go through a loosing peiod too soon

SnG's are great if you feel a little antsy - miminum risk and reward a more aggro style...

Those are nice results at SNG. I would suggest to try and play a ring table along with a SNG table, real tight play. Maybe that helps. 3 weeks with no ring play would be too much for me.

I noticied when I moved up to 25nl all my mistakes that were easy to overcome at the 10nl table were super exposed. I lost (don't laugh to hard I will cry) $120.00 due to over playing One pair and Two pair. I lost that after working up to 10 buy ins twice. While it sucks Pokertracker really showed me where my mistake was so am now back to 9 25nl buy ins when hit 10 will try again. but this time I will play less pairs and two pairs .