Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Have you replaced the OEM grips?

I’m curious if you ran with the OEM grips, or replaced them.

I suppose it depends on how much you use your handguns. Everyone’s hands are different. I recently bought some Pachmayr Grippers for a newly purchased Model 66.

When I was in the service, a guy I worked with replaced the grips and a few other things on a military Browning Hi-Power. He then marked it in the lock up and declared it “my property”. He had paws not hands though, so there was no danger of it being “borrowed”. 😀

All my revolvers, except my Ruger SRH.

2 out of 3 1911's to a dark, double diamond, and most of my revolvers (almost all S&W) have Altamonts- except for an SP101 that I've since sold that I changed to a Hogue wood. So.. most of them. The more utilitarian semiautos have factory grips.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a survey here about material preferences. Wood, rubber or a mix?

Ivory, stag, mother of pearl.

It all depends on the grips. Ruger SA wooden grips and S&W K and L frame target grips stay on. Blued J frame service grips used to get switched for the target grips but those are so expensive these days I use a BK grip adapter now.

Have tried Pachmayrs in the past on multiple handguns - Ruger Mk II, Ruger Blackhawk and SBH, various mid-size DA revolver like Smith K frames and Ruger Security Sixes but always end up taking them off. Only ones that stayed on were their Compac grips for a Smith Model 63 and now a Model 60-4.

Can't stand Hogues since they put the bore axis so far above my hand but am certainly in the minority there since they seem to be very popular otherwise.

I'm with you on the Hogues. I don't care for the finger grooves, but I really dislike the low grip position, which places the bore axis higher in the hand, as you said, and I also don't care for the excessive overall length of the grip.

Almost of mine carry replacements and the majority wood. Many of the Smith's carry Herrett's coco bolos that CDNN was purging cheap some year ago. They feel proper for me, more Coke like. Driven by the value of original Smith stocks... I, too, have no use for finger grips so I have both Ahrends and Culina's to fill that gap as well.

Replace most of them.

I like Eagles for most applications when they are an option. I've been using them for over 40 years and since they fit me as well or better than any that I've tried, I keep buying them.

Rossi made larger "target" grips for their medium frame DA revolvers that I use on 511s, 515s, 518s, 720s, and 971s.

Most of my handguns have after market grips. My S&W M63 has wood Hogue grips and the rest are synthetic.

N frames, Python and 1911s get Hogue rubber.

Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

I changed em' all for dress up.

I have a couple Ruger Blackhawks that have factory stocks, but they're different that what they came with.

I have a S&W 19 that came with big target stocks. I ditched them after purchase. Traded them off. Then aquired a new/used set a few years ago and put them on. It was my first DA revolver. The big stocks have nostalgic value for me now.

One gun has goodyears. Its all business.

Yes for some, no with others. Most of my grip changes were to help mitigate felt recoil on my magnum revolvers. The exception to the previous sentence is my S&W 460 XVR......simply the most comfortable grips that I’ve ever used! memtb

I have 4.62" SuperBlackhawk that I changed the grips on. The OEM grips were on the small side and the revolver was borderline uncomfortable to fire with proper .44 Mag loads.

Someone, I forget who, told me about a company called Texas Grips, a pair of their extended grips changed the whole nature of shooting this revolver. The grips are a little bigger and my pinky ain't hanging off the end of the grip.

Most, but not all. Those stock Hogue rubber ones on my 629 made that tolerable. The Herrett full size gave my 34 J-frame something to hang on to. The only ones that I regretted buying were some rosewood grips for my 1911 Para P12. One side split right down the middle grain pattern from recoil on the first outing. Rubber wrap around finger groove grips solved that problem.

I have several sets of original targets that came from Smith M57s, 27-2s and 29-2s that I cut down to fit my hand. Still like them and use them, but don’t think I’d do that to a nice set today.

As for replacement stocks for S&W revolvers, I have a couple pairs from John Culina (aka Kurac) that are very nice.

I do like the original K frame target stocks, and have them on my K and L frames. Back when I was really trying to like Colt Pythons, whose factory grips shape is horrible to me, I bought a set of Herrett’s Shooting Star grips, put them on a diet with a wood rasp, and they were much better than the factory Colt grips. Just couldn’t find enough love to keep the Pythons, but I kept the grips.

I guess since we're showing pix, I can add mine. I like Pachmayr. This model fits my hand and puts the sights where they need to be. I am sure that other companies make grips that would work, but I have only tried a few.



I have only fired the Bulldog three times with the new grips, but it feels and shoots much better than the OEM with me. These are all personal choices, of course.



One of the other problems I had with the Bulldog was rectified with an acrylic pen. The front sight is hard to see. This made it easier to see.

My 1911s all have VZ grips, SIGs have Hogue G10 or OEM E2 grips, Hi-Power has Hogue walnut.

I'm over 6 feet tall but I have relatively small hands. I guess that's why I prefer factory grips on the handguns I collect/shoot: mostly pre-war Colt/Smith revolvers, and post-war K-22&38. As for 1911's, again I much prefer factory/gov't grips (or equivalent in an exotic material), and flat mainspring housings vs. arched- again because of my small hands.

One pre-war gun that stymied me was the Colt New Service. I love the guns but can't wrangle them without a grip filler to take up that mile wide gap between the grip and trigger guard.