Blackwater
12-10-2014, 02:08 PM
I'm getting kinda' long in the tooth, and have done an awful lot of shooting in my time. I've also tried to pay attention along the way, and learn what works and what produces benefits in shooting, and what doesn't really perform as well as many products are often touted as doing. One of the most significant things I've noted along the way is how the exact size and configuration of grips on pistols can and do affect how we perform with them, accuracy-wise and in rapid fire. Here's what I've found:
First, the girth of handgun grips has a significant effect on the bullet's POI. Smaller diameter grips tend to shoot to the right or larger grips, for right-handers like me. For lefties, it's the reverse. This makes sense. We all know that if we rest a rifle or pistol against a hard surface like say a tree, the gun "bounces" off the tree at the shot and throws the bullets away from the side where the gun's resting against a tree. Now our hands aren't nearly as hard as a tree, of course, but if you have a grasp of simple geometry, and the principle of leverage, you realize that a larger girthed grip puts the hand further away from the centerline of the bore, and it's that longer distance from the centerline that gives the gun more leverage with which to twist the gun to the left for right handers.
This is clearly seen in the tendency of most who like single actions of significant recoil, who also "like" large grips, often believing the larger grip makes the gun more "secure" in their hands and/or that the larger grips spreads the recoil over a broader area, thereby reducing recoil, or at least its effect on their hands. Yes, there can be a LITTLE truth in this, but it also takes the bore's centerline and places it further away from the line of the long bones of the forearm. This is most of the reason why single actions that may be signted straight at any given factory often shoot to the left in the purchasers' hands.
Classic handgun methods teach that the centerline of the bore should line up with the long bones of the forearm. This is simply to keep the resulting recoil of firing in a staight vertical direction. However, this was also back when men stood on two legs and shot with one arm, too, and if we shoot with two hands, our long bones of the forearm simply CAN'T be aligned with the centerline of the bore. Thus, we have to look for other reasons why the "right size (girth)" grip girth works best today. For that, we have to look elsewhere.
What I've found, or at least think I've found, is that grip girth clearly DOES affect our performance, and the faster we follow up our shots, the more important it tends to become. I once had a very nice old M-19 S&W that shot extremely well, and I shot it a LOT. With the slicked up action work I did, good, accurate and fast shooting proved to me that I needed a somewhat smaller grip diameter because I began to notice that the somewhat larger than average stocks on it kept me and my hand fighting the tendency of the gun, with heavy loads, to work slightly to the left as I shot. It admittedly wasn't a whole lot, but it became notable, and seemed worse in rapid fire since I'd often regrip the gun during slow fire whenever I noticed a shot slightly to the left. It was checkered, too, and mighty pretty, so I couldn't very well do much sanding on that particular set of grips without adversely affecting their beauty and flattening off the checkering, making a once pretty grip kind'a ugly. I found a set of K-frame grips, though that were smooth and made of a decent piece of walnut. I bought them, put them on the gun, and began to study just exactly how they fit my hand at various points of my grip. I don't have small hands, so I found it passing strange that the grip seemed too big in several areas. I got out my sandpaper stash and dug in, first noting how the grip felt, and where I thought wood needed to be removed to fit better, and tested often as I went to see if I was actually doing something good or not. Danged if when I got through, I had a set of grips that I've never seen another set to equal in my hands. I sanded them smooth, polished a bit, and finished them with Tung Oil. I also found that the smooth grips, when sized rightly for my hand, tended to slip right back into the "cup" that the hand naturally wants to form when gripping a well fit handgun grip. To say I was pleased would be an understatement. I was also a bit surprised because I never had thought that hands my size would be so comfortable with grips of that contour, and had never really considered how smooth grips can be an ASSET compared to the more decorated, checkered grips. I just assumed checkering on handgun grips was an asset, and never really thought about the contrary. But a lot of shooting is like that, I've found. We just do too much assuming and not enough real, evaluative thinking. I guess that's part of what makes us human? That'll have to suffice for my excuse, at least.
For single actions, I've found most traditionally styled grips have too much of a flare toward the bottom. This just accentuates their tendency to "roll up" in recoil, and there's no benefit to accentuating that characteristic of this type of handgun. I've taken a number of single actions, if they had smooth grips, which is often the case and sanded the bugle shaped flare mostly out, and found I shot them better, grabbed them quicker and more accurately in my hand, and just all around enjoyed them more. Again, I was surprised, and it MUST be noted that this reducing grip contours CAN very easily go too far, and too small a grip seems to have proven to be worse than too large a grip.
For autos, their typically metal or hard poly grip frames prevent much alteration except for the thickness and sometimes slight changes in their contours, making them more ovaline when viewed from above, tends to make them fit my hand better, and produce somewhat better accuracy (particularly with regard to consistency over numerous shooting sessions) and particularly so in rapid fire.
No, these differences aren't often terribly great, but they ARE there, and I've found "right sizing" my grips to enhance my consistency over numerous shooting sessions, and that might not be a bad thing one day if the reason I'm shooting is critical and life endangering. From my own experiences, I've come to like smooth wood grips over any and all others. Some like the rubber Pachmyr types, and while it's true that they have at least a little effect in reducing recoil, IF they have a covered backstrap, it's really not that significant, and covered backstraps tend to make grips larger, and often a bit too large for best fit to the hand. They also create a PROBLEM with their tendency to not move as well in the hand. If you grab your handgun in a hurry, it'll often be grabbed less than perfectly, and smooth, well fitted grips tend to settle in the exact same place every time after the first shot, thus making good shots more easy and likely. The rubber grips don't move nearly as well, and a hasty grip can produce several less than well centered shots before it winds up where it naturally wants to settle in our hands.
I love checkered wood. It's probably as pretty as a grip can get. But as Forrest Gump might have noted, "pretty is as pretty does," and well fitted and shaped smooth wood grips just seem to be the superior grip for all my handguns, no matter whether they're semi auto, single action and double action. As always, taste in handgun grips will always vary, but if it's performance you're after, you might want to see if you can't acquire a good, somewhat oversize set of smooth wood grips, and play with them while you're sitting around watching TV or just tinkering around in your loading room, and see if your own playing around doesn't produce similar results to mine. Either way, I wish you good shooting, whatever you choose.
First, the girth of handgun grips has a significant effect on the bullet's POI. Smaller diameter grips tend to shoot to the right or larger grips, for right-handers like me. For lefties, it's the reverse. This makes sense. We all know that if we rest a rifle or pistol against a hard surface like say a tree, the gun "bounces" off the tree at the shot and throws the bullets away from the side where the gun's resting against a tree. Now our hands aren't nearly as hard as a tree, of course, but if you have a grasp of simple geometry, and the principle of leverage, you realize that a larger girthed grip puts the hand further away from the centerline of the bore, and it's that longer distance from the centerline that gives the gun more leverage with which to twist the gun to the left for right handers.
This is clearly seen in the tendency of most who like single actions of significant recoil, who also "like" large grips, often believing the larger grip makes the gun more "secure" in their hands and/or that the larger grips spreads the recoil over a broader area, thereby reducing recoil, or at least its effect on their hands. Yes, there can be a LITTLE truth in this, but it also takes the bore's centerline and places it further away from the line of the long bones of the forearm. This is most of the reason why single actions that may be signted straight at any given factory often shoot to the left in the purchasers' hands.
Classic handgun methods teach that the centerline of the bore should line up with the long bones of the forearm. This is simply to keep the resulting recoil of firing in a staight vertical direction. However, this was also back when men stood on two legs and shot with one arm, too, and if we shoot with two hands, our long bones of the forearm simply CAN'T be aligned with the centerline of the bore. Thus, we have to look for other reasons why the "right size (girth)" grip girth works best today. For that, we have to look elsewhere.
What I've found, or at least think I've found, is that grip girth clearly DOES affect our performance, and the faster we follow up our shots, the more important it tends to become. I once had a very nice old M-19 S&W that shot extremely well, and I shot it a LOT. With the slicked up action work I did, good, accurate and fast shooting proved to me that I needed a somewhat smaller grip diameter because I began to notice that the somewhat larger than average stocks on it kept me and my hand fighting the tendency of the gun, with heavy loads, to work slightly to the left as I shot. It admittedly wasn't a whole lot, but it became notable, and seemed worse in rapid fire since I'd often regrip the gun during slow fire whenever I noticed a shot slightly to the left. It was checkered, too, and mighty pretty, so I couldn't very well do much sanding on that particular set of grips without adversely affecting their beauty and flattening off the checkering, making a once pretty grip kind'a ugly. I found a set of K-frame grips, though that were smooth and made of a decent piece of walnut. I bought them, put them on the gun, and began to study just exactly how they fit my hand at various points of my grip. I don't have small hands, so I found it passing strange that the grip seemed too big in several areas. I got out my sandpaper stash and dug in, first noting how the grip felt, and where I thought wood needed to be removed to fit better, and tested often as I went to see if I was actually doing something good or not. Danged if when I got through, I had a set of grips that I've never seen another set to equal in my hands. I sanded them smooth, polished a bit, and finished them with Tung Oil. I also found that the smooth grips, when sized rightly for my hand, tended to slip right back into the "cup" that the hand naturally wants to form when gripping a well fit handgun grip. To say I was pleased would be an understatement. I was also a bit surprised because I never had thought that hands my size would be so comfortable with grips of that contour, and had never really considered how smooth grips can be an ASSET compared to the more decorated, checkered grips. I just assumed checkering on handgun grips was an asset, and never really thought about the contrary. But a lot of shooting is like that, I've found. We just do too much assuming and not enough real, evaluative thinking. I guess that's part of what makes us human? That'll have to suffice for my excuse, at least.
For single actions, I've found most traditionally styled grips have too much of a flare toward the bottom. This just accentuates their tendency to "roll up" in recoil, and there's no benefit to accentuating that characteristic of this type of handgun. I've taken a number of single actions, if they had smooth grips, which is often the case and sanded the bugle shaped flare mostly out, and found I shot them better, grabbed them quicker and more accurately in my hand, and just all around enjoyed them more. Again, I was surprised, and it MUST be noted that this reducing grip contours CAN very easily go too far, and too small a grip seems to have proven to be worse than too large a grip.
For autos, their typically metal or hard poly grip frames prevent much alteration except for the thickness and sometimes slight changes in their contours, making them more ovaline when viewed from above, tends to make them fit my hand better, and produce somewhat better accuracy (particularly with regard to consistency over numerous shooting sessions) and particularly so in rapid fire.
No, these differences aren't often terribly great, but they ARE there, and I've found "right sizing" my grips to enhance my consistency over numerous shooting sessions, and that might not be a bad thing one day if the reason I'm shooting is critical and life endangering. From my own experiences, I've come to like smooth wood grips over any and all others. Some like the rubber Pachmyr types, and while it's true that they have at least a little effect in reducing recoil, IF they have a covered backstrap, it's really not that significant, and covered backstraps tend to make grips larger, and often a bit too large for best fit to the hand. They also create a PROBLEM with their tendency to not move as well in the hand. If you grab your handgun in a hurry, it'll often be grabbed less than perfectly, and smooth, well fitted grips tend to settle in the exact same place every time after the first shot, thus making good shots more easy and likely. The rubber grips don't move nearly as well, and a hasty grip can produce several less than well centered shots before it winds up where it naturally wants to settle in our hands.
I love checkered wood. It's probably as pretty as a grip can get. But as Forrest Gump might have noted, "pretty is as pretty does," and well fitted and shaped smooth wood grips just seem to be the superior grip for all my handguns, no matter whether they're semi auto, single action and double action. As always, taste in handgun grips will always vary, but if it's performance you're after, you might want to see if you can't acquire a good, somewhat oversize set of smooth wood grips, and play with them while you're sitting around watching TV or just tinkering around in your loading room, and see if your own playing around doesn't produce similar results to mine. Either way, I wish you good shooting, whatever you choose.