I had occasion to take a couple of pics to show a fellow just what Coke Bottle grips looked like, and I thought I would post them here, in case others were curious.
S & W stopped making these due to cost and they are quite collectible and pricey these days. John Culina (Kurac) still makes clones of these grips and those in the pics are made by him. A look at the profile of the grips well tell you why they are called "Coke Bottle" grips.
Disclaimer: The above is not holy writ. It is just my opinion based on my experience and knowledge. Your mileage may vary.
I have never grasped the reasoning for the nick name "coke bottle". I own a number of them but the reasoning escapes me.
You must be really young...Originally Posted by Guesser
Go look at, or better yet pick up a vintage 8oz glass Coke bottle and it will come to you.
Disclaimer: The above is not holy writ. It is just my opinion based on my experience and knowledge. Your mileage may vary.
I am old enough to remember those but I don't see the resemblance.
Outline the grips while looking at the back. For me there is a resemblance, but YMMV.
Oh jeeeze... The old Coke bottle had a narrow neck and a swell in the middle to hold on to. Here is a pic of a giant Coke bottle in Las Vegas. Now look at the grips. If you don't see it now, go get a grown up to explain it to you. Picking up a handgun with these grips on it, feels somewhat like picking up an old Coke bottle.
Last edited by Char-Gar; 02-13-2015 at 03:57 PM.
Disclaimer: The above is not holy writ. It is just my opinion based on my experience and knowledge. Your mileage may vary.
I'll be 70 in June; I remember the 7oz. coke bottle, 8 oz. coke bottle, 10 oz. coke bottle, 12 oz. coke bottle and on to the top. Takes a tremendous stretch of imagination to see it. Or maybe someone with no imagination started it. To me they are "target" style grips. Or in Colt lingo, "stocks". I remember the 7 & 8 oz bottles being a nickel.
The Smith and Wesson target grips have varied in size and shape quite a bit over the years. The term "Coke bottle" was coined by collectors to distinguish the early grips with the pronounced palm swells from the later target grips that did not have them. Both are target grips.
The collectors also refer to the relief in the early target grips to allow the rounds and cases to be ejected with out hitting the grips as "the football". Later target grips had a cut out for the use of a speed loader.
These are just terms Smith and Wesson fans use to distinguish between generations of Smith and Wesson target grips and nothing to be spun up about. They are just words that some people find descriptive. You can use or not use any term you like.
I have never had any problem understanding why folks latched on the term Coke bottle to describe these grips. It makes perfect sense to me. No they are not exactly like a Coke bottle, but they are somewhat the same shape and that is good enough for me.
At any rate, when the term Coke Bottle grips is used to describe early Smith and Wesson target grips, this is what they mean and that was the purpose of this post, not to defend the accuracy of the term.
Disclaimer: The above is not holy writ. It is just my opinion based on my experience and knowledge. Your mileage may vary.
I like my women to be shaped like Coke bottles.
But I'll take a can.
_________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.
Now I'm among the informed; so, I'll can it!!!!
Seems like a stretch to me, but if you all say so I guess it is so.
Early Targets around 1950 had neither a football or a cutout...These are usually called 'early' or 'full' targets
Besides the bottle shape of the grips, the Cokes had checkering panels than came down further on the grip panel itself. The Cokes had checkering down to about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the grip. The standard target grips - the checkering panel stopped about 3/4 inch from the bottom. Most, if not all of the Cokes I have seen are walnut. I know mine are.
Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reason. Benjamin Franklin
Oh! You mean "Marilyn Monroe" grips!
Ahhh . . . would that be the nickel or the dime bottle of Coke? Who doesn't remember how good that glass bottle of Coke tasted after you pulled it out of the red Coke cooler in the gas station, pried the cap off with a church key or the opener attached to the cooler and took that first swig on a hot day?
Thanks Char Gar . . . not only for the great photos but stirring up thoughts of times past when things were a lot "simpler". . .
Just thought I would mention, the smooth grips pictured are not S&W "Coke" grips.
They would be checkered like this.
Maybe you guys need to put on your Coke Bottle Glasses to see it.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...bottle+glasses
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