Ruger Flat Top 44 Special Grips

[shooting on a shoestring]

Love the pistol.
The black plastic, ill-fitting grips….not so much.
316866

A piece of Maple, and most of a day later…much better.
316867
316869

[gwpercle]

Love the pistol.
The black plastic, ill-fitting grips….not so much.
316866

A piece of Maple, and most of a day later…much better.
316867
316869

:goodpost:
Like Like Like ! ! !

Beautiful ! Much - Much - Much Better than plastic and they will look even better when the new maple gets a little age coloring on them !

Don't stop there , now you need to do a set in ... Ebony !

Don't listen to me , I have a problem with handgun grips ...
I'm a Card Carrying Gripaholic ...and there is no cure .
I must have 6 sets of grips for my Ruger Blackhawk ...
Gary

[Sasquatch-1]

You did a really nice job on those. Unlike you, I did not make these myself. I bought them quite a few years ago from Alto Monte.

316897

[gunther]

Being possessed of a paw rather than a hand, the Pachmayr grips for a Colt single action are what work for me.

[shooting on a shoestring]

I’ve bought several grip stocks from Altamont including a set for a Single Six 32. Mostly I use them for DA guns. I especially like their small size for GP-100’s.

What I’ve seen for the most part is Ruger Blackhawk and Flat Top frames vary a lot in size and shape from one gun to another. I think it’s bc Ruger does hand-held grinding and polishing on their cast grip frames. Some guys are heavy handed and some hit it light. So the contours and shapes are not consistent. That gives makers like Altamont a bad name to some folks who think it’s the grip maker who didn’t fit the frame when actually it’s the gunmaker that is not consistent.

The best grip to frame fits I’ve seen on factory guns are the old Smiths, old Colts and Freedom Arms. Granted good frame to grip stock fitting doesn’t make them shoot better, but it aggregates me to have a gun that has blatantly bad fitment.

I also find as I get older I’m more dependent on how the grip stocks fit my hand. Guess I’m not as flexible as I used to be. When I do my own I can leave them full where I like and shape them to suit me.

I also think that a good wood grip with a tongue oil finish just feels right to me.

[contender1]

Looks good there!

Several years ago,, I decided; "Hey,, I like good fitting, custom grips on a few guns. How hard can it be to make some?" Well, I jumped in and started making a few sets here & there. I studied a lot of stuff, and spoke with a couple of top named grip makers. Boy,, did I learn a lot! From properly sawing blanks, to mating a pair of blanks, how to fit to a frame, to stabilizing wood, to how to properly fit & finish them,, it was more complicated than I'd first thought. But I continued,, and to this day,, I enjoy turning out a set or two of my own hand built, custom grips. Lots of satisfaction there.

You did good!

[Thumbcocker]

The best thing about the factory grips is that they are easy to take off.

[lar45]

Looks great.
I have yet to turn out a good grip.

[stubshaft]

I teired a number of grips on my Lipsey flattop 44 special and finally settled on a set of Bear Paw grips in Carob wood.

[Wheelguns 1961]

I haven’t found a shooter yet that likes those factory “cheese grater” grips. I don’t have the patience or skills to make my own. You did good! I am a fan of the Bear Paw grips.

[georgerkahn]

Congrats and kudos on your maple grips! For me, I had a Ruger Six convertible .22lr/.22wmr revolver which came with (faux-)stag grips that was (and still is) most pleasing to my eye, when I got my .44 Special I "had" to get a similar pair for it. I believe mine came from Altamont. Here's a stock (not my revolver) photo:316992
geo

[JoeJames]

Several years ago a dealer at a local gun show had three or four tables of nothing but grips. I had brought my Lipsey Ruger BH to the show looking for something to replace the black plastic grips. After trying many different grips I came up with these grips.
316994

[MT Gianni]

I haven’t found a shooter yet that likes those factory “cheese grater” grips. I don’t have the patience or skills to make my own. You did good! I am a fan of the Bear Paw grips.

I have swapped mine around and so far go back to the ugly factory ones. Nothing else seems to group as well.

[Frank V]

Great, it’s amazing how a nice set of stocks will spiff up a nice six-gun!

[Larry Gibson]

I have swapped mine around and so far go back to the ugly factory ones. Nothing else seems to group as well.

Same here, have the same black Ruger grips on my 50th Anniversary 44 magnum FTBH. They fit my hand perfectly and fit the image of the original 44 Magnum FTBH made 55 +/- years ago.

317137

[shooting on a shoestring]

“They fit my hand perfectly…”

That’s the important part! Looking good is one thing but shooting good is way better.

Guns are like shoes. They gotta fit you. Size, shape, style…

I prefer my revolver stocks to be squared in the back and full at the top. That keeps the revolver from twisting side to side under recoil…for me. To get that means making them myself. I use pretty wood because the real cost is the time and effort involved. The wood is the cheap part.

[rintinglen]

That is going to be my project this winter! I have a couple of Maple Blanks that I got a while back and my Flattop 44 has been bugging me to fix it up.