Mother-of-pearl grips

Yes, I understand that there were no Ruger MOP grip panels but a 1958 Type 2 357 flat top I picked up today is wearing a pair and I was curious is any of you folks have any information on them. The fit the XR-3 frame quite well and have substantial thickness to them and a very iridescent (sp) finish that my wife well in love with! These do not have emblems nor do they have a makers name on the inside but they are solid, no thin backing layer like Ihave seen before. Any suggestions of maker and value would be gratly apapreciated. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Thanks,

Robb

I don't believe I've ever heard of a "Factory Issued" MOP grip panel.

If one digs through some mid '50's firearms periodicals several advertisers have hawked MOP's.

MOTS grips have also been seen........



flatgate

Dougan's last book notes a very small number of pearl grips purchased from suppliers, by Ruger. One of my RSSE's came with both factory walnut and non emblemed pearls.......... 8)

The Single Six, number 4 is fitted with pearl panels.

The #4 RSS also has a gold xr3 frame.....and some honest wear.....I have had the pleasure of leaving my finger prints on a whole pile of the #4 guns.....I was in Ruger Nirvana :lol: :lol: :lol: I happen to own one of the #4 guns thanks to Tucsonite....he found the SC6 #500004 in a pawn shop of all places.....the #4 collection does have the SC6 with the 60-00004 serial number....I told the owner heck you need to sell the rest to me so I can finish my numbers run :lol: :lol: :lol: sure was fun seeing such a complete collection.....see ya RR.

I have had several sets of XR3 Pearl grips over the years. the 1st set shown on a nickel 357 flattop I installed medallions in them :shock: :shock:

I drilled the holes using a paddle bit under water in my shop


the last set is a set forum member OM Crazy owns that he bought many years ago from our old friend Lynn Laudise. they supposedly came from a Ruger Sales Rep. The staking is as good on those as any Ruger grip I have ever looked at.

my installed medallions


a pair of single sixes


OMCrazy's grips

those medallions look great on there! i couldn't have mustered the nerve to start on them! great job!

thanks ar15ed,

it took me several hours to do both panels, I would drill for about 20 seconds and then let it cool down as they got very hot drilling them. here are some closer up pictures.

Dan

Here are a few pictures of the Type 2 with the pearl grip panels.






This last one is the 3 amigo FT's that we found over the last couple of months. The top is the Ross Type 1 I stuck the aftermarket ivories on, next is the Type 1 transistion gun and finally the Type 2 with the pearl.

d findley said:

The Single Six, number 4 is fitted with pearl panels.

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Were they Factory???

Here is an ad from the Dec. 1955 American Rifleman. Were those Pearl grips Factory????? The Reg., Stag, and Ivory were!!!!!

Sorry 'street' but NOT all of the grips that Hudson Sports provided for, were factory, wood or exotic material, but like the factory were subcontracted by Mr Bertschinger, the owner he was a large buyer and seller of guns in New York, and had grip makers make them for any and all "makes,models" got this info from a old friend named Merl Ray who knew him back then (Merl used to do the drawings for the Brownells brothers for their "gunsmith kinks" and I used to help him), he trained me on some things back in the early 1970s,fact I may even have a couple of "kinks" myself in the early vol 1 or 2 its been a LONG time ago, yes even had Dan Wesson as one of my 'mentors',so those ads bring back some memories......met & knew other big time gun guys from the east cost also.
They could buy, get, sell about anything in gun 'accessories' for Rugers & Colts & S&W..pearls were BIG out east back then.....more so on small Colts & S&W.
We got pearls for Bearcats, as well as the XR-3 's.........................
too hard ( as well as hardous to work with,the fumes) so seldom did the 'pearls' have medallions and if they did were much more 'costly' (both work wise & licensing from the gun companies to use their medallions/logos)

So Robb,bottom line "keep them" as one will never know for certain what or where they came from, who got them ,for "whom" (as Mr Ruger often had his guys do this or do that for 'whomever' .......) if they fit GOOD and look nice, hang on them, besides th 'raw material itself is costly and scarce...........Laura would never get rid of any of hers, they are what they are............ :wink:
and NO< never pay 'top dollar' for anything that cannot be "proven", they ALL have a 'story'.... :roll:

Thanks Rugerguy. I always wondered about that ad. Some of the early thoughts on Ruger collecting were that Ruger sold Pearl grips and maybe this ad had something to do with that.

Well, regardless of their unknown history, once Renay said she liked the looks of them they earned a free pass to live in the gun safe! I had always thought of pearl as a cheap/chintzy material for grips but they really do have some heft and substance to them. They also have some some of the same qualities of "depth" and color changing abilities as some of my horn and ivory sets. It is funny in that several months ago I bought a box of parts out of Texas and in the box was a set of pearl grips that had been mounted to a black backing piece and I sent them down the road thinking they must be pretty cheap and tacky to have the backing applied but I guess it was just one way of dealing with a more fragile or brittle material.

Take care guys and thanks for the history. Dan, once again your background fills in some more gaps and voids in this poor converters swiss cheese like Ruger fnas brain! :lol:

Robb Barnes said:

It is funny in that several months ago I bought a box of parts out of Texas and in the box was a set of pearl grips that had been mounted to a black backing piece and I sent them down the road thinking they must be pretty cheap and tacky to have the backing applied but I guess it was just one way of dealing with a more fragile or brittle material.

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I'm thinking it's more of a way to use thinner material that is just not thick enough to make a gun grip from by itself.

I was wopndering about that as well Cary. It definitely let the maker use thinner material by 1/8" or so by adding the backer sheet.

Robb Barnes said:

I was wopndering about that as well Cary. It definitely let the maker use thinner material by 1/8" or so by adding the backer sheet.

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Yeah...when it comes to something like MOP there is a lot more thin stuff available than thick stuff.