Feel of Single Action Grips

[Bucks Owin]

Cool post and pix DJ... 8) The production Colt's "open top" is the rare model 1872 correct?

 

[bogus bill]

Get a copy of the book, "Guns of the gunfighters". Mine is copyrighted 1975 by peterson publishing co. There is a writeup by Jim Durham on wild bill. He shows a pair of 1851 navy colts that are silver plated, engraved with ivory grips that senator henery wilson of massachusetts presented wild bill in 1869 upon returning from a hunting trip in the west where bill had acted as a scout. Bills name is misspelled on the bacstraps.
A Hammond .44 Bulldog pistol was reportedly taken from wildbills body. They show a picture of it. It`s a large looking single shot with a spur trigger. The book also shows a British Beaumont-Adams .442 a double action percussion arm of high quality. The side-mounted loading lever is missing. (Kansas State Historical Soceity).
I see wild bill had the possibe state of the art "Off brand guns shown. Hey, a double action percussion? Really makes me wonder again in that case why he didnt have a colt SAA! But then again, I think there is a good chance he might have. The bulldog single shot .44 was in his pocket probley as a backup? It doesnt say what he had on his hip when assasinated. I would think a witness or sheriff picked it up as a souvenineer?

http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Gunfighters-Ammo-Editors/dp/0517371545

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

The production Colt's "open top" is the rare model 1872 correct?

Only about 7000 Open Tops produced. They ceased production the same year the SAA was introduced.

 

[CraigC]

Here is a photo of a Richards-Mason conversion of a Colt 1860 Army revolver. The Richards-Mason conversion of a Colt 1851 Navy would have the same features.

That's actually a Richards Type I, denoted by its modified percussion barrel, floating firing pin and the rear sight notch being in the conversion ring. The Richards-Mason actually used the same "S-lug" barrel as the Open Top (which preceded it) and the rear sight was in the hammer.

 

[Larry from Bend]

I shoot a fairly heavily loaded (250 grain @ 1050 fps) Ruger BLKHK in 44 Special.
It came with beveled grips.
It now has flat-bottomed grips.
I shoot with the pinky under the grip. Always. I shoot (normally) two-handed. I shoot off metal objects like the hood of a tractor with my pinky under the grip. It doesn't hurt. It's more comfortable and more controllable.

The toughest thing to learn in "changing over" to a single action from a double action -- at least for me -- is the loooong hammer fall.

 

[Knuckles]

I swore off from using anything but my 1911's over this same subject.

With me it was not so much "how many fingers on the grip" but the actual "grip-angle"... I did try the "Bisley grip" early on, but my smallish hand couldn't reach the controls.

I have made the deduction that some folks elbows bend a little further than others (some much further), this plays a major factor in the natural point-ability of a handgun.

I have made the compromise to being able to shoot the mid-frame flattops with the XR3 grip frames. I still have to unnaturally bend my hand down to compensate for the lack of bend in my elbow, but doing that along with a lower grasp on the grips works OK.

My final thought on this is that rounding the back of any single action grip would bring the gun down to a natural pointing, comfortable shooting single action for my physical make-up.

BTW... when Ruger switched the grips on the GP-100 to the Hogue finger grooved grip with high padding at the top of the grip... it became a perfect pointing handgun for me.

 

[AzRebel]

Whether or not you'll be comfortable shooting any particular type of gun is something you'll have to decide. With some practice, most platforms become familiar.

The first vehicle I ever drove was a Jeep CJ-5 Eenegade. After getting used to that, driving a low profile car seemes really odd. Tood some doing to get used to it.

But now I can drive either and feel pretty good doing it.

Same with handguns. I regularly carry a J-frame S&W. I also shoot several other types of firearms, including semi-autos and SA revolvers. My hand apparently knows what I'm holding, because they all point very naturally for me.

It just takes a bit of practice to get used to different things. You're never too old to learn new tricks.

Daryl

 

[Cholo]

I actually had to handle a few of my SA's to see if I curl my teeny finger under the grips. Yup! I'd sure like to try some flat bottom grips to see if I like them better. Interesting thread!

 

[Pal Val]

Whatever floats your boat. I don't put my pinky under the grip, and I have huge hands. I did it a few times and it made me shoot high. My grip is done with the middle and ring finger. The pinky just sits there and watches.

 

[TexNekkid]

Nearly all my customers order flat bottoms. That's my stand on the subject. I'm not trying to say anybody is right or wrong.

To the extent XR-3 (new and old) and XR-3RED grips are at issue, perhaps that's a tradeoff between aesthetics and comfort, Cary. I'm a fan of your grips, but don't use a pair of flat bottom XR-3 I purchased because I thought they looked better. They do too, but IMO your beveled grips are more cofortable shooting pinky under. For me, your flat bottoms work better on dragoon and bisley grips, on which I use all four fingers.

I'm not trying to say anybody is right or wrong either. Everybody's got different hands and the beauty of custom grips is an important consideration.

 

[w5lx]

Here is a poll on the other forum regarding the full hand grip vs. the pinkie-under grip. The full hand grip seems to be preferred by a small margin.

http://rugerforum.net/ruger-single-action/28162-poll-grip-do-you-use-sa-revolvers.html

 

[callshot]

So many different types of shooters. The question that I have is the different size of each of you have of your hands. If everyone had the same size of hands, then most likely we would all have the same kind of grips and all shoot the same way. To each his own. Steve

 

[CraigC]

The full hand grip seems to be preferred by a small margin.

That's rather surprising.

 

[sixshot]

I've made & sold somewhere around 200 pairs of grips for both Rugers & S&W handguns. Of all the Rugers I've made only 2 clients wanted the beveled stocks, all the others wanted them flat.
You get a much stronger grip on the gun with your whole hand on it, not really necessary with light loads but when you begin to wind things up a bit there is a huge difference.
Try this, with nothing in your hand, bend your pinky finger back towards your wrist... do you feel the tension you've just put on the other fingers, that same tension is transferred to the gun.
Bottom line is, use what you prefer, 99% of my clients want them flat on the bottom. Also, I like a high grip, that way your hand stays more in line with the bore. I also grip the gun tight, grip tension is very critical so keep it the same. Always cock the gun with the left thumb if you're a right handed shooter, no need to re-position the right hand every shot by cocking with the right thumb.

Dick

 

[satch]

I bought a like new 9 1/2 .22 combo at a local gun show the first of this month,and it had the plastic grips that Ruger is putting on them now so it's a late model. I looked around on Ebay and Gunbroker and found a pair of wood grips offered on Gunbroker and bought them and installed them yesterday. The feel of the wood is just better and fill my hand better since I have big hands. The gun looks a lot better with wood grips also.

 

[Bucks Owin]

The full hand grip seems to be preferred by a small margin.

That's rather surprising.

A lot of "kid size" hands over there I guess... :wink:

I 'spose I'm "lucky" in that I smashed my pinkie in a sawmill accident as a teenager, had a botched operation on it, and ever since it just kinda hangs in the breeze when I grip my sixguns...I'm not really sure what it's doing! :lol:

 

[CraigC]

Mine's got a weird curve in it. Wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg??? There are a lot worse things than to have a mutated finger from shooting single actions!!!

 

[COLT_45]

On My Ruger NV Montado 45.....

I have a set of Eagle Ultra Ivory "Thin" Gunfighter Grips & they have flat
bottoms, but on the inside panel upper edge of the flat bottom it is just
slightly beveled in a small spot to put me pinky just underneath. It absolutely
moves my middle finger knuckle away from the trigger guard about 1/4 inch
as previously discussed. Further, the thicker upper parts of the panels keep
my grip lower on the grip to allow the pinky to go underneath naturally.

They are also smooth, although the ultra ivory is not as sllck as the various
plastics, hence I still get roll to the hammer on follow up shots while still
being able to maintain my grip.

Kinda the best of both worlds for me-so I guess I have flat bottoms, but
still with pinky underneath.....

 

[Bozack]

I have the Eagle Gunfighter grips as well. Mine are Buffalo horn with the flat bottom. There is no doubt about the way I shoot them.

http://youtu.be/VNHOR1FiIRA