Elmer was Right

[Robb Barnes]

Got a chance to head out today with a few of the 41's and burn some powder. One of the guns shot was the Bowen #5 in 41 Mag/41 Special. I had read that John Taffin wondered how Elmer Keith handled some of the loads he shot since he had fairly small hands. John felt he had found the answer when he was allowed to handle Elmers #5 revolver in 44 Special. Elmer had many of his sixguns fit with ivory grips and he often had the right grip panel carved with a design. The carving sticks out beyond the normal contour and the result is the gun fills the hollow of the shootng hands and helps to retain a consistent and solid grip. As usual, the old master was right on and the #5 with the carved steers head stayed in the hand like it has sandpaper wrapped around it.

Next up was the TLA West Texas Flat Top Target in 41 Mag and the longer SAA style grip frame was a bear for me to hang on to. The traditional "roll" may help handle the recoil of the 250 grain 41 Mag loads but it sure wasn't as fun or easy to be consistent with as the carved gripped gun was. I can see some Persinger carved one piece grips in this guns future.

Finally I dug out the little OM 357 converted to 41 Special with the birdshead grips. I learned that I am not a big fan of the birdshead style. Even with 41 Specials that little thing beat a tattoo on my knuckle of the middle finger of the shooting hand. I think Andy's original Li'l Gun grip will be going back on that little pocket rocket for any future shooting.

Still, any day shooting is a great day so I better get back to cleaning, sizing and reloading!

 

[AzRebel]

I have to agree that the right grips and/or gripframe can make all the difference.

I have medium paws, but couldn't find grips that really fit my hand the way I wanted. In the end, I made a set for my Vaquero, and fit them to the gun and my hand. As they turned out, there's a slight "ridge" on the right grip that follows the crease on my hand that runs from the web of my right nand, and across. When I wrap my hand around the grip, this crease follows that ridge very naturally. There's also a slight swell on that side that fills the hollow of my right (shooting) hand. The front edge of the gip is thinned in key places so that the sights line up naturally for me. These grips are also slightly wider at the back, which helps felt recoil when I go from mild loads to "Ruger Only" levels.

One would have to look very closely to notice the variances from a regular grip, but they're obvious to me when I shoot the gun.

 

[contender]

I'll echo the fact that properly fitting stocks can help the shooting. I would love to try a set of the "Elmer's steer head" types on a good old 44 or 45. It's one of those things I have,, as yet,, to do. Yet,, it makes perfect sense to do it. Maybe it's time I made another set of stocks for one of my guns,,,!

 

[americal]

Great topic--I bought a pair of Ruger factory grips from Jeff Munnell when he sold his collection of Rugers in the late 90's. I took the left over grips the collectors did not want. One pair had a HUGE swell for the right hand palm. I just put them on a micro sighted RSS I got from rugerguy & I'm going to sell my ruger Charger,It is more fun with the micro sights & the shooting pushes me to do better--that Charger no problem --tack driver so it's back to my RSS gun and my hands need the therpy

 

[rkrcpa]

How does the #5 compare to the Ruger Bisley as far as recoil control is concerned?