WHITE GRIPPED GUNS...

When it comes to fashion statements in firearms and most especially handguns, I have a terrible weakness.  It is an addiction actually.  I flat love the look of 'white gripped' handguns.  The ultimate look in my view is a deeply blued steel revolver with a set of full profile ivory grips.

This is probably the main reason I've lost much of my enthusiasm for polymer framed pistols of most any manufacture or description.  I was at a conference one time when Sheriff Jim Wilson asked by way of a complaint during the introduction of some new fangled polymer pistol, "Yeah, but how are we going to put ivory grips on that heifer?"

Exactly!  Polymer pistols may work great and be considered 'state-of-the-art', but for absolute pure looks most of 'em make a mud-fence look desirable.

Until you've worked with ivory grips you simply don't know what you're missing.  The two pistols seen above are my Les Baer Premier II in .45 ACP and my S&W Model 657, .41 Magnum, with the custom 5" barrel.  They are both equipped with elephant ivory grips.  The revolver has a set of custom made, full profile ivory grips that have to be used to really be appreciated.....especially during cold weather.

For you see ivory is a different material than wood or some damn synthetic and it is almost always warm to the touch.

I can only speak as a heterosexual but the sole comparison I can make to the sheer pleasure of a full profile ivory gripped gun is the experience one feels when they fully caress a woman's breast in the cup of their hand.  Gently it is received and it is warm to the touch and willing to the hand.  Good ivory grips approach that level of intimacy.  Yeah, they really ARE THAT GOOD!

Unfortunately, because of a poaching problem in Africa, elephant ivory is no longer importable into the United States and becoming more and more difficult to locate or even purchase at any price.  The big thing now is finding ivory that hasn't dried out completely while being on display for more than 50 or 60 years under some one's mantel.

Dried out ivory when cut chunks out like thick cheese and this makes it almost impossible to find pieces large enough any more to make into full profile 'target' style revolver grips.  Even then when you can find it, you're lucky if you can find enough to make what we used to call the old 'Service' style grips like the ones seen on the specially engraved guns (above; a S&W Md. 18 and an S-prefix S&W Md. 57) I had done a couple of years back as family heirlooms and tributes to our children.  They're good, but because there is more 'steel' and their smaller size the effect is not the same as that seen with full profile grips.

Still, the LOOK to my eyes, at least, is so damn appealing and attractive that even a blue steel revolver with service style ivories is far better than just about anything else out there in my opinion for sheer beauty and attractiveness.

I don't know if the root cause of this affliction was too many Roy Rogers/Gene Autry movies when I was a kid or the fact that I flat love film noir when it comes to crime movies, but the look of a white gripped gun is one I prefer over all others.  It's just that is almost impossible to find adequate substitutes anymore.

The best substitute is Sanbar Stag.  The 4 guns shown here are all equipped with stag grips.  Stag is good, but it is NOT ivory in either feel or 'intimacy'.  Instead of holding a pretty woman's breast in the palm of your hand, stag is more like shaking her hand with a firm grip.  It is just not as warm and it doesn't carry any of the intimacy of ivory.  Still, in my mind, it looks a Hell of a lot better than most wood grips and even the worst stag grips beats the living crap out of any synthetic, rubber grip out there.  Rubber grips are, in terms of appearance to my mind , about like wearing a condom out in public.

Of course, the easy alternative is PLASTIC!  And here is where you can get short-changed in a hurry because, based on personal experience, just about all the 'white' plastic grips, whether imitation stag or ivory, are absolute crap!!  Even the factory guns that were equipped with plastic grips of imitation stag like the Colt Peacemaker in .22 LR seen above are junk.  Why?  Because they crack faster than ice falling more than 4 feet.  Most all the plastic grips I have tried to work with simply refuse to bear any load in terms of recoil forces and break out continuously at the stress points.  Plastic has all the durability of wet toilet paper and is about as 'inviting' as sour milk.

As you can see these factory plastic imitation stag grips on this .22 caliber Colt Peacemaker are cracked.  In this instance the 'repair' involved a liberal dose of 'super-glue', but still they're cracked and prone to breakage.  Buyer beware.

The above grips are plastic and I purchased both sets off a flea market interweb site since the first of the year and one set is marked "HOGUE" inside the panel.  I know the Hogue brothers, as I also knew their father (who was a 'swell' fellow by the way.  I really liked their dad), but if these things really are from their firm, they need to do more homework as these things won't withstand even moderate recoil forces.  The right grip panel on the Browning set broke out the screw hole in approximately 100 rounds, while the left grip panel on the revolver set broke out in about 30 rounds of 'Magnum' loads.  I have no clue where the revolver grips came from or who made them but this is the 2nd set like this I've tried with the same results.  In short, WHITE PLASTIC GRIPS SUCK!!!

Okay, here's where I have to declare that Raj at Eagle Grips sent me the above grips for 'Free'.  He asked me to try 'em out because he knows I'm a 'fairy' when it comes to 'white grips'.  Yes, they are synthetic and they don't come anywhere close to ivory in 'feel' or 'intimacy', but here's the deal...they have yet to break!  The grips as they come are too damn big for my hand size, so the grips show on the right are undergoing some 'modifications' as seen below when examined in profile.

What I'm doing is using a dremel tool (I'm one of those people who should have to wait 7 days before taking possession of a dremel tool) to shape the grips and thin them down to what would approximate the old 'Coke Bottle' Smith & Wesson target grips.  The grips (or 'stocks' as Smith & Wesson people constantly refer to them) on the right have endured over 200 rounds of heavy loads, so I'm beginning to have some faith in them.

Are they as good as ivory?  Of course, NOT!  But, beggars can't be choosers in this day and age.  What I like about these fake white grips is they can be shaped without risking their physical integrity.  I'm not totally satisfied with their shape yet and filing and grinding does screw up the 'polished' surface but the final shape is more important to my mind.

It's been my experience that 1911 style pistols are the easiest to find ivory or fake ivory grip panels for and for them even many of the fake plastic grips work well because they really don't carry any recoil forces, but for many revolvers and pistols like the Browning High Power, it is a whole other story.

I will always be on the look-out for good ivory and even good Sanbar Stag, but stag is even getting hard to find.  Of course, stag has never come in a large enough size to make any reasonable full profile target style grips for an N-frame or a Ruger Redhawk and that's a pity because Stag is Good, but Ivory is better...

All The Best,
Frank W. James