1911 Antatomical Grips

What are affordable options for anatomical grips for the 1911?

Probably the 3D ones are most affordable

What about the Herrett Nationals?

Too wide. Maybe with some sanding. But I'm afraid to work on em and flush the money down the drain.

Sounds like your a candidate for 3D

If you take off too much, you can put it back using epoxy putty.  Probably won't be pretty, but it works.  Just don't end up gluing it to your gun!

Tim are you sure you want Ortho grips? Do you have a Distinguished Badge as a goal?

The reason that I am asking is that I am moving in the exact opposite direction at the advice of multiple mentors.

I should add that I have shot Ortho grips on the 22 pretty well. Particularly after working on them with the dremel and putty. But I have been advised that it would be to my benefit to maximize my time with the slab grips of the 45 (regardless of sighting system). 

I am setting up a new to me Marvel Unit 1 right now and finding that the more I shoot it for 22 the easier it is to pick up the 45 and have everything line up. I am not yet shooting the Marvel as well as the Pardini or Benelli. But it is improving. I shot my first clean with irons the other night using the Marvel (no scope mount yet). 


Mike

I don't have the strengthen my grip yet for slab sides. I tried em and the gun moves in recoil. I shot the match Sunday with a set of used ?? Grips that were filed and sanded on. Felt good. Adjustable heel. Gun didn't move. Except these grips don't fit just perfect like I would like them too.

I'd like to get disinguished but that's a long road for a local shooter like me. And it's just 30 shots right?

While they are not as anatomical as some (no thumb rest, etc.) RoCo makes a great grip for the 1911 (and some other guns). They are ambidextrous with a nice palm swell. They have two sizes, the regular and the XL. I have larger hands and the XL works great on both my Marvel and my wad gun. They also might make a good transition from an augmented grip to slabs should you want to work in that direction.

You may also want to look at the Sig match grips.  They are similar to the RoCo grips but are running around fifty bucks at CDNN.

You could buy some of those Sig grips from CDNN and go to town with epoxy... 

That's basically what I did with my .22 target pistol (a Ruger variant) 

Tim:H11 wrote:I don't have the strengthen my grip yet for slab sides. I tried em and the gun moves in recoil. I shot the match Sunday with a set of used ?? Grips that were filed and sanded on. Felt good. Adjustable heel. Gun didn't move. Except these grips don't fit just perfect like I would like them too.

I'd like to get disinguished but that's a long road for a local shooter like me. And it's just 30 shots right?

The matches themselves are a single National Match Course. But it takes a minimum of 3 matches (all 3 golds) and a max of (5+ bronze and 1 silver) to Distinguish. You need 30 points with at least one 8 or 10 point leg. All legs at Camp Perry for the NTI are 10 points for civilians. 

I actually have a problem with improper fitting Ortho grips moving more than the 1911 grips. Or I think that I do. I am in the process of testing that, I have customized all of my ortho grips to maximize contact and fit them to my hands. There seems to be much less movement that way. When I shoot the 45, I don't notice movement so much as the difference between the angles of the Benelli/Pardini and the 1911. But I do work with grip exercisers every day. However,  due to my past 45 performance I am still classified as a Marksman. I have shot matches where my rapids with the 45 were 190+, so I know that I can grip it and make it work. 

I have bought a set of 3d grips from Andrew Berryhill. You should talk to him. The one issue that might hit you is that under the external layer is a honeycomb. Depending on how much you need to sand/file off you may need to use wood instead of the 3d. 

Good luck

Y

Tim:H11 wrote:I don't have the strengthen my grip yet for slab sides. I tried em and the gun moves in recoil. I shot the match Sunday with a set of used ?? Grips that were filed and sanded on. Felt good. Adjustable heel. Gun didn't move. Except these grips don't fit just perfect like I would like them too.

I'd like to get disinguished but that's a long road for a local shooter like me. And it's just 30 shots right?

That's why the frontstraps and mainspring housings are stippled/checkered.  But to each their own.

Slabs or Harrets NM I buy them used and then sand them down. I then stipple them for texture. 

Work great , I am not sure if I like them better than slabs. 

Slabs, Shark Skin, Harrets, Ergo , or Les Baer Coccobolo. 

Rich.

Those slab sides made of rubber - are those EIC legal?

Years ago, no a lifetime ago, I shot ortho grips a lot. I had various struggles with them because they are not forgiving. Easy to make grip pressure mistakes. I had grips made by Cesar Morini when I was in Switzerland for my free, air and standard pistols. I shot three personal best scores at my next matches for these pistols. Huge difference having them fit correctly. I recently got a Pardini SP .22. I'm making gripping errors and struggling with the pistol. It's opened my eyes again to how vital proper grip is. Slab sides are forgiving and easier to be consistent with. So now I need to have one of my grips duplicated to fit Pardini. I also shoot slab sides on my 208s.
Jon

John, 

Do you think that the slab sides are actually more forgiving or that they make you grip the gun and grip it like you mean it, every time? I have wondered about this for a while. Among my best fitting grips are the Morini Grips on my LP10 that only have a groove for the middle finger. My hand has very good contact with this grip without any real modification (better than either the Rink for the Benelli or the Pardini before adding to the area behind the palmswell and actually moving a little material from the palmswell. 

I kept noticing last year that my AP shooting was significantly better with irons than my 22 shooting with irons. I never thought about the grip differences until this year at Perry after I had been modifying my 22 grips.

One thing that helped me grip my 1911 better is an arched mainspring housing.

jmdavis wrote:John, 

Do you think that the slab sides are actually more forgiving or that they make you grip the gun and grip it like you mean it, every time? 

More forgiving. Nothing ortho about them. Fit most hands pretty good. Ortho's fit no one's hands
With .22 conversion you don't have to grip so hard. With 45 you have to squeeze it considerably harder, but less chance of applying pressure in wrong direction as with ortho.
Jon

Thanks John. I heard Zins say

"Ortho's fit no one's hands "

 too.

I tried 2 different Rink grips on my 1911.  About $500 worth.  First set (XL) were way too big.  Second set (L) were a little small and did a lot of work to.  Felt good but never shot them well.  Then one day I picked up a friends gun and it felt like it grew into my hand.  They were $16 Hogue overmolded rubber.  Been shooting them ever since.

Scott

But are the rubber slab sides legal for hardball?

Without looking up the rules I would say yes.  If I remember correctly the rules say no weighted or metal grips.  They do not have finger grooves that go around the front strap.  Basically the same as wood but rubber.  I thought they would get slick but they continue to be grippy.

Scott

I have large hands and gripping slabs leaves my palm hollow and puts my trigger finger in a weird position.   I'm still experimenting but currently just put on Hogue grips and built up the palm area with epoxy repair putty.  My palm is now in contact and my trigger finger is well supported.  On the other side I molded around my finger tips to assist in consistent grip position, and built up a thumb rest as well.  It's ugly no doubt but it does help at this point.  It's cheap too.  Maybe once I get it 100% right I'll shape it up and get it scanned and machined out of walnut- just because.

Tim:H11 wrote:But are the rubber slab sides legal for hardball?

yes as long as they are the same for both sides, cant have a palm swell or higher thumb rest. Have you ever shot rubber grips in the summertime? they are the worst! As good as you shot id stick with what you used with maybe slight tweaking.

you blew off the herrit national's but they are the cheapest and the most like slab grips just grind on them to get the right feel