New Nil Grips

Just receiveed my new Nil grips for my S&W 41 and I am going to have to do some grinding to make them fit. Not what I expected for the price you have to pay for these. Is this normal or am I just lucky?

I have never had to grind a set of Nills

I am expecting to receive a set of M41 Nills grips ordered in September.  The shipment got delayed in Customs for some reason.  Unless some miracle has occurred, US Customs doesn't change rules quickly so I wonder if something has changed at Nills grips.  I'm very comfortable returning  the grips if they don't meet my expectations or fit.

I just got  thru e-mailing with MagTec and they advised me to send them back for a refund. I ordered mine in Sept also and got them yesterday. My 41 is a new one and the handle cutouts may have changed a little from the older models. Now I wonder which other maker I should try.

That sounds ominous, since I also ordered through MacTec and mine will arrive next week.  Rink and Fung also make grips.  I have a pair of Fung grips on my 41 now.  They are well made and nice, but I wanted an index finger ledge, rather than using the trigger guard.  I may have asked for too much.

PM sent

The October shipment was delayed in customs due to new paperwork.  It is shipping out now.  You can see the updates on the mactec website.

I just got the grips I ordered direct from Nill a few months ago.  It is a really nice left handed 1911 ergo grip.

I am right handed.

Ugh.

I probably should not comment (or, with all due respect), the explanation given on the Mactecsales.com website doesn't make much sense.  The ATF requires a new form for wood pistol grips?  No. No, they don't.  But, regardless of the reason there was a delay (in Customs).  I think Dick Horton makes wood grips for the M41, or I'm going to find out if Dick Horton makes M41 grips.

Bullseye_Stan,
Horton has a tendency to make grips that the finger grooves are to fat/big and putting a finger rest under the trigger guard. Request minimal finger grooves so your fingers are not spread but actually touching. Also on the 41 the trigger guard should be touching the middle finger for support.
Jon

Have just gotten a reply from Nill saying to send them back and once inspected, they will send the correct-handed grip.

I am not upset, just a bit frustrated.

I did send a question to mactecsales about it and got a quick reply.  Unfortunately, they have nothing to do with purchases direct from Nill, so they could not be of further help and recommended I contact Nill in Germany.

I was fortunate enough to purchase a used Nill 1911 grip of the exact model I ordered on the forum while waiting for these to arrive and it is pretty nice grip.  It has been a big help with my Nelson scores, which jumped up immediately to match my Rink-gripped Hammerli 215 scores and even beat my old personal best by a point.  

To me getting a good grip that works for shooting BE 1911 will be worth the headache to get this straightened out, but next time I will order direct from mactecsales to alleviate some of the issues of dealing with Nill overseas, such as the communications delays due to time difference and shipping returns.  If I had known about them, I would have simply placed my order with mactecsales first.

I wanted to be sure they fit so I ordered my M41 grips from Herretts. It takes about the same time as Nills but they are custom fit to my hand tracing. I was happy with the results.



As far as Nills on a wheel gun. They work great for me. got them thru Mactec.

They fit my hand ok, they just don't fit on the gun. The grips have a boss that fits inside the cut outs in the handle, and the boss is to large to fit inside the cut outs and if I start trying to fit them the are not returnable. So back they go and I will look at another maker.

7tcu wrote:They fit my hand ok, they just don't fit on the gun. The grips have a boss that fits inside the cut outs in the handle, and the boss is to large to fit inside the cut outs and if I start trying to fit them the are not returnable. So back they go and I will look at another maker.

CMM grip adapters, Rink Anatomical and Rink Ambidextrous grips for my Hammerli X-esse had the same need to be fitted for the frame windows.

willnewton wrote:Have just gotten a reply from Nill saying to send them back and once inspected, they will send the correct-handed grip.

I am not upset, just a bit frustrated.

I did send a question to mactecsales about it and got a quick reply.  Unfortunately, they have nothing to do with purchases direct from Nill, so they could not be of further help and recommended I contact Nill in Germany.

I was fortunate enough to purchase a used Nill 1911 grip of the exact model I ordered on the forum while waiting for these to arrive and it is pretty nice grip.  It has been a big help with my Nelson scores, which jumped up immediately to match my Rink-gripped Hammerli 215 scores and even beat my old personal best by a point.  

To me getting a good grip that works for shooting BE 1911 will be worth the headache to get this straightened out, but next time I will order direct from mactecsales to alleviate some of the issues of dealing with Nill overseas, such as the communications delays due to time difference and shipping returns.  If I had known about them, I would have simply placed my order with mactecsales first.

What was the advantage of buying nill direct vs macsales ?

Sa-tevp,,, what did you use to get them to fit?

@Chrismiceli None, I just didn't know about them at the time. 

The delay would have been the same if I had ordered from macsales and had to wait for their October (customs delayed) shipment to arrive, as all orders to the US ship once a month from Germany.

I ordered my Rinks from Rink and it was no big deal so...

7tcu wrote:Sa-tevp,,, what did you use to get them to fit?

I laid the frame in a grip side and scribed the frame window shape onto the grip inset that goes into the frame window. Take your time figuring out where the outside parts of the grip will meet the frame before scribing. I then used a square shoulder rotary file in a Dremel to get most of the excess material removed. I did the final fitting to the scribe lines with hand files for a smoother fit and remove the waviness from the rotary file material removal. Then I applied Scherell's stock oil.

This makes for a really tight no wobble fit if you take your time. If you go too far JB Weld works well. I actually like having the material provided to work with.

acra-glass is your friend when you don't want any slop in wood to metal fit 

Thanks

Looks like I lucked out:





They weren't that easy to install.  I needed to remove the screws, fit one side (where the screws enter) then fit the other and apply a bit of force to get the middle screw to engage.  I used the correct fitting screw bit from my Wheeling kit, but still marred the blueing a little.  Once that screw was started, the top screw could be started.  The lower screw (which is a nice feature) had no trouble starting.

I immediately installed these grips upon arrival, and they were still cold from being outside.  I'm not sure that made a difference, but don't think allowing them to warm up and expand would have helped.

That said, and my comments aside, these are genuine wood grips and very nice.  Wood will swell and takes more finesse than plastics to work with and some patience.  I expect once these are on the gun for a while, there will be no trouble removing or reinstalling them.   I'm satisfied with my Nills grips.

Ok, I used some blue and found out I only needed to take off a matter of thousands of an inch to make them fit, so I also got out the dremel tool and now them look great on my 41.
They also feel great. They were to pretty to send back, thanks for all the feedback as it gave me the ideas I needed to get going.  Now if only I could hit the target all would be better.

I realized in my description of how I got various grips to fit I failed to say "Remove enough grip material to fit the pistol frame." In this case it would be the wood on the inside of the grip that would need material removed to fit in the metal pistol frame.

I have to write technical instructions at work.

Thanks, your description was sufficient enough to me as I took off a minute amount of wood to get them to fit. The only place that took a little more removal was on one of the bottom corners on the boss. And now they look and feel real good. Good luck on yours.