This morning I stepped outside and shot 50 rounds through my Ruger SP-101 .22LR, 24 rounds through my model three inch 624 and 24 rounds through my three inch model 625 (I live on a farm in northeast Texas and have plenty of room to shoot). I finally got new Pachmayr Compac grips for the 624 and my 625 and do they ever make a difference. These are the Compac grips that cover the back strap, and they actually improved the way my trigger finger fits to the trigger, by preventing me from putting my finger too far around the trigger.
No fancy wood grips for me thank you very much. These guns are for shooting, not for hanging on the wall in a picture frame, and while some of the fancy wood grips are beautiful and works of art in their own right, at my age I’ll take function over style every time.
The recoil with both N-frames was getting a little uncomfortable for my arthritic hands, and my accuracy was pretty bad with both the three inch N-frames which came with hard, pretty, wood grips. With the Pachmayr grips, both revolvers had a much milder felt recoil and no discomfort at all. More importantly, my accuracy, while still nothing to brag about, was much improved with this first test of the new grips. In addition they just felt good in my hand. All in all, the new grips were money very well spent.
My current carry gun is a model 696 (already fitted with the same Pachmayr Compac grips in K-L frame size), but if I can find a good custom leather IWH for my 624 and 625, one of them may well displace the 696 as my primary carry gun. The extra round will be nice, if the weight is not perceptibly greater, and my 624 has the best double action trigger pull of all my revolvers.