I recently purchased Hogue 19300 wood grips for my 69 2.75” k frame. The grips are combat style with finger grooves (see attached pic). The 69 is a woods gun for me and had been wearing Hogue Bantam rubber grips which fit my hand well and are comfortable when shooting. The only problem with the Bantams is that they can get caught up pretty easily on your shirt when drawing...so I ordered the Hogue wood grips thinking they’d be similar in contour to the Bantams.

Well, the fit and finish of the wood Hogue’s is great but my hand didn’t like the contour at all. Too much swell and/or arch made them uncomfortable just in the hand and even worse when shooting.

I have weird sized hands that are long-ish but narrow. I can get a full three finger grip on a Shield with the flush mag just to give you an idea of how narrow my hands are. Long, skinny fingers force me to wear large gloves otherwise medium gloves would fit my palms better.

So, now to the request for suggestions. I would like to get wood grips that allow a full grip and have mild to medium palm swell but not a lot. I’m considering Altamont Bateleur conversion grips or Badger conversions. I would love feedback on those two grips as well as other suggestions on grips that may fit my criteria.

Just for more perspective, I have experience with Altamont Altai k/l frame grips and find those to be too thin (not enough swell).

Thanks!

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Some of the older Mustang grips were longer front-to-back without too much palm swell.

Good luck. I couldn’t find ANY wood grips for the M69 that were comfy, went with the M500 grips.

Have you tried any round-to-square conversion grips?

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I put some of the Altamont grips on my J frame and really like them. They were very comfortable to shoot. Just ordered some for my SP101.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Check out Culina grips.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

Try something without finger grooves.

Check out VZ G10 grips. I know they're not wood, but they make great working grips and there are a lot of variations.

+1 on Culina. These are on the way to me for my S&W Model 65

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The Culinas are fantastic and gorgeous, but the ones I have had tend to be on the thick side. For my 69 I really like the smooth G10 VZ grips. They are very comfortable and don't snag on clothing. (They don't come with medallions)

My 686-4 has been wearing these Altamont Combats for a couple years. Altamonts are a good choice for a little less dough than some of the other brands.

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John

Try S&W Factory round butt target grips..... aka "Banana Grips"

No finger groves.....

IMHO the best wood grips out there are Spegel Boot grips and he makes an extended version which I use on 4 and 4 inch guns..... but a 2 year backlog on orders.

If you can wait for them, Herrett's stocks in ID will custom fit a set to your hand dimensions. If you don't buy 2-3 sets of factory stocks that don't fit you can probably pay for them.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I have a set of K/L Mustangs like this. Long front to back, medium swell. Good for carry, but my hands are better suited to something different. They’re too long front-to-back for me.

ETA: i see now you are in market for RB grips. Mine are SB. Sorry!

Culina's are beautiful for sure but I don't think you would want them on a woods gun unless you have a lot of money to burn and don't care if they get roughed up.

I'm afraid I can't help because the Hogue smooth wood combat grips that you received are perfection for me.

I agree with the VZ grips

From Hogue I like the single finger groove model...

@ScottN

when your hands don't fit the norm, they probably won't fit most of the grips with finger grooves. You might get lucky with the standard Hogue Wood Round-to-Square Conversion without finger grooves and without cap


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or the Ahrends Retro Banana (which are very hard to come by now)

Of course both are smaller for K/L-Frames

regards from Germany
Ulrich

[IMG][/IMG]

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Life is too short to own a bad gun

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! I have some homework to do.

Full disclosure...I love the idea of Culinas, Herretts or Spegels but do not have the patience to wait nor the desire to bang those around in the woods. Some day one of those will go on a 686 3” I have yet to obtain.

The leaders in the clubhouse right now are Altamont Bateleurs, VZs and Ahrends (if I can find used ones). But, I’m stilling thinking through it.

Can anyone speak to the thickness and swell on the Bateleur or VZ grips?

Thanks!

The VZ round butt grips I own have a fuller palm swell than the Altamont grip, but not as much material in the pinkie area due to shape.

The VZ were my everyday grips on a 3-inch 686+ for a while, but fell out of favor during longer range sessions due to their abrasiveness. They will sandpaper your hands or gloves with lots of magnum use, a decent trade off for the all-weather grip IMO.

The current production Smith and Wesson rubber grips are now back on it, and they are a very good balance of size and grip.

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The thought of hardwood grips on a 69 makes me cringe ever so slightly. Just seems brutal. That being said the wider Culina's may better distribute the recoil force with it's larger surface area.

I hear ya but I consider my 69 a 44 special gun that also has the capability to fire magnums. I carry it with Underwood 44 specials as that’s plenty of power for the woods I commonly travel. If I want/need to fire magnums then out come the Hogue 500 x-grips.

Well, I made a play for some Ahrends grips on eBay yesterday but lost out. I was in the lead going into the last hour, then the bidding got crazy. They ended up going for about $125, which was significantly more than I was willing to pay.

Scott, have you thought about taking those Hogue grips to a belt sander and "personalizing" them to your hands? I wouldn't hesitate to do that myself, but I've been a woodworker for 50 years.......

Good luck,
Lou

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NRA Certified Instructor & RSO

Actually, I did think of that. Great minds think alike! I ordered some supplies yesterday off Amazon that should arrive later this week. I’m gonna strip them and try my hand at sanding down the palm swell a bit, then do a tru oil finish. It will be my first time doing something like this...we’ll see how it goes.

I also bought some barely used Altamont Bateleur conversion grips that will arrive this week.

Sometimes the “chase” is almost as fun as the final solution.

Great suggestion. Ahrends are great for making customized stocks. I've done few sets. These were all reshaped for a better fit. Those sharp edges had to go too.

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I was going to suggest going down to your LGS and seeing if they had any Smiths with the Batleur grips on them from the factory. My LGS had more than a few 686’s with those grips on them.
To me, Those grips feel very similar to the slim rubber grips that come stock my 617 and likely other recent K frames.
I guess you will find out soon enough.

*No, even after my desperate attempts at getting my friend to pick up that 3”, it was gone by the time he got there

The problem with any in-use grip is how they feel in the hand in a static situation versus how the feel while shooting is often totally different. The proof of the pudding is in the shooting and to some extent in the carrying. Of course there is the variable on individual hand fit.

For S&W revolvers I've settled on Miculek wood grips and the now discontinued S&W factory "rubber" boot grip for J frames. For K, L and N the Hogue "rubber" grip is a cost effective 2nd choice.

Great point. I have had some goofy large grips on my 1911 that feel odd in the hand at my desk but work wonderfully at the range.

If you like the Hogue Bantam grip, just not in rubber, why did you not simply order wood Bantam grips from Hogue ?

They can be purchased in any of the woods that Hogue offers

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Fair question. The rubber bantam grip extends beyond the bottom of the frame to give me a full three finger grip. I thought the wood bantam grips were a boot grip that stops at the frame, which would only give me a 2.5 finger grip at best...and that’s just not what I want.

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Quick update.

I was able to try out my silver black Altamont Bateleur grips yesterday. I like them. Fit and finish is nice and they feel great in my hand. I put several cylinders of 44 special down range and I couldn’t find any nits to pick. I also shot a couple of 44mags to see how it would feel...not something I’d want to do often but not as bad as I thought it would be. 44 mags would definitely be manageable with gloves. These will fit my needs fine.

I also happened to stumble across some rosewood Altamont Altai grips while rummaging around in my safe looking for something else. I forgot I had them for a k frame I sold a while ago. They look great but are a little too slim for my hand. Probably should sell them but did I mention they look great?

Might get started on modifying the Hogue’s this weekend. Should be a fun project. Hopefully I don’t mangle them!

Sorry for the low quality pics. It’s the best I was willing to do yesterday.

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Groo here
I have changed ALL my smiths over to Pachmyer or Hogue rubber.
The hanging up can be helped with a little sanding or burning [melting of the grip ]
I have never had this problem with belt holsters.
The old "PoPo" in me remembers turning a nice set of Python grips
into toothpicks on the likes of car doors,chairs,door frames etc...
The give in the grip helps with magnum loads, and will help even if rained on.
Look bad-Feel good---

Unfortunately, MANY of us have bought stocks that looked like they would be comfortable but they did not feel right. I have quite a few. Bob