My 340 came with the standard synthetic/rubber grips. They were comfortable to shoot, and fit my hand well. But when carrying, my shirts would cling and the gun would print. Of course, that's the main problem with rubber grips that many members talk about here. So I decided to try a new combo on my little EDC 340.

Found these new bonded ivory grips from Altamont & liked how they looked. They call them "antique aged ivory". Decided to try them out along with some BK grip adapters. Both companies have plenty of happy customers on this board.

The Altamonts fit tight and look pretty good. But they do protrude a bit past the grip frame on the backstrap. I expected them to be flush. Not the end of the world, maybe I'll eventually smooth them out myself & give them a "custom fit." Other than that, I'm happy with these grips. No more printing. The base of the grip is smaller too. Better under a shirt, and better in a pocket.

BK grip adapter. In the BK thread, and on his website, it is said that they have problems fitting on the 340. I decided to try it anyways. I'm fairly handy with my Dremel tool, if there's an issue. Well, they actually fit pretty darned good. I could probably make them fit even better with a few hours of messing around, but if you look at the pics, I think it's really not necessary. The BK/Altamont combo does work well for me. Conceals easier than the stock grips. Feels good in my hands. Aims naturally. Would be perfect if the Altamonts actually fit better to the grip frame backstrap.

But it seems that the Altamonts cannot handle the power of my 357. Today I loaded it with some full house Remington 125 gr JSP's. On the third shot, the gun locked up. Bullet jump. I have another thread going to deal with that subject. But the right side grip broke. Not by the screw, I didn't over tighten them. It broke up high. And no, they were not loose either. No play at all. I wonder if the BK helped the crack occur, because of how they push the front of the grip off the frame with their clips. Anyways....... I'm checking to see what the warranty is on the grips, and here are the pics.

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-Roger

I did also weigh the factory grips vs the Altamont grips, with & without the BK.

Factory grips 1.68 ounces.


Altamont bonded ivory grips 1.82 ounces.


BK grip adapter with Altamont bonded ivory grips 2.1 ounces.


So the new grip setup added 0.4 ounce to the gun, handles great , and conceals better.

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-Roger

I sent an email today, to the eBay seller that I bought these grips from. Told him what happened, and asked about warranty. He quickly responded with an offer of returning them for refund. He didn't have any more of them on hand to offer exchange.

I then called Altamont. Very friendly & helpful people there. They are going to exchange them for me. I'll get these sent off in the next few days.

Good customer service from two different companies today! God bless America!

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-Roger

That's great service from Altamont. After looking at your pic of how the Altamonts fit your 340 I see that the fingergroove combats from Altamonts fit my 340pd just like yours on the back strap area. Seems to me they should be flush to have a more comfortable grip when firing.

I agree, would be nicer with a better flush fit.

I'll get the new grips on it & put more than 3 shots thru it. Then decide if I'm going to make them fit better.

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-Roger

I guarantee you the adapter caused the break.

Just curious if you could elaborate for me. Plenty of people have grip adapters with bonded ivory grips, without issue. The clips are nowhere near the crack, and the crack appears to run from that corner in the back, to the drilled out part for the medallion.

If I have time after work tonight, I'll remove the grips & inspect the back side. I'll post a picture here. I need to pull them off anyways, to send them back.

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-Roger

Looks to me like the recoil was more than the grips could handle. Either this set was too brittle, or it will happen again.

You can see from these pics, it looks like the crack originates at the corner of the hump, where it fits against the arch in the grip frame.

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-Roger

Well, I must say that Altamont's customer service is great!

I snail-mailed my grips back to Altamont on the 22nd, and recieved my replacements today. Hopefully the crack was just a fluke, and these will be just fine.

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-Roger

Hope the other grips were just a lemon and hope the new ones work great!

Very good on Altamont for replacing them.

Updated pics, including my 43C.

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-Roger