Mystery grips

[SG-688]

...

Joe way oversells me. 10-22 on all that.

The old articles by Walter Rickell, who seemed to know all these guys, are a prime source for me. Anybody know anything about him?

 

[SG-688]

I'm the guy in the email exchange who guessed these to be by Joe Blackford, based on this blurb from the 1970 G&A Annual.

I recently saw a similar pair on another site.

--- An addition for posterity: Similar grips - finger grooves, same checkering pattern, same upper profile - are shown in the R.L. Wilson Colt Book of Colt Firearms on the personal Official Police revolver of Al Goodwin. Sadly, the maker is not named.

 

[SG-688]

I haven't posted anything her for a while so I thought I would stir up the mud a little. I can attest to the provenance of these three sets of grips as I personally purchased them at the LAPRAC store. I don't know anything about the "Del Rey" connection, but their near twin I purchased and they are stamped Hogue.

Ink stamped "Hogue Custom/PO Box 1001/Cambria CA"

GREAT post.

This is one of the styles of early Hogue shown in the Mason book.

 

[SG-688]

Left Hurst, Center Hogue, Right Hogue

My probable Hurst grips were also for a Trooper MKIII.

Just saw a similar pair for a MKIII on eBay.

 

[DCWilson]

I'm the guy in the email exchange who guessed these to be by Joe Blackford, based on this blurb from the 1970 G&A Annual.

I recently saw a similar pair on another site.

Thank you. Some of my correspondence on this topic was located on a laptop that had a bad deluge experience, and I couldn't remember everybody's name. I agree that the groove profile and checking field boundaries look very similar when you compare the stocks on my gun and Chow's.

Do we know if Blackford was one of the LAPD grip makers, or did he just use their basic concepts without the benefit of regular interaction with them?

And even though this is off to the side of the main stock discussion here, if anyone can tell me anything about that semi-adjustable rib sight that was added to my Colt, I'd very much appreciate it.

 

[SG-688]

Blackford

Walter Rickell in the January, 1986 Guns magazine, in an article about a 1954 mfg. Colt Officers Model Special:

"What really makes this a piece of history is that everyone in the match that day (3-21-54) signed signed [the target] —notable shooters like John Hurst and Fuzzy Farrant, from LAPD and premier handgun grip makers;... and Walter Stark and Joe Blackford, who both taught Hurst and Farrant the art of custom handgun stocks and started the whole business of finger grooves."

 

[SG-688]

bvanwoert13, if you haven't seen it, here is OIF2's Hurst thread.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1961-1980/101546-stocks-hurst.html

 

[bvanwoert13]

bvanwoert13, if you haven't seen it, here is OIF2's Hurst thread.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1961-1980/101546-stocks-hurst.html

Thank you. I had, but seeing it again makes me even more interested in your pic of the Hogue grips with out the characteristic islands. They are quite similar to mine. I'm less convinced tonight than I was yesterday that my grips were by Hurst.

 

[DCWilson]

After staring at the Chow Python and the grips in another thread that SG-688 pointed out to me in a PM, I am pretty sure the stocks on my Colt must be the work of Joe Blackford. I believe Mike Priwer was nudging me in this direction too, if I correctly recall our prior conversation.

Blackford seems to be a kind of stealth grip maker when measured against the reputations of Hogue, Farrant and others; he and Stark are characterized as teachers of the other LAPD grip makers. If I can raise any more information about him I will post it.

 

[dnater]

My .02 on the grips that started this thread.
Definitely not Farrant.
Older Hurst? I don't think so. I've got five or six pairs and all have very different shape to the butt, flat and not rounded.
What these remind me of are the Rogers synthetic grips. Could these be the original inspiration for those?

 

[Joe Kent]

Truly a very interesting thread. Also good private exchanges from new friends. A great deal of "new" knowledge coming into play. Truly a benefit of the Forum! Thanks, and all my best, Joe.

 

[bvanwoert13]

First my thanks to Joe Kent for his kind words about this thread. It has certainly been a fun, educational ride for me. Although the issue of who made my grips is still somewhat unresolved I have come to a conclusion based upon the evidence which I am quite comfortable with. While there are clear reasons for attributing them to Hurst and Farrant I believe, as I originally thought, that they were made by Guy Hogue. My reasons are as follows.
1) The upper part of both panels closely resembles current Hogue production grips as does the double palm swell, the curved bottom edge and the slight flair at the bottom. See: K or L Rd. Conver. Pau Ferro Checkered [19303] - $94.95 : Hogue Inc., The Best Value In Handgun Grips, Rifle Stocks and Accessories - Bar None! 2) While early Hogue grips had an "island" around the screw hole the pair belonging to Larry, post 20, do not and use identical escutcheons to the ones on my grips, including a deeply buried screw head. As Larry says in his post his proven Hogue grips are near twins to mine. 3) The group seems to have shared checkering patterns. For example the diamond around the escutcheon on Larry's Hogue grip is common to Hurst grips. Further they all have examples of wrap around checkering and each sometimes ends the checkering just above the bottom edge of the panels and sometimes at the very bottom. 4) Lastly I am persuaded by denater's post,#30, in that all the pictured Hurst grips have flat bottoms.

I emailed Patrick Hogue after seeing Larry's post since one of his arguments against my grips being Hogue was the lack of "Islands", but he has not responded. Two emails was probably his limit. I wish his brother Aaron would look at them since he did the checkering on his father's grips and I believe he would remember those, but I don't think that will happen. The del rey stamp remains a total mystery but perhaps it is a later addition. Unless someone can shed more light on this mystery I guess it will remain hanging.
Thanks all, for a good ride.
Bard

 

[SG-688]

Dragging this back from the past, but it seems to be a good reference thread. Hoping this is a worthwhile addition.

I talked to Patrick Hogue at the NRA convention in St. Louis. He remembered the Del Rey grip question and quoted Aaron as saying that he had NEVER checkered anything in this pattern.

[That still leaves the possibility of the checkering having been done later by someone other than the original maker.]

Patrick said that Mrs. Hogue did the checkering at first and then Aaron -- starting at age 10.

 

[s&wchad]

New information for an old thread.

A set of Del-Ray marked grips recently sold on ebay. Unfortunately for me, I didn't notice the auction until after it was over.

Pistol Grips Custom s w "K" Frame Square Butt Combat Style | eBay

 

[SG-688]

Great catch.

Probably futile, but I sent a message to the seller asking for identifying information from the purported FBI agent original owner. Not holding my breath.

 

[SG-688]

To my pleasant surprise, the seller responded. Unfortunately, he is unable to provide more information as the original owner is deceased.

 

[skilled]

There is a set of these right now on GB.