I have lately discovered that there is a rather significant size difference in S&W K frame, factory target grips. For example, 2 sets of 70s vintage, smooth targets I recently acquired differed 3/16" in the measurement along the bottom edge. That is enough to make the larger one uncomfortably large, 62mm,and almost un-usable, while the smaller one, 57mm, is an about perfect fit. Does anyone know if this difference was deliberate, to allow for different hand sizes, or a result of the manufacturing process? If it's the later it seems odd is an age of precision manufacturing.

I would almost bet that the Marketing Department, the bane of the Engineering Department, prevailed in that one. Wooden Dan Wesson grips of that era were unusable and Pachmyers had to be fitted.