Boone's Trading Co. Imitation Ivory grips broke on 5th shot.

I bought an imitation Ivory combat grip from Boones Trading Company for my M&P 340. It looks beautiful and feels great in my hand. I daily carry this gun, either in my pants pocket or my front jacket pocket. Today I finally took it to the range and loaded it with Fiocchi "General Purpose" 38 Special rounds. I've fired it with the stock rubber boot grip but didn't like the floating pinky. I wear XL gloves and wanted a 3 finger grip for better control. The combat grips fit fine in pocket carry.

Well on first shot I realized how sharp the back edges of this BTC Ivory grip felt on my thumb knuckle. Ouch! Sharp like a lego brick. On the 5th round the grip broke apart at that spot, where it was gouging my thumb bone. Boo!

I have some Altemont Bateleur grips on order but they're several weeks out. Back to the stock midget grips until they arrive.

Alright, swapped on a wooden Hogue grip. Not as pretty (to me) but it's very comfortable with no sharp edges. It'll do until the new grips get here.

*I know Hogue is a premium manufacturer but I've come to realize I need a grip with a round back, to cover the backstrap. I have long fingers and "skinny" grips don't seem to fit me comfortably. The 3-finger stock grips on my 640 are fairly comfortable but the rubber feels "greasy" and cheap to me. My kid loves them though.

Have you tried/considered the S&W factory 3-finger rubber combats - like the ones in the attached thumbnail?
Based on the info in your post it seems to me like that might be just what you're looking for.
They aren't available "new" but can be found on GunBroker and Ebay second-hand...

413Maxwedge said:

I bought an imitation Ivory combat grip from Boones Trading Company for my M&P 340.

Click to expand...

Do you think Boones Trading Company will warranty the broken grip?

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Poor design grips

Some of the current grip makers should think about actually taking their grips out on a real gun and shooting it to understand if it is comfortable or painful! - and change the design accordingly! Altamont is guilty on some of their designs like their new S&W OEM target grips. Not enough material thickness along the back strap of the grip frame.

413Maxwedge said:

Alright, swapped on a wooden Hogue grip. Not as pretty (to me) but it's very comfortable with no sharp edges. It'll do until the new grips get here.

*I know Hogue is a premium manufacturer but I've come to realize I need a grip with a round back, to cover the backstrap. I have long fingers and "skinny" grips don't seem to fit me comfortably. The 3-finger stock grips on my 640 are fairly comfortable but the rubber feels "greasy" and cheap to me. My kid loves them though.

Click to expand...

It's taken me a long time to come to the realization that I'm going to carry my J frame with grips that make it easy to carry. Mine is carried in my pocket or waistband. All this time and money that I've wasted on "comfortable" grips are now resting in my discard pile.

I'm thick and slow on the uptake sometimes but this is what "carried often, seldom fired" really means. A weapon that I'm going to carry in my pocket has to be small and slim.....old time wooden Model 36 Magna stocks. I don't like to shoot with them on but carry? Yell yeah.

I also carry a K frame model 67 that has a 4" barrel and my EDC stocks are some old and small woods that I've sanded even smoother, no checkering left on them. Thin and compact is what I'm scratching for.

I realize that this is counter intuitive like all get out. Maybe not for everybody but it works for me.

That's a nice looking revolver.

OP, what is the significance of 413MAXWEDGE ? Do you own a wild Mopar that we need to know about.

Rather than grouse about broken grips to us, I suggest you get in touch with Boone Trading. The gentleman that runs the company is great to work with. I'm sure he'll take care of you. Give him a chance to make it right.

I bought a couple new grips last Winter. (not Boone). The "instructions" in the package warned about over tightening because it might break them. That's probably legal speak to avoid having to make returns, but look into that to see if they have that caveat as well.

BC38 said:

Have you tried/considered the S&W factory 3-finger rubber combats - like the ones in the attached thumbnail?
Based on the info in your post it seems to me like that might be just what you're looking for.
They aren't available "new" but can be found on GunBroker and Ebay second-hand...

Click to expand...

BC38,
I have those grips and they are very comfortable. They come on the current 640-03. But the rubber hangs on the inside of my pockets so I put them on my son's 43c (.22 J-frame). He's too young to carry so I wanted him to have a comfy grip for range use. He loves them.

flgolfer29 said:

Do you think Boones Trading Company will warranty the broken grip?

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I sent them an email with pics. I told them the grip was beautiful but had "sharp" edges where it sits in the hand webbing, and told him his mix might be off.

Krogen said:

Rather than grouse about broken grips to us, I suggest you get in touch with Boone Trading. The gentleman that runs the company is great to work with. I'm sure he'll take care of you. Give him a chance to make it right.

Click to expand...

I agree, and I wrote to him this evening. He had great correspondence when I placed the original order.

When I first got my 49 no dash, it was wearing Pachmayer finger grips that were worn smooth. I pulled a set of J-frame factory bananas from the spare grip box, and it was love at first sight (somewhere around 20 years now!)

Soft rubber inside a pocket is a tragedy waiting to happen! Soft rubber IWB or OWB will tug on your shirt tail and give you away!

I bought a 629-10, 2 5.8" in 2017. The wood finger grove stocks had a sharp edge that with full house loads would peal the skin from my thumb's base knuckle. I polished the sharp edges with the fine side of my wife's fingernail sander (with permission of course!) and reduced the injury factor! The wood grips in a De Santis 3"OWB holster don't hang-up with clothing, but I may have to go belt and suspenders because of the poundage!

Ivan

Bald1 said:

OP, what is the significance of 413MAXWEDGE ? Do you own a wild Mopar that we need to know about.

Click to expand...

My Pop-Pop (Dad's dad) had a '62 Belvedere with the 413 MW. When I was a kid in the '70's-'80's my Mom-Mom wouldn't let us ride in it with him. She said it smelled bad and didn't have any brakes. At the time I didn't know a lot about cars and thought it was just an ugly old car (their DD was a Ford Tempo or something by that time).

When Pop-Pop passed ('86?) she put a "Best Offer" sign on it hoping to get $500. Someone came by and offered her $2500, which she snapped up.

A few years ago when "Gas Monkey Garage" was popular it might have brought 6 figures at Mechum. He kept it in the garage and took it to car shows. I was just a kid at the time and thought it was an ugly old car. Since growing up and becoming a car guy myself, I've used Maxwedge or Maxwedge413 as my username on all my forums.

Get some real ivory, they're still legal and available with just a few hoops to jump through, but very attainable.
These came from Boone back when you could ship all ivory across state lines. Have shot these many times without incident, but I have rubber O-rings on the grip screws too.
Only mastodon can be shipped across state lines now fwiw.

413Maxwedge said:

My Pop-Pop (Dad's dad) had a '62 Belvedere with the 413 MW. When I was a kid in the '70's-'80's my Mom-Mom wouldn't let us ride in it with him. She said it smelled bad and didn't have any brakes. At the time I didn't know a lot about cars and thought it was just an ugly old car (their DD was a Ford Tempo or something by that time).

When Pop-Pop passed ('86?) she put a "Best Offer" sign on it hoping to get $500. Someone came by and offered her $2500, which she snapped up.

A few years ago when "Gas Monkey Garage" was popular it might have brought 6 figures at Mechum. He kept it in the garage and took it to car shows. I was just a kid at the time and thought it was an ugly old car. Since growing up and becoming a car guy myself, I've used Maxwedge or Maxwedge413 as my username on all my forums.

Click to expand...

In 1973 my future brother in law asked me if I could help him get his old car running so he could sell it. His father told him since he was getting married and moving out he had to get the car out of the garage. The car was a 1963 300G with a 413 and dual quads, the ram tubes were still laying in the trunk. I got it running and took for a drive around the block, I never saw it again. That certainly would have been a nice car to hold onto.

413Maxwedge said:

My Pop-Pop (Dad's dad) had a '62 Belvedere with the 413 MW. When I was a kid in the '70's-'80's my Mom-Mom wouldn't let us ride in it with him. She said it smelled bad and didn't have any brakes. At the time I didn't know a lot about cars and thought it was just an ugly old car (their DD was a Ford Tempo or something by that time).

When Pop-Pop passed ('86?) she put a "Best Offer" sign on it hoping to get $500. Someone came by and offered her $2500, which she snapped up.

A few years ago when "Gas Monkey Garage" was popular it might have brought 6 figures at Mechum. He kept it in the garage and took it to car shows. I was just a kid at the time and thought it was an ugly old car. Since growing up and becoming a car guy myself, I've used Maxwedge or Maxwedge413 as my username on all my forums.

Click to expand...

What a cool story. I wish you would have ended up with your Grandpa's car. One of my first cars was a 64 Plymouth with a slant six, not a cool looking car.

I put a 413 out of a 300J in a Dodge pickup in the early '70s. It was a a beast.
This is in a barn not far from me!

Wow, we've got a lot of interest between grips, Ivory and Mopar lovers! Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to dog Boone's or their owners. They were totally cool to deal with; wrote a nice email when I placed the order, and sent a nice hand written note in the box. But the BEAUTIFUL grip had some ergo issues and broke against my hand when fired. I bragged to my kid that my hand was tougher that my gun.

He didn't buy it.

So minor update: I hate the way these Hogue grips feel on the gun. They are a Goncalo wood monogrip with a "cap" at the bottom. Very good looking, but I hate the attachment system. Every other grip I own is 2-piece with pins to keep the halves in alignment. The Hogue uses a "saddle" piece to screw it on from the bottom of handle. The result is a beautiful grip that can shift back and forth on the frame. Yes, I took it off and on several times and made sure it was fully seated.

It was like my first wife: Beautiful but heart-breaking.

Until my Altemont Bateleur's come in I'm gonna use these ebay grips I bought a while ago. The finger grooves fit my hand well and they're he best I have right now. I had to sand down some sharp edges but they're decent.

Sorry that happened! FWIW, I've had good luck with Altamont Grips. They are really the only company I go to for grips now. I've got a S&W 637 PC that came with 3 fingered Altamont walnut grips which feel really good in the hand, and I carry a 442 with a 2 fingered black mother of pearl grip from Altamont. That one carries very well and doesn't feel as bad as some hard 2 fingered grips from other makers.