FWIW: J frame grips
The first thing I look at with any J frame is "What hurts?" Is it drawing blood anywhere? I have big hands and the cylinder release, even the new ones, will often draw blood. If that's the case, different grips usually won't help. Time to take a little metal off the lower edge of the release.
Is the revolver bruising or cutting the web of your hand? That may well be a function of the grips. You may need something to spread the recoil out over a little more area. Also, just a little bit of sloppy fitting in the area that contacts the web can make things darned uncomfortable. If the grips are a little proud or have a bit of a gap between the top of the grip and the back strap, the web of your hand can suffer. Since Smith went to rubber service grips, I've seen some that fit quite well and some it seems were forced on the frame.
Does you wrist or elbow give you fits after a range session? This is probably a function of recoil (and maybe age) and different grips may not have much effect. A change in ammunition, as noted by other posters, may help. I don't carry WCs, but I know a couple of guys with a lot of mileage on them who do. In any event, training with reduced recoil ammunition is not wasted, even if you carry stouter stuff.
Laser grips? Good idea. They are larger than say, Magnas and a T-grip, and may not work in some pockets or in ankle holsters (depends on how your trousers are cut). To me, the thing to remember with laser grips is this: you are now training with TWO sighting systems. You need to train in different conditions so that you can choose the correct system for the situation without having to stop and think about it. This means more rounds down range, not less.(Think you will always be able to see that laser? Get you a cheap Hawaiian shirt or maybe a cool red and green Caribbean patch shirt and lay it out in your backyard on a nice bright day. See how long it takes you to find that little red dot. Then think about how long a second or two really is when all the chips are on the table. People have said that the green lasers mitigate this problem, but I've never tried one.)
Since I'm apparently on my soap box, I'll throw in one more consideration. If you must have two hands to have a reasonable chance of making a good hit at typical defense ranges (for me that means 10 yards of less), you have an issue that needs to be addressed. You just can't assume you will have two hands available to control the gun. My feeling is that your grips, training, and sighting system all have to work together to give you a reasonable hit probability when shooting with one hand. This applies in spades to j frames, because they are little, they don't weigh much, and they will jump around on you.
Like I said, "for what it's worth."
Charles
