Beautiful & Unusual K-Frame Target Grips.

[oldRoger]

I have picked up an interesting set of K frame target grips. This is a very distinctive set; my wife says they look like a sculpture. They are very well made actually art work. IMO outstanding checkering work.
I am not sure of the principal wood, the secondary I thought was maple but up close I am not so sure of that.
The palm swell is almost extreme; it forces a somewhat different hold. Whoever made these grips had very distinctive views about target shooting grips. The butt is so flat and large that the grips will stand by themselves. The flair behind the trigger guard (1-3/4" wide) balances the pistols weight on the second finger instead of distributing it between the first and second.

The guy I bought it from says that they were on a K 38.
When I tried them on my M14, the hammer hit and the mounting screw interfered with the mainspring.
Clearly the former owner had relieved the grips for hammer clearance after the grips were finished, but not enough at least for my gun.
When I tried them on my M17, they were a perfect fit. In fact the fit to the frame is as good as I have seen, hammer clearance was fine.

There are absolutely no markings of any kind on these grips, has anyone seen anything like them?

 

[firearmsunlimited]

They give a new meaning to the word "ergonomic."

 

[Broker50]

Wow! Those are STRANGE................

 

[Flint Ridge]

Somebody with a lot of skill and patience, spent a lot of time dialing those in to suit themselves. Talks about custom!

 

[Anton Chigurh]

They look similar to some Nill's stocks I have seen, but are almost assuredly custom-one-of-a-kind. Laminated, open window on backstrap? Unique.

 

[Alk8944]

Almost certainly hand-made, probably by the gun's owner. The exaggerated palm swell and butt flare, as well as being made from laminated wood, are all good indications of this. Another item is it appears to be a screw and escutcheon set taken from a set of S&W stocks, not a generic "grip screw set" from Brownell's or ?? The way they are fit around the thumbpiece I'll bet they intefere with loading and extraction, although not on your K-22! Because of this I would not be surprised if a K-22 is not exactly what they were originally made for.

Overall very well done, by a far better than average craftsman, although not a professional judging by the checkering flaws. It would be interesting to see the back of them.

 

[oldRoger]

I will bet that this was not a case of picking up a couple of pieces of wood a pocket knife and whipping this out, lots of chips and sawdust were made. It makes me wonder if this was the final design or a step along the way.
I suppose you could say laminated, I think of them as pieced. From a wood strength standpoint the piece added to the thumb rest makes the swoop design possible. This area would be end grain in a one piece design with no strength at all. Those who have chipped a piece off in this area would understand.
Once your design requires you to piece it in the thumb rest area, you need some other areas of the contrasting wood to carry through, hence the pieced areas around the frame.
The open back strap is necessary to shorten the reach to the trigger, the palm swell forces a hold which puts the hand to the rear, I have a large hand and my trigger finger just makes it.
There is clearance for loading a K38, I was using wad cutters but not flush seated ones and had no problem.
You can see ejector star scratches in the loading area, these are from someone's K38, the K22 does not touch there.

The checkering on the left grip IMO looks as though the maker changed his mind about the layout, I am by no means an expert but it seems to me that he did a good checkering job in the palm swell area.
I am hard-pressed to decide what wood was used, the only sample I have similar to it is of Bocote, which Brunswick used to turn for Billiard Cue Hafts.
I will take some inside shots tomorrow.

 

[Camster]

Modified Sandersons or a copy of them?

 

[moosedog]

No clue but they are unique for sure.

 

[C Islander]

Don't know what they are, but I like them.