Hogue Prototype Bantams

[CH4]

Steve (Exchipy) and I were chatting with Pat Hogue at the recent NRA meeting in Atlanta, when the subject of custom grips came up. Yada yada yada, my custom walnut Bantams are ready to ship. They’re standard wood Bantams with the addition of the pinky extension from the rubber Bantams. He really liked how they turned out and is gonna make em a cataloged item.

 

[Exchipy]

Steve (Exchipy) and I were chatting with Pat Hogue at the recent NRA meeting in Atlanta, when the subject of custom grips came up. Yada yada yada, my custom walnut Bantams are ready to ship. They’re standard wood Bantams with the addition of the pinky extension from the rubber Bantams. He really liked how they turned out and is gonna make em a cataloged item. View attachment 764332

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Gonna hafta get me some like that, only with checkering ‘cause I don’t like ‘em slippery.

 

[CH4]

Gonna hafta get me some like that, only with checkering ‘cause I don’t like ‘em slippery.

I could’ve gotten em checkered, but I wanted to see the full grain. They will take special orders.

 

[Wickerboots]

Great design, had the rubber version on multiple revolvers but didn’t like the rubber aspect. If these were available in g10 or micarta when I got my lok grips I might have gone in that direction instead.

 

[CH4]

Here are Steve’s custom grips.
I believe they are rosewood and cocobolo. They turned out very nice.

 

[Exchipy]

Here are Steve’s custom grips.
I believe they are rosewood and cocobolo. They turned out very nice.
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I’m told the darker grips are Kingwood, whatever that is. Their subtle color variation seems most appropriate for the Black Nitride treatment of the long-nosed Model 15.

 

[Vtgw938]

Those are all very nice. The Bantams are basically his dad's two piece grips with a little wood missing. Pretty hard to beat.

 

[CH4]

They arrived and they’re spectacular!!!

 

[Phenix]

They arrived and they’re spectacular!!!

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I love the looks of that gun. What model and caliber of Smith is it? 3” barrel?

 

[CH4]

I love the looks of that gun. What model and caliber of Smith is it? 3” barrel?

It's a 3" 66-4 that I recently had black nitrided. The front sight is from High Viz, the rear from DL Sports.

 

[Baxter6551]

Those look like fantastic grips. I have the rubber bantams on my 3” 65. That pinky extension makes them feel perfect. Look forward to them being catalog item. I see a checkered pair in my future.

 

[Phenix]

I love the looks of that gun. What model and caliber of Smith is it? 3” barrel?

Those fiber optic front sight inserts always looked pretty fragile to me. Wouldn’t take much of a blow to bend or break the tiny metal bands that hold the colored plastic.
Wonder if people ever have problems with that? I have seen a couple of .22 rifles that had the whole top part of the sight broken off. Didn’t know the back story.

 

[CH4]

HiViz uses some kind of resin over the FO - seems very robust. Easy enough to replace if necessary and the sight picture is very easy to see.

 

[pokey074]

I REALLY like those. Too bad they don’t cover the backstrap. That would be perfect!

 

[CH4]

Another angle

 

[CH4]

UPDATE: I just spoke with Joshua at Hogue. Although this variation of their wood Bantam isn't cataloged yet, they are taking custom orders - another member here just ordered two sets. I just ordered another set that will be checkered.

 

[pokey074]

Called today. Just waiting on a call back so I can order.