How is the felt recoil on the 2 1/2"
It came with wood grips from the factory, which made magnum loads unpleasant. In comparison to those wood grips, the Hogue Bantam rubber grips are much more user friendly.
In comparison to the factory rubber grips on the 3", I like the Hogue Bantam marginally better, and have now installed the Hogue's on the 3" also, I just never bothered to pose them for another family photo.
The Hogue's rubber seems to absorb shock better than the factory grip and feels a bit "grippier". The finger groves are more pronounced on the Bantams, and that helps control recoil also.
The context of these comments is that these shorter barrels are not typically "range" guns for us. My husband and I break them out every other month, and we each put a box of 158gr. .357 FMJ factory loads through them. However, these loads are comfortable to shoot with these grips, and I could easily shoot many more.
Our SD loads, 125gr HP, are snappier but still comfortable. Our woods walk loads are 180gr hard cast, and are unpleasant but still controllable.
