Old warhorse, new grips!

[Exmilcop]

Just thought I'd share. As per my other post in the antique section, I'd acquired a #3 (or Mod.3) DA in .44 Russian. The grips were too dinky for my hands and frankly, looked incongruous on that chunky a pistol. I bought a set of after market grips from asia and started to alter them to fit the pistol and give me a fuller and better grip. Not wishing to damage or alter the actual frame, and leaving the worn original grips unmolested was uppermost in my work. It now feels much better in my hand and provides a more positive grip. Should I ever sell or upgrade this pistol, I wanted to be able to put it back to rights. So, here's the end result. Opinions or thoughts are more than welcome. DISCLAIMER: if I had access to a proper shop I could have done a neater job. This was all hand tools on my balcony.

 

[Eddie Southgate]

Looks good enough for who it's for . If it fits your hand it's what you need .

 

[Modified]

I love grip upgrades on such guns. Hell, one of my favorite, if... least useful to me, set of grips goes to this gun exactly:







So from my perspective I think you've done a great thing, and with grips you aren't actually monkeying with the gun at all, so no one can have any valid criticism of you.

 

[Exmilcop]

WAY back in the day, it was common practice to "sporterize" military surplus rifles like the Lee Enfields, Mausers, P.14's, M.17's, etc. We all know how many people are trying to restore them back to original. I've done the same myself, restoring old surplus rifles. Being much older and somewhat wiser, there's no way I'd to anything to alter the integrity of a lovely old antique firearm.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Well, there are "lovely old antique firearms" (a reeking redundancy but, okay....) and lovely, customized/sporterized (I do think there is a difference but, to be fair, I'll use both terms here) rifles useful forever in reasonably excellent, somewhat modern calibers. I'd guess that the "mil-surp" market is still quite comfortable with late 19th and mid-20th century rifles but a 98 Mauser on new wood* in .35 Whelen will stand the test of time just as well as an 8mm Mauser and be far more useful down the road.

Jus' sayin'. YMMV

*"New wood" is a tricky term since I had this originally built nearly 30 years ago and recently redone a little but still the same stock from when I first did it.

 

[reccpd101]

OP you did a great job. I have a "Baby Russian" and might follow your lead.