Over the past several years, I’ve had occasion to want to change particular handling characteristics of standard handguns. Some of that had to do with sights, some involved safety assets and some with the physical interface between human and machine.
While trigger control is important, consistent grip is critical – whether your objective is acquiring points on target, a lack of time on the shot timer – or both when making the shot means you get to go home at the end of the day.
It’s become interesting to deal with during the advent of broad adoption of polymer frame handguns – those that don’t have stocks. Stocks are the original interface with guns. They give you a place/method to control alignment and stability of the piece. With plastic guns, we’ve seen businesses grown by altering the shape and/or friction of the frame. It seems anyone with a soldering iron goes to ‘treating’ the polymer grip frame with the intent to increase friction. Some of it works very well – see Robar’s work back when they were in the gun customizing business. Want to see high tech frame modification? Go to Wilson Combat; what they’ve done to GLOCK and SIG pistols (“Starburst” stippling) is really classy. People I trust tell me their pattern is appropriately ‘grippy.’
Others have tried to fabricate ‘tape’ additions for plastic pistol frames. There have been various outfits that tried to one-up ‘skateboard’ tape with varying degrees of success. I confess I’ve not tried them all; I stopped with just one.
I don’t have a problem like “Hickok45” – gargantuan hands. I do have a bit of compromised grip due to aging. Like him, I first tried Talon Grips. For five years, I’ve used the product to get a hold on pistols that required more “hold” to be effective.
It started out with the GLOCK 43 (and G42). It wasn’t due to hammer-like recoil, but to get a consistent hold on the small guns. It was a great help. I followed with the Smith & Wesson M&P9 Shield line. The first to get the treatment was the first Shield that came in; I applied Talon Grip – the ‘rubber’ version meant for concealed carry. After the arrival of the Retail Shield, I found that I was consistent with the piece without the addition; I’ve since added it anyway.
The most problematic handguns I’ve recently run into for purposes of getting and maintaining a consistent hold are the “Slimline” GLOCK pistols. They’re outstanding guns in a great envelope. Wisely, the company decided to make them less ‘grippy’ than service and service/compact guns. Combined with the slender grip frame, that spells disaster for my consistency in grip.
I though while I was about it, I’d doctor up some favorites, just to see what the effect would be. It’s all very individual; what works for me won’t work for everyone. Some need more in the way of friction – and other handling factors – than others.
There’s now a GLOCK 43x with the treatment. The nearly constant-carry G19 Gen5 – which needed nothing – has been outfitted, as well as a S&W M&P22 Compact. That last gun really needed nothing, but I wanted to see what effect the application had on a nicely formed, “just-right” sized, light recoiling trainer.
Before we’re done, a Talon Grip will go on the T&E Gen5 GLOCK 23. It’s not the G23 of my recollection pre-retirement, but it still has a bit of jolt to it. That will cover the bases – and I’ll report on the results in the wires.
There are other manufacturers currently fabricating precision cut adhesive attached grip additions. They may be perfectly fine, but I’ve not tried them. I have some experience now with the Talon product. The company also has sheets of “DIY Material” so you can sort out your own application, they have grips for cellular phones, travel mugs and to place on magazine extended floorplates.
Application is a snap. I’ve seen the videos, but applying them per the written instructions seems to work fine. I use an old hair dryer to heat the grip-adhesive-frame combination and rub the grip into the frame.
After five years, I’ve seen no sign of them wearing, loosening or peeling. That’s a good record. I’ll report on the newer batch soon.
-- Rich Grassi