Handgun Grip Modifications

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Firearm is a defensive tool. If we're gonna categorize the type of tool it is of course, we'd have to call it a hand tool. Everything we do with the firearm really revolves around the way our hands interact with it. We want to make sure we are able to get a good grip on the firearm to control it, we want to make sure that we can actuate all of the levers and buttons that we need to push, from the trigger to the magazine release, to the safety. We want to make sure that we can get as much meat on the gun as possible, creating enough friction and consistency, so that we can fire the firearm and have an idea where that point of impact is gonna be relative to our point of aim. And also so we can manage recoil and take that quick follow-up shot when we need to to defend ourselves or others. So the grip is gonna be an area that we want to pay a lot of attention to. Now most of the attention we pay to grip should be done before we decide to use a gun for defensive purposes. In other words, there's a vast array of firearm shapes and sizes that we have to choose from when we're gonna make that purchase, decide which firearm to have available to defend ourselves. When we do that we want to make sure we are able to interact with the firearm consistently and efficiently. Now if you're in a situation where a certain firearm is issued to you or if you're limited by legal restrictions or maybe budget to the types and sizes, shapes in that array of firearms that you can choose from for defensive purposes, then you may have to pay a little bit more attention to how you're gonna modify that grip area. But primarily grip and the hand are gonna come together during the selection process. Once you have selected a defensive firearm and you know which firearm you're gonna use to protect yourself in the unlikely event, but of course critical incident, that you actually need to use it, you want to make sure that you have the best grip possible and that's where the modification comes in. Now this area of modification to a defensive firearm can be something that's very simple to do and really is very low impact or it can make a dramatic change to the firearm in the way you use it. So you want to be cautious and careful about how you modify it. The most important considerations of course, are not just modifications to the grip which allow you to shoot better, but ones that make your defensive use of the firearm more efficient. You wouldn't want to put a huge oversized grip on the firearm that made it easier just to shoot at the target range but made it impossible for you to carry in a concealable holster, for example. So let's take a look at some of the ways in which we're gonna modify the grip area of a firearm. The most fundamental modification to the grip has always been the grip panel itself. To take a firearm like the 1911 style firearm and put a new grip panel actually on the firearm. Now, this grip panel may give you more friction, because it's checkered or has some other rough surface. It may change the width of the grip and allow you to either get more hand around the gun or fill up a larger hand with more grip. When we look at these grip panels, something like the Alumagrips are a relatively new addition to the world of grip modifications we can have on a 1911. They're great because they're extremely durable, they also offer a nice textured finish in these particular models and they're very slim, so someone with a normal size hand or even a smaller hand, it's gonna give you the extra grip that you want but not take up a lot of extra space. Another very common modification to the grip is gonna be to make it rubber. Now this will work on 1911 firearms, a variety of different types of firearms, and to put some kind of hard or soft rubber compound. This particular one on this Colt happens to be a harder rubber compound, that are gonna allow you to have a reliable grip. Maybe when your hands are sweaty, when you're wearing gloves or if you're under wet conditions in your dynamic critical incident. Now this particular one adds a fair amount of width to the actual gun. You can see that the 1911 starts off pretty thin, we make it relatively wide here. This is gonna fill in a hand. Now these particular grips, I put on this firearm because they fit my hand perfectly. They may not fit yours. Grip is incredibly personal. The size of your hand, the shape of your hand, what the particular firearm you have is gonna be something you need to figure out the best way to modify. Just because I like these grips doesn't mean that these are particularly gonna work for you. Now one area I want to look at with these rubber grips in particular is right here on the front strap of the firearm, on the front of the grip area. You can see here that we've added a little bit of width but we really haven't done anything to give us a really reliable consistent purchase on the front side of this firearm. On this Caspian, I've actually put Hogue's softcover grips that have finger grooves. Now, one of the things to consider here, is that this is a defensive carry firearm that I purchased and had built, with the intention of actually carrying it to defend myself or others. This is more of a target gun. It's a very pretty gun, it's fun to shot but it's not the kind of thing that I'm likely to carry for self-defense. I'm gonna have to worry as much about recoil management, I'm not as worried about consistency of grip under a dynamic situation, so this particular set of grips with the silver inlay Colt coin that matches the stainless finish of this Colt, really are more about looks and consistency and comfort for shooting not for defensive use. With the smaller grip on this mid-size 1911 that is for defensive use, the soft rubber grip gives me more purchase to begin with and the finger grooves give me consistency in terms of the placement of my fingers on the firearm. By having the finger grooves in place, my hand is gonna end up on the gun in exactly the same place every time even in a dynamic situation, where I'm pulling the firearm rapidly from a holster position, maybe picking a firearm out of a quick-access safe. When I grip the gun my fingers are naturally gonna channel into these grooves. Some people love finger grooves on a grip some people hate them. It's important again to make sure that you're comfortable and you're consistent with the shape and size of finger grooves that you're using on your defensive firearm. Let's take a look at this particular J-frame with these Crimson Trace hard plastics grips. Now, of course, Crimson Trace makes laser grips that's what they're known for. They come in both the hard plastic and the soft rubber configuration. Lot of different shapes and sizes. But the important part about this grip that I want to look at, is right down here at the base of the grip area, at the butt of the frame of this revolver. What's important to notice about this, is there are a great many varieties of grip styles that you can put on a compact revolver. This J-frame, the Smith and Wesson J-frame, has a variety of different grip options that will make this grip larger. Now naturally when I grab this gun you can see that there's some extra flesh down here underneath of the grip area of the firearm. That means that I don't have as much grip as possible on the gun, I don't have as much leverage down here to help control recoil and help me get a consistent relationship between my hand and the gun. But what happens if I make a larger grip purchase, if I put oversized grips that have an extension down here. What I end up running into is a situation where because of that extension it's gonna be harder to conceal this firearm. Anytime that you carry a firearm it's gonna be a compromise. The compromise between size and weight is a huge one when it comes to the concealability of a defensive gun. This particular gun is enhanced and much more convenient for me to use by choosing an aftermarket grip or sticking with the standard grips that don't increase the overall size of the grip area especially in terms of the length in this area. If we think about this firearm being carried in a holster, being carried in a pocket holster, if I increase this dimension it really makes it harder to conceal, really makes it harder to carry. So it's an important consideration. If you see a gun that has a large grip on it, you take it out to the range and you shoot wonderfully with it, then you get home and you realize the next morning when you get ready to carry it concealed that you've really ruined the outline of the gun or ruined the convenience of that gun for defensive purposes. That makes it less likely that you'll have the gun, less likely that you'll maybe be able to access the gun conveniently when you really need it. So be careful about oversized grips on a defensive gun. Now, these types of guns with removable grips are relatively easy to modify and there are a lot of different options for ya. Let's go ahead and take a look at my GLOCK 23. One of the first modifications I did to this, and in fact one of the only modifications that I've had long-term on this particular firearm, are these grip tape panels. In fact it's probably time to replace them with some updated grip tape because this one really doesn't have the friction it used to. Now what's important to remember about grip tape or any of these types of really abrasive, high friction decals that you can put onto the side of these polymer-framed firearms that don't have removable grip plates that are easy to replace. Is that you need to not just run out to the skateboard shop and buy some high friction tape or get any other kind of friction tape meant for another purpose. It's really worth the extra money and the little bit of extra effort to go out and find a source for particular grip panels that are designed to fit on your firearm. And here's why. You can see that the frayed edges of these grip panel on the GLOCK indicate that I've had it on there for quite some time and as I said it's maybe about time I replace it. But if I just went out and got some random high friction tape or if I went out and got grip panels for another firearm and slapped 'em onto the sides of my GLOCK. Put my hand on it and said, "Yeah, that works perfectly, that's great, that's awesome." And I went out to actually load the firearm and couldn't get the magazine to seat, it might be because I neglected to remember that I have a cutout for the magazine release where it needs to come through the frame and of course by extension, through that added grip tape, so that while actually be able to release and get out of the way of the magazine. So if I look at we can see here on this overhead shot where that actually comes out beyond the side of the frame. And if I had covered that up with grip tape, I might have a great grip for shooting, but not a great grip for a defensive gun that I need to actually be able to load and unload quickly and efficiently. So having those cutouts is an important part of choosing your high friction grip panel. When I remove this panel I can see that there's actually a cutout here for that particular part on this firearm, the one that this panel is designed for that actually leaves the area open. Now the reason that that's open may be different then the magazine release cutout on the GLOCK but you understand the point. Make sure that your grip panel, your grip tape is designed for the firearm that you're using it for, or if you want to do it yourself and you want to save a little money or maybe you enjoy doing the actual work yourself, you want to go out and get that high friction tape maybe at the skate shop, make sure that you match the contours and outlines of that grip tape to the grip in a way that they're aren't gonna interfere with the actual operation of the firearm, particularly that magazine release. The next thing we want to look at when it comes to modifying the grip is the extensions that you can put on magazines to allow you to actually use the bottom of the magazine for a little bit of extra grip. Now let's say that you aren't worried about concealability, you aren't worried about the access issue that I mentioned earlier when we talked about this oversized potential for a grip extension here on the J-frame, and that we actually did want to accommodate having an extension on something like this GLOCK magazine. Well, we have a couple of different options. One is gonna be a simple extension which allows us to have a place for our pinkie to rest at the base of the gun especially on the subcompact guns this can be really important to have a place for that pinkie, the small figure to rest, so that it doesn't come back under the magazine and allows us to get a consistent grip. My personal preference though in this situation is not just to use the extension but to use the type of extension that actually also increases the dimensions of the magazine itself and allows you to put an extra round in many cases inside of that magazine. So you're gonna getting two for the price of one here. Not only you getting a place to rest the pinkie, rest the bottom of your hand on the magazine, you're also gonna get an extra round into that magazine. And this is a really easy modification to make. We're simply gonna take the screwdriver, we're gonna insert it down into the hole, push that out of the way and then push forward so that the cover plate actually can be slid off. We're gonna replace that base pad with this extended one, slide that down into the magazine, and then replace the cover with the extended cover that gives us a place to rest the bottom of our hand when it's inserted into the firearm and also now has extended the capacity of this magazine. Whenever we look at modifying the grip, we want to remember that our goal here is to make it more efficient and more consistent for our hand to interact with the firearm. Don't modify your grip just to improve the size of your group or the consistency with which you can shoot. Make sure that you're also improving the efficiency of your defensive use of that firearm when modifying the gun that you're gonna depend on when it comes to save yours or your family's lives. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.