Thoughts on Birdshead Grip?

The only ones I have experience with are the Heritage Rough Rider models in .22LR. I have one of each. The 3.5-inch birdshead one is certainly neat-looking and well-balanced, but I do prefer the square-butt stocks of the 4.75-inch "regular" one. For my hands, it just seems to be a more-stable grip.

The difference is pretty pronounced, more so than the differences between the S&W revolvers you mention. The birdshead one is certainly easier to tote on the trail.

Not a big fan of the ones Ruger puts on their Vaquero revolvers. Just feels a little too wide and rounded for me to get a comfortable grip with it. The birdshead grips I do like are the ones found on Cimarron Firearm's Thunderer models.

I was intrigued by the looks of the bird's head grip. I don't know how they feel on a smaller revolver, but on the New Vaquero they are uncomfortable and make it hard to control the gun. I much prefer having that big spade under my hand to give me a proper grip.

Much more pronounced. IMHO, they're fine for handy little sixguns in soft shooting cartridges but I wouldn't want one on a hard kicker.

I had a pair of birdshead vaqueros in 45 colt. Nice to carry and I liked the looks, but the grip was awkward to me. More of a knob than a grip. But they were still shootable with cowboy loads.

I like them...as long as I'm shooting mild loads.

Cute but too small for me.

I love birdies on my wheel guns, but only if I don't need follow up shots. The recoil isn't bad, but the recovery from the muzzle flip sucks. But they sure do look good.

I have a Ruger/Talo 44 mag Vaquero with birdshead grip and 3.75" barrel......shooting mid range loads is great fun.....but full power loads are only fun for maybe 12 rounds tops. That said, I love this "little" gun, a real blast to shoot!

I have big hands and Birdsheads don't work for me on revolvers that have some recoil.

Not a fan. As stated good for eye not the hand

hot chili powder said:

I have a Ruger/Talo 44 mag Vaquero with birdshead grip and 3.75" barrel......shooting mid range loads is great fun.....but full power loads are only fun for maybe 12 rounds tops. That said, I love this "little" gun, a real blast to shoot!

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I have the similar Talo New Vaq 3.75" in .45 ACP, and it's very pleasant to shoot. I replaced the chubby, blocky Ruger laminated stocks with ones from Eagle which helped.

I get a lot more pain in the web of my palm shooting standard Redhawk grip frame than I ever have with a Ruger birdshead grip frame. The birdie at least has enough girth in the grip neck for me to grip. I wear a size 13 wedding ring, and my hand is a full 4" across my knuckles, so a rather large hand.

The "fat butt" standard black or white micarta grip panels aren't easy to grip - they make the neck feel skinny and are counter-intuitively difficult to grip. The black/grey laminate grips on the Talo revolvers, or Prestige carbon fiber grips are much lower profile in the butt, which might feel like a bit less grip in the hand, but they offer better purchase around the grip neck, so they're actually a bit nicer to control.

I never could get along with the Redhawk either, even though it was my first big bore nearly 30yrs ago. I liked the stock grips better than Hogue or Pachmayr but they all sucked.

Also not a fan of the birdshead grips. The flare on the lower end of the standard single action grip has a purpose, it helps index the heel of your hand when cocking it one handed.

Regarding factory grips, most of the factory Ruger grips feel like they need rasp work to me. Squareish, blocky, dont fit the grip frame well with edges poorly matching. The factory grips from the 60s were better if I recall correctly. Working down factory grips helps, though the medalions dont appeal to me much. Many aftermarket grips also suffer from much the same things as the factory grips. I bought one set of popular aftermarket grips (not rubber) and took them back immediately.

Comparing Ruger grips with the older Colt eagle grips helped me figure out why the eagles felt so good. I ended up making a couple sets of one piece rosewoods on Rugers, Ive been spoiled, nothing else on Rugers has ever felt good. One almost needs to figure to refinish the grip frame after fitting a set of grips well. Once past that hang-up of the finish, you can work a set of grips down to perfectly match the grip frame.

I like the BH grip on my 3" SAA, I wear a "medium" sized glove, and I dont have an issue with holding or firing this 1873 SA clone in 45 colt.
YMMV

Every BH grip gun I've ever handled felt like it would be annoying to shoot except with 38 special loads, or something lighter. 44 magnum, or even 357 mag, no thanks.

No actual shooting experience though, so grain of salt needed.

If you let it roll in your hand they are nice with heavy kicking magnums. Not gonna have fast follow ups.

Ric said:

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If you let it roll in your hand they are nice with heavy kicking magnums. Not gonna have fast follow ups.

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Wow! That's eye candy!!

Easy to carry and conceal. Easy to tug out of a crossdraw holster, and fast for the first shot... a mite hard on the shootin' hand at the range.

JeffG said:

Wow! That's eye candy!!

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240 grain Lasercast SWC and 9 grains of Unique.
Stacks them up real nicely