Michael Tinker Pearce
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- Joined
- Oct 23, 2016
- Messages
- 1,575
The Manuhrin MR73 Revolver is available with a grip that allows for a very high hold, helping to manage muzzle-flip. This gives better recoil management and faster follow-up shots. A low bore axis is a common thread of many 21st Century semi-auto pistol designs, and it is demonstrably effective. I got to thinking about applying this to a snub-nosed revolver for concealed carry, and made a grip to see how it works in practice. My recently acquired Model 37 seemed the ideal platform to test this.
As you can see the grip allows a very high hold, and the beavertail helps distribute recoil forces and provide leverage against muzzle-flip.
To test this I loaded some 158gr. LRNFP bullets over 4.2gr. of W-231 with CCI-500 small pistol primers. This is a pretty snappy load in the Airweight revolver, but isn't even close to +P pressures, so I thought it would be a good test load. It's still snappy with the new grip, but recovery time between shots was noticeably shorter. In fact, while firing double-taps at five yards it was fast enough that a neighboring shooter was shocked that it wasn't a semi-auto. Here's the result:
Not at all bad at five yards, and rapid-fire targets were just as good. Of course the recoil force is identical to conventional grips; physics are not magically suspended, but the grip manages muzzle-flip much better than conventional stocks. Here are some more images of the grips:
Of course this grip will only fit J-Frames with bobbed hammers; Hammer spurs, shrouded hammers and hammerless J-frames would need separate designs and a gun to fit them on, none of which I have. If money were no object I would happily obtain them, but in the real world it is an object.
Anyway, it's been an interesting experiment, and I'll probably pursue some variations on this concept.
As you can see the grip allows a very high hold, and the beavertail helps distribute recoil forces and provide leverage against muzzle-flip.
To test this I loaded some 158gr. LRNFP bullets over 4.2gr. of W-231 with CCI-500 small pistol primers. This is a pretty snappy load in the Airweight revolver, but isn't even close to +P pressures, so I thought it would be a good test load. It's still snappy with the new grip, but recovery time between shots was noticeably shorter. In fact, while firing double-taps at five yards it was fast enough that a neighboring shooter was shocked that it wasn't a semi-auto. Here's the result:
Not at all bad at five yards, and rapid-fire targets were just as good. Of course the recoil force is identical to conventional grips; physics are not magically suspended, but the grip manages muzzle-flip much better than conventional stocks. Here are some more images of the grips:
Of course this grip will only fit J-Frames with bobbed hammers; Hammer spurs, shrouded hammers and hammerless J-frames would need separate designs and a gun to fit them on, none of which I have. If money were no object I would happily obtain them, but in the real world it is an object.
Anyway, it's been an interesting experiment, and I'll probably pursue some variations on this concept.
