Best revolver upgrades

What’s your best revolver upgrade?

I have a model 19 classic I purchased about 18 months ago. The wood grips look very nice, but leave something to be desired when firing 357 mag rounds.


I got black hogue grips, but blued (black) frame against the black grip just doesn’t look good.

Today I purchased VZ grips in the black cherry color. I’m hoping this will be a perfect compromise for aesthetics and comfort while shooting.

https://vzgrips.com/products/tactical-diamond-s-w-k-frame-grip-l-frame-grip-r2s-conversion.html

Hopefully this helps someone else out and we can share some more ideas.

 

Here’s a better picture

 

Depends on your definition of the word "upgrade".

On a six shooter, there's many things you and do to upgrade. Get your action slicked, a better set of sights (not always the case , but it is in yours), get a different set of grips that fit your hand better.

I generally polish some of the contact surfaces in the action, and the trigger to an almost mirror finish. The trigger is mostly just aesthetic, but it does feel different.

 

On every one of mine (except the Single-Ten) the upgrade is a soft rubber Hogue grip. I don't care about aesthetics.

 

^^^This is where I'm at. The beauty to me in a gun is how it shoots, not how pretty it looks in a picture with a knife and a pocket-watch.

 

I own plain few revolvers with factory grips. I don't know if they're all the same but the Altamonts I have for S&W's are too thin overall but tapered from too thin at the bottom to way too thin at the top. Seems we've gone from one extreme to another with factory S&W grips. For me, a DA grip has to be a Roper style. I can't abide Hogue's in any flavor, the shape is just all wrong. I've settled on about 1.2" thickness at the screw with very little taper from top to bottom. I will always contend that comfort comes from the shape, not the material. These from Keith Brown are about perfect. They are beautiful French walnut with an ivory diamond but they're comfortable FIRST.



Note the gentle curve to the shape of these Ruger grips.

 

The first thing that I did to my 686 after shooting it the first time was changing out the pretty wood grips and putting on some pachmayer grips . They fit my hand better and my accuracy improved .

 

As the guys said above; factory wood grips look great but do nothing to mitigate recoil.

Custom wood grips made to your dimensions help a ton, but they’re still hard. Hogue/Pachmayr rubber grips do help mitigate recoil by absorbing some of the energy.

All of my hard-kickers have rubber grips except a .41 Mag Blackhawk. (That one has Chigs grip panels.) Even the exposed backstraps on my .41 and .44 S&W’s feel a bit better under recoil with the Hogues on board. I have wood aftermarket grips on a couple of .357’s (the rest wear rubber), but these two don’t kick like the +.40 caliber guns do.

For me it’s function over form when magnum handguns are involved.

Stay safe.

 

Hogue makes a wide variety of grips. I like the Bigg Butt style because they fit my hands the best. Whatever you do see if you can feel someone's grips and find out it they fit you better.

Next is an action job. A good gunsmith can get your trigger pull much smoother than it is now. Light isn't always a good thing but smooth is.

If you are going to try to do it yourself, changing the rebound and mainspring often helps. I run a 2 pound rebound spring. Stock is 16 I think. It makes the most difference.

 

My hands prefer Pachmayr Grippers over the ubiquitous rubber Hogues. I think they're flatter in profile with shorter overall length and finger contours that fit me better. Harder rubber too. Your hands will be different but I have shorter fingers, crooked pinkies, and fleshy palms. The Hogues feel softer and squirrelly so I much prefer the more squared edges of the Pachmayr.

 

Honest question, if the rubber grips do not cover the backstrap, how are they mitigating recoil? In my experience, they do not. In fact, because the Hogue and Pachmayr grips are so narrow, they distribute the recoil over a smaller area than a properly shaped Roper style grip that contacts more of the palm and leaves no voids. Hogue in particular has that dramatic ambidextrous palm swell that tries to rub a hole in my palm.

Same applies to single actions, easily demonstrated with a Ruger Bisley in .44Mag, .45Colt or bigger. Shoot a cylinderful with the crappy factory grips, then a cylinderful with the thick and round Hogue cowboy panels. The difference is night and day.

 

I’m a bit of an odd ball I guess. Losing the rubber grips for wood is my first upgrade.

 

After a few pairs of wooden grips and modifying a couple of them I put Hogue rubber grips on my Model 19. No joy with any of them. I finally found a set of Pachmayr rubber grips that were much wider at the top. Now I am finally happy with 357 loads as it doesn't make the web between my thumb and finger start hurting from just a few shots, Not much on looks but great in function.

 

Trigger job.

 

For self defense pocket snubbies, I like to make DA/SA revolvers into DAO revolvers by removing the single action notch and cutting off the hammer spur.

 

Hogue wood are generally my choice. But that’s only if they fit your hand. The better the fit the easier to shoot and the more recoil gets distributed throughout the entire hand not just certain spots.

 

Pachmayer Signature Grips work real well on my Model 10.

 

For me Hogue over molded grips are a must on my N-frames. The rubber absorbs a little recoil and gives me a good grip in most weather, hot/cold, wet or not. That said grips are super subject and personal and the only really important factor here is that they are comfortable in your hands.

I also like a fiberoptic front sight especially on my competition guns. If its going to be a competition revolver I put an oversize cylinder release on it too. Finally if it's going to be a competition revolver fed with moonclips I like a modest chamfer on my chambers so I don't catch a case mouth throwing a moonclip at it.

My preferred trigger jobs is called lots of rounds down range. The only work I would do on a trigger is make it smooth while leaving the spring as is.

 

My own best upgrade? The CT lasergrips I put on the Taurus 605 and S&W 642. Those mitigate recoil.

 

Strictly my opinion, of course, based
on my DA shooting.

I like a stock
that allows my index/trigger finger
to be as straight as possible, not
an angle, on entering the guard.

This to me allows just the correct
"purchase" of the trigger with the first joint
of my index finger and allows for
the straightest pull back of the
trigger.

Stocks that nearly fill the gap between
front strap and guard work best for
me. I also like that the web of my
hand is supported by the stock's
backstrap.

Hogue rubbers seem to work best for
me on my GP100s. The GPs are my
shooters. (My vintage minty Smith &
Wessons with numbered stocks are
strictly for my own non shooting
admiration. In many past years
I'd shot dozens of previously
owned models.)

 

It could be considered an upgrade, or a downgrade, but I found a K frame Model 10 hammer with a busted thumb piece, ground it down smooth, touched up the double action sear, and replaced the perfect condition hammer that came on this gun. Hogues are a real upgrade, this gun rides in my blue jean pocket.



This one is a nasty downgrade, but what else to do with a 20's Colt PPS with a bulged barrel?

 

I'd say finding a revolver grip that fits my hand well giving me comfortable shooting and pointing is the best revolver upgrade I've done. The factory small Magna wood grips don't work for me. In the case of my Model 10 NY DOC trade ins, the best upgrade was already done with the addition of the old Uncle Mike's rubber finger groove grips. Sometimes the best thing to do is leave it alone if it works for you.

 

My best upgrade was measuring the cylinder throats and opening them up. It really cut down on the leading and improves accuracy.

Second best upgrade is polishing the internals and/or changing the springs. My Redhawk has a smooth and light DA pull and crisp SA pull.

The third best upgrade would be sights on the Redhawk. I prefer the v notch rear with the bead front. I upgraded from brass to gold when the brass bead came off. They are hard to find but search eBay long enough and they pop up, even if the seller doesn't know what they have.

 

They are grippier and seem to hold my hand in place so the gun doesn’t rock. Plus, the frontstraps have rubber over them so it is cushioned a bit. This combo also lets my fingers stay put so the middle one won’t get rapped by the triggerguard.

They aren’t as comfy as the wrap-around grips are, nor do they match my Super Redhawk/GP/SP/Dan Wesson ones with soft rubber all the way around, but (at least to me) the Hogues feel better than plain wood grips when I touch off a full house .41, .44 or .454. YMMV.

Stay safe.