Coke Bottles

[BigG]

Somebody please splain to me (pix would be nice) what exactly is a "coke bottle" S&W grip. I asssume it was coined by some internet ranger as I've never heard the term come up in conversation.

Are they what us Smith fans would call the Target grips? There was also a Magna grip that didn't have as much wood. I don't know what the earlier grips that had the half round top that followed the frame cut out were called either.

Tell me what you know. TIA

 

[Ala Dan]

So sorry there pal, I can't help you with this one!

 

[fisherman66]

http://www.eaglegrips.com/heritage.htm

Ain't much, but I guess I can imagine a stretched coke bottle.

 

[Tijeras_Slim]

http://smith-wessonforum.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/530103904/m/835100334/r/632101334#632101334

This is at the Smith Forum. There is a huge difference between the "Coke bottle" grips and the later targets (ie. 70-80's grips)

One thing the pics on this thread don't show is that the profile of the grip viewed from the bottom is smaller and very oval, not the more square profile of later stocks.

 

[Checkman]

Somebody please splain to me (pix would be nice) what exactly is a "coke bottle" S&W grip. I asssume it was coined by some internet ranger as I've never heard the term come up in conversation.

Are they what us Smith fans would call the Target grips? There was also a Magna grip that didn't have as much wood. I don't know what the earlier grips that had the half round top that followed the frame cut out were called either.

Tell me what you know. TIA

According to Supica and Nahas "coke bottle grips" is the term used for the older wooden grips that had the shape of a coke bottle. According to Taffin this more rounded design went away in the late 60's and early 70's, which is about the same time that the diamond insert grips went away. S&W swore that the machinery and specs didn't change, but most people who have had the opportunity to handle the older grips and the grips from the 70's and 80's can tell a difference. The newer wooden grips just feel blockier.
Though most think of the coke bottle grips as being the target grips I've had the chance to handel the older style Magna grips and they also have a more rounded feel to them when compared to the Magnas from the 70's/80's. Actually whne you look at them you can see the difference as well.
I first came across the term "coke bottle grips" in an article about a 5 screw pre-29 tht I was reading in 1990. I still have that article and that was defintely before the Internet had become popular with the general public. I don't know when the term came into use. Hope this helps. HEre's a couple pictures to help clear things up. The 3.5 inch 27 was owned by Ed McGivern and has the old style Magna grips. The other ones have the post diamond insert grips and I think you can see the difference. By the way I dowloaded thses photos from the Internet. I don't own them.

 

[Checkman]

Here is a photo of a Model 29 with the earlier target grips. Perhaps these are also considered coke bottle grips?

 

[BigG]

Tijeras_Slim's picture shows what I wanted to see: that you need to look at them from behind. There is a palm swell on either side giving it something of the appearance of a Coke bottle. But I admit your imagination has to be pretty vivid.

Thanks, guys! BTW S&W has always had the most &^%$#y checkering with the ditch around it cut by a router, imho. A nice border really would make a difference but I guess that's moot since anything new usually has plastic or smooth wood handles.



Thanks, Tijeras_Slim!

 

[Preacherman]

The worst is when you try to hold a coke-bottle grip with a Pepsi hand...

 

[BluesBear]

The term Coke-Bottle grip existed long before algore invented the internet.

 

[Majic]

Cokes were a special Diamond Target only shipped on 2 N-frames, The .44 Magnum (Pre-29) and the early Model 57. They had a palm swell that gave them the coke bottle shape, a more oval bottom, a larger checkering area, and the extractor cutout in the left panel. The checkering goes much closer to the bottom of the stock than the standard Diamond Targets. IMO you can feel a distinct difference in a set of Cokes and the standard Diamond Targets.
The Magna stock was the latest service stock. It was the panels that only covered the sides of the grip frame and extended up the grip frame with horns. This style of stocks came out with the Registered Magnums.

 

[BluesBear]

I have only owned one set of Coke Bottle grips in my life.

In 1973 I bought a used 1955 Target (Model 25 dash nothing) that had Coke Bottle grips on it. The matching serial number was written in pencil on the inside of one grip. The grain across the bottom was matched. Not bookmatched, but matched. The checkering was just a little finer on them than the later guns I owned.
That was the most comfortable handgun I've ever owned.
It is the gun that is responsible for me changing my long barrel revolver preference from the Colt New Service to the S&W N-Frame.


Are you listening up in Springfield?

I wish someone would produce a replica of those grips. They'd sell a ton of them. Hopefully they would make them with the speedloader cut. Both for ease of use and to discourage counterfeiting.
The last set of Coke Bottle grips I saw for sale sold for $300!

 

[BigG]

After further thought -

OK, then, I am now understanding that there were only very specific grips that purists call Coke Bottles; however, I've read it used to describe more than just Registered Magnums, iirc.

Would it be fair to say that some use it generically, like saying 1911 and meaning a 1911-like copy? I've even read where a guy said he had a "LLAMA 1911."

This degradation is often used when a brand name becomes a moniker for a commodity like using "Kleenex" to refer to any facial tissue. Some brand names have earned their reputations and it's a little sad to see their names debased. We aficionados are to blame as we know when we're bending a definition but a newcomer doesn't, adopts it happily and goes forth and sows confusion to our detriment. [steps off soapbox]

 

[foghornl]

Hey, I thought for a minute you were being a Wise N. Hiemer about my glasses....

Foggy says, blinking several times rapidly while peering through his greenish spectacles...

 

[BluesBear]

Hmmm I've never come across anyone incorrectly using the term Coke-Bottle grips.

Usually only commonly encountered, well known, items become generic names.

The most common misnomer I encounter for S&W grips is the term Presentation.

 

[Checkman]

Well there you go. There is truly alot of misinformation about Coke Bottle grips going around. But I still find the older grips that S&W made up until the later sixties (Magnas and Targets) to be more rounded and more comfortable. Now I suppose it could be a matter of use and years of handling, but all of them? John Taffin has written about this situation in the past. It used to be that I didn't pay it any mind, but now I can see what he was writing about. There is a difference and I think it can be seen by just looking at the different guns.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

The big trouble with cokes is that on my pre-25 the full moon clips are tearing up the wood. Not a nice thing to do to $275 grips.

I have 3 sets now One on the pre-25, one on the pre-27 8 3/8" and one set in spare. They are very adictive and feel great in the hand.

 

[BluesBear]

...on my pre-25 the full moon clips are tearing up the wood...

Another reason to use the Half Moon clips the gun was designed to use.

And the little known one-third moon clips are the easiest to eject without scratching the grips.

 

[Mossyrock]

I have a set of Cokes that came off of a 4" pre-29. I was working in a gun shop in AK about 15 years ago and a guy brought his pristine 4" pre-29 in saying that he wanted some Pachmyers because it kicked too hard with the wood grips. He installed the Goodyears as he was standing there (myself and another Smith guy cringing), pronounced himself happy and went to leave. I asked him what he wanted to do with his "old grips". "Oh, I guess I don't need them anymore. Go ahead and throw them away." I snatched those grips up so fast that they didn't leave a shadow on the counter. They are the most comfortable S&W N-frame grips I have ever used and fit my hand better than several sets of custom grips I have had made, to include Blu-Magnum and Herretts. I have used them on several guns, to include two five inch 27s, a 5" pre-27, a 4" 25-5 and a 4" 29. They currently reside on my 4" model 24 where they will probably stay. I have tried to buy several sets over the past ten years or so, but am always a little too slow, or they want too much for them. The last set I saw on E-bay went for $375!