Colt Official Police grips for shooting

[Monac]

I recently got an early 1940's Colt Official Police. It has been parkerized, so it is not much to look at, but the action feels very smooth in both double and single action, so I am hoping it will be a good shooter.

It came with plastic grips, like those on the wartime Colt Commando. Because of the parkerizing, I don't care about getting original wood Colt grips for it, but I would like a good pair of grips for shooting. Should I just throw some Pachmayrs on it, or do you think the wood Python style grips are better, or are there other choices I haven't thought of? Any ideas appreciated. Thanks!

PS - A friend of mine thinks this might be a "pre-Commando" that was arsenal re-finished and re-gripped after the war, so I am considering getting a factory letter for it. Is Colt still doing that?

 

[Waveski]

I have a similar Colt , Official Police built in 1943. It was a cop's range gun , and wore a pair of FITZ target grips. The grips made the gun a great shooter , but I wanted wood. I acquired NOS Sile target grips and fitted them to my hand. One of the photos shows the FITZ grips and a grouping from 13 yards. (no rest)

Consider some form of target grips ; the precise hand placement provided by the grips combined with the excellence of the old Colt makes for a really great shooting experience.

 

[Monac]

That's just the kind of advice, I was looking for, Waveski; thanks! Those Sile grips look very good. I'll start hunting on GunBroker and Ebay.

 

[dfariswheel]

Colt still does Archive letters.
Price for an OP is about $75.00.
Details are on the Colt web site.

One grip that many Colt owners like is the Hogue Mono-Grip in either fancy wood or rubber.
For pure shooting it's hard to beat the rubber grips for a secure hold.

A simpler grip to use are the various Pachmayr models because they're easier to install and remove when you want to change back to the original grips.
For medium to smaller hands the "professional" types that have an open back strap fit very well.
The Professional Gripper is excellent.
The OP uses the same grips as the Python so finding grips is easy.

 

[Monac]

Thanks, dfaris. I'm glad to hear they're still doing letters. I was kind of leery of Pachmayrs because I had an Official Police with them about 30 years ago, and they were just too big for me. But I don't think their "Professional" line existed back then. Maybe I'll try a couple of different things.