[1911MILSPEC2015]

First off my apologies....I did use the search function..and I did read through all the browning threads about grips. But my question about grips I did not find. I have been shooting a BHP with the factory black plastic grips, since they came out on the MKIII. My hand likes the shape, contour, and thickness, of the black plastic, giving me the "pointability" the BHP is famous for.
Very recently, I found a new MKIII, with the polished deep blue finish, adjustable sights, for a price I could not pass on. It came with the factory french walnut grips, which my hand finds to be too "blocky". I wish to replace them with a nice set of wood grips, that will come "CLOSE" to the black plastics thickness/profile. I read the sticky about the various grips, and the very nice pics showing a comparison of Hogue to Herrett, Hogue to Navidrex, and a few of the Spegel grips, but missed seeing any of them compared to the factory plastic or factory french walnut. Can someone give me advice which wood grips will come close to the thickness/profile of the factory plastic. I do not really want anything slimmer...just something between the plastic and the factory french walnut.....thanks

 

[cxm]

First congrats on your great catch... l

Grips are a very subjective matter... I'm probably less picky about grips than most people... so you might take my comments with a grain of salt...

To me, there is no noticeable difference in how the factory wood grips feel and how the factory plastic grips feel... Understand I have never measured them to see just how close they are... I just never felt I needed to as they felt the same.

Experimenting with grips can be an expensive undertaking... I like the Herett's Goncolo-Alves wood grips... also sometimes called Pao-Ferro wood. They have a slight palm swell which I like... Hogue makes nice grips as well and I have encountered generic grips I like as well.

You are making a good start by asking others opinions here... but ultimately it is just how the grip feels to them... but hopefully you will find some good places to start.

FWIW

CHuck

 

[Bob D.]

Have you tried the factory Pachmayr rubber grips? I love them.

Similar in shape as the plastic grips Browning puts on the MKIII but look better and in my opinion perfect for the Hi Power.

 

[wild_Bill77]

BHSpring solutions masters grips. This might be the ticket.

 

[wild_Bill77]

Here's another one from bhspringsolutions.com look pretty good to me.

 

[davidnssbm]

Honestly, you need craig spegel grips. They have a palm swell so they are thicker where they need to be for that BHP feel, but they are thin on the top and bottom so it slims the gun down still.

I must have spent 3x the amount of spegels on grips trying to find some that work not wanting to spend almost $100 on a pair of grips. if I would have bought spegels right away I would have saved ALOT of money and time. I will take a picture of them all soon to compare.

 

[1saxman]

Unfortunately the 'palm swell' puts Spegels out of consideration for some of us. They would be okay if only flat. I'm totally with the OP - the factory wood grips make an already too big grip frame unusable. The ones I found for mine many years ago may be 'Navidrex' and are some kind of reddish Phillipine wood. They are the absolutely thinnest grips you can put on an HP.

 

[davidnssbm]

Spegels look the best, but I won't lie, the thin navidrex are the most comfortable and best for concealment. I wish brownels had the rosewood in stock like you pictured. I will probably stain the "blonde" $30 navidrex pair I have from brownels and see how it turns out. It should also be noted that only the blonde pair mention a navidrex palm swell, but I own the blonde AND black and they are identical, each with barely palmswell if any at ALL. Which can be considered a good thing.

the navidrex are so slim the screws poke out a bit

Just buy the navidrex while they are still in stock.

 

[1911MILSPEC2015]

Thank you gentlemen! Your feedback really helped, and the side by side pic of oem black and the spegel and the navidrex tells/shows me EXACTLY what I needed to know.
Way to go guys!!!

 

[tipoc]

You can also look here as well.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...ps.TRS0&_nkw=browning+hi-power+grips&_sacat=0

tipoc

 

[JonCombatCdr]

I went another path, although conceptually not so different than the original posters. After using both the Uncle Mikes Craig-Spegel-designed santoprene grips, and then a beautiful set of rosewood presentation grips that Craig made for me, I unfortunately found that they were a bit too thin for my hands-my triggerfinger did not have enough "stand-off" distance with these grips, and protruded too far past the trigger for ideal/ergonomic positioning.

I've had excellent operational results with...Hogues rubber fingergroove grips. Their girth (both frontal via the frontstrap fingergrooves and lateral from the sideplate thicknesses) ideally positions the pad and/or distal crease of my trigger finger on the trigger.

Aesthetically they can't even remotely hold a candle to Craig's beautiful work-but they work. (And, I must admit that on my epoxy-finished Mk III with it's matte-blued hammer and slide release they really don't look all that bad).

Best, Jon

 

[slav]

I'd say grips are awfully subjective thing, CXM is absolutely right.
I saw that Wild_Bill mentioned our Masters Grips. Below is more info about them in form of presentation. My good friend Mark did hell of a good job describing the difference in our variations. This info might be useful for future reference.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14vC-DIvk0U0rq9WIg3VDMqFgcESV6C4zn4NgHWHHkCI/edit?usp=sharing