Not all guns come with easy change grip options. None did until pretty recently and there are still lots of great guns out there that are in that category. That should not stop you from making the changes that you need to shoot better.
The most expensive and professional way to alter a grip, assuming your gun allows this, is to have a gunsmith build it up, cut it down, widen it, narrow it, stipple it, etc. Glocks are the number one candidate for these services, but other polymer framed guns are often able to be altered this way. The only real downside is that you had better be sure it is what you want, since once it is done, there is no going back.
Another way is to swap stocks for thinner or fatter versions. 1911’s, classic Sigs, Beretta 92’s and others fall into this category. With some, you can also affect the backstrap by flattening it or adding a curve to it. A more recent innovation is the rubber adhesive type grip that several companies now make. Talon Grips was the first that I know of and lots of people like them. These adhesive grips are best for adding traction to the gun, rather than size or contour, but I am experimenting with adding contour to them as well.
After the grip, you can change trigger shoes to make your length of pull longer or shorter or lighter or heavier feeling by making it wider or narrower. You can swap slide release levers in many cases and if your gun has a safety, there are usually alternative options available to make it wider or lower, narrower or longer. If you go this route, you are likely going to need to re evaluate your grip options and possibly alter the backstrap or side panels if you previously set it up without the control modifications. The P30 family comes to mind most readily, as it has such a wide variety of grip options from the factory, a couple of slide stop options, and also several after market trigger options. The end result is a very adjustable gun, but you have to make sure that if it fits perfectly with OEM parts, that it still fits perfectly after you add a Grayguns trigger, or something like that.
What if none of these things are possible or desirable? When I played ice hockey, every new stick received a custom treatment to fit it to me correctly. That involved cutting the stick to the correct length and then wrapping grip tape around the handle. More tape was added down low for face off’s and such. To add finger grooves, we would roll the tape and then spiral it around the stick, then wrap tape over the spiral to hold it in place. Finally, we would wrap the blade as well as make a knob at the end of the stick, again, out of wrapped tape.
Hockey grip tape is just as applicable to most firearms as it is to hockey sticks. It may not look great, but if function is what you desire, it will do the job. Rubber bands added in the right places and held on with grip tape also work well. Of course, these solutions only really help if you want to make the grip bigger. I rarely do this type of mod since I have small hands, but when I carried 1911’s at work, I covered the front strap and backstrap in tape to make the grip better for me. Justin Dyal is known among his friends for creatively altering guns like this on a regular basis, no doubt due to his large hands. I am trying to persuade him to write an article about it since he has much more experience with this than I do.
I intend to make alterations like this to the CC9 once I have put some more rounds through it. I suspect that adding a palm swell to the right panel will help me shoot the gun even better than it seems to right now. Various grip sleeves or stick on grips have solved this problem for many people, but for people with small hands, they often exacerbate the issue. On the CC9, you would have to have pretty small hands for this to be much of a problem.
Finally, a time honored approach is to make your head fit the hat. I know that sounds crazy in today’s gun world, and it often isn’t necessary anymore, but it can be quite useful nonetheless. When I was issued a Sig 228, it was too big from the factory for me to reach the DA trigger with optimal finger position. A short trigger was offered to me, but after trying it, I really didn’t like it. It not only pinched my finger as it broke, but it also broke too far back in the frame for best trigger control. I went back to the standard trigger and simply learned to pull the DA shot with the tip of my finger. As the trigger came closer to the frame, I was able to roll more of my finger onto it, and by the time the shot broke, my finger was where I wanted it for the subsequent SA shots. This only took a fraction of a second to accomplish and quickly became an ingrained technique. The E2 grips were not a thing back then, so this was my work around. It worked quite well, and has allowed me to continue to shoot anything on the market, almost regardless of fit, trigger weight or effort.
That Sig also required me to alter my strong hand thumb position so that I would not accidentally depress the slide stop. I simply kicked it out to the side and the problem was solved. This has helped me with the P30’s as well, with their very far to the rear slide release. I learned some valuable lessons with that Sig, though today I will generally modify the gun as I need to. E2 grips solve my trigger reach issues nicely.
Of course, not all of us are built equally. Small as my hands are, they are reasonably strong, so the DA pull for the tip of my index finger was no issue. Older people, weaker people, smaller handed people may all struggle with this solution, which is why I generally recommend one of the solutions talked about earlier in this post or the previous one. The final benefit of this practice though, was to really build my grip, since it was needed to stabilize the gun through the long heavy trigger pull. It is much harder to be smooth and precise on the trigger when you are at the ends of your leverage, so to speak. I viewed it like weight training for my trigger finger and grip. Even if you have a great setup, it can be useful to at least try doing things the hard way sometimes. You might be surprised at the benefits if you stick with it.
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