smooth or checkered

[bluecow]

ok i opened a can of worms.  i have always left my handguns stock, except for putting rubber houge grips on a dan wesson.  the stock grips where just too big.  not long ago put stagg grips on my 1911 now that i like.  so now its time to do some work to my 5.5 sbh.  going with a peep sight new front blade (if i can find one) maybe new base pin and new stocks, not stag.   in 44 mag the little darling dose "roll!?" in the hand .  what do you think checkered for sure grip or smooth alouing the gun to "roll" without friction 

[Swampman]

In my experience checkered grips on a hard kicker tend to abrade the hand.  If you wear a leather glove on your shooting hand, that may not be an issue.  Allowing the gun to roll tends to make the perceived recoil less IMO.

[BlkHawk73]

  Smooth.  You want the gun to roll naturally.

[Tallwalker]

Depends on the load, but I would sure want smooth grips on any single action .44 Mag used with full house loads. The new plastic grips on the Ruger Blackhawks are noticable, but not objectionable at around the 10.0 grains of Unique level with 250 grain bullets.

[blhof]

Dan Wesson didn't offer checkered grips for any of their supermag or 41 cal or above because of their testing and finding the abraiding to the hands.  I have also found this to be true with stag grips on a 454 Ruger.  It's a non issue with gloves, except it can prematurely wear a good set of leather gloves when shooting many rounds.

[Tom C.]

I like Eagle Gunfighter grips on my Ruger single actions. Smooth for heavy recoil guns, like my 5 1/2" SBH, and checkered on my 4 5/8" .357 mag NMBH that I use for CAS. Checkering helps anchor the gun in your hand. Fine for light recoil, very nasty for something like a .44 with full power loads.

[Lloyd Smale]

i like them checkered on about anything but a single action.

[littlecanoe]

Gentlemen,

Good discussion with great info.  I'd never considered what the checkering could do to the hand.
Thanks for the lesson.

[CzaRon]

I like Herrett's Shooting Stars on my Ruger SA's. If your hands are so delicate that regular checkering abrades them try skip a line style. Diamonds are flatter than regular and offer a firmer grip than smooth. I shoot heavy cast and heavier jacketed loads in my .45 Vaquero that wears the sharper regular type points with no abrading of my skin. My hands haven't seen hard manual labor in over 26 years now that I've been in the mental health field and have softened up a lot since my days as a garage mechanic.

[Ken ONeill]

I vote for smooth.

[Steve P]

I got my SBH 10" stainless 44 mag for a very good price.  The checkered Herret style grips are in my parts box.  Probably the very reason I got it for such a good price.  Didn't take but two or three shots with 300 grain bullets to realize that pretty wood was coming off.  Checkering looks nice, but can be painful if put in the wrong spots.  I would consider grops on a heavy recoiling handgun to be one of those wrong spots.

Steve

[CzaRon]

Was out this morning with my Vaquero .45 with my load of a 325gr hardcast flat point over 24gr of H110. The Gun wears Herrett Shooting Stars with fine checkering. Shot about 25 rounds with no abrasions on my hands and the gun rolled nicely in recoil. There is no checkering on the backstrap in fact the gun's backstrap is not covered by the grips. C'mon you guys toughen up.