Carved grips and recoil

[oregon45]

For those of you with carved grips on your sixguns, how does the carving effect felt recoil? I'm considering having a pair of carved ivory grips made for one of my 45 Colt Bisleys.

[TERRY MURBACH]

IT makes it easier to hold on to in the proper manner. READ what Elmer Keith says about this in SIXGUNS.

[oregon45]

I can, and have, read what Keith wrote. Given that he wrote nothing about the Ruger Bisley, and little, if anything, about modern heavy loads for the 45 Colt, I figured asking for additional information from those with experience in the area is a good idea. Thanks for the reminder, though. Always looking for an excuse to pull down my copy of Sixguns.

[TERRY MURBACH]

WAIT A MINUTE HERE: Elmer Keith invented the ORIGINAL 45COLT heavy loads !!! And damn few of the " modern" loads are one whit more effective than the 454424-260gr SWc riding 18.5grs of 2400 propellent. In 1973 I killed 10,000 LBS of meat [ with less than one box of cartridges ] with that very load from a SR INC 45 BH 4 5/8" and did NOT recover a single bullet, all completely penetrated from shots including almost every angle imaginable including from straight above, end-to-end, quarter-to-quarter, and side-to-side. EVERY 454424 slug went straight through as straight as a lazer beam no matter what bones were hit and broken in between. One head shot's bullet was recovered under the skin in the right hip. NO-NONE-NADA- 45COLT bullet can do anything better than that, period.
OH....one other thing....that 454424 bullet shoots out to heck 'n' gone slick as you please when those fat-nose LBT's fly all over the place out way out yonder. BUT THEN...Elnmer knew that too and wrote about it with those silly looking[now] B&M bullets.

[CraigC]

Yeah, that 18.5gr of 2400 load was kinda his idea and full-house .44Mag in a 4" N-frame is a lot less pleasant than heavy .45Colt out of a Bisley.

But I would be interested in what others have to say.

[medicdave]

Don't have a carved set but I am partial to a swell on the palm side, and wider than stock on heavy hitters. Bearpaw makes some interesting grips with his design that's thicker at the top and a bit thinner at the bottom. Have a couple of bisley frames with him now getting macassar ebony put on.

www.bearpawgripsusa.com

Not a bisley but these are the only bearpaws I have pics of loaded. Don't mind the fit it's one of the newer plus size frames rugers sending out.

[Fowler]

Aug 22, 2014 11:45:04 GMT -5 TERRY MURBACH said:

WAIT A MINUTE HERE: Elmer Keith invented the ORIGINAL 45COLT heavy loads !!! And damn few of the " modern" loads are one whit more effective than the 454424-260gr SWc riding 18.5grs of 2400 propellent. In 1973 I killed 10,000 LBS of meat [ with less than one box of cartridges ] with that very load from a SR INC 45 BH 4 5/8" and did NOT recover a single bullet, all completely penetrated from shots including almost every angle imaginable including from straight above, end-to-end, quarter-to-quarter, and side-to-side. EVERY 454424 slug went straight through as straight as a lazer beam no matter what bones were hit and broken in between. One head shot's bullet was recovered under the skin in the right hip. NO-NONE-NADA- 45COLT bullet can do anything better than that, period.
OH....one other thing....that 454424 bullet shoots out to heck 'n' gone slick as you please when those fat-nose LBT's fly all over the place out way out yonder. BUT THEN...Elnmer knew that too and wrote about it with those silly looking[now] B&M bullets.

Be nice Terry, I think we would all agree the Keith 255gr load in a 45 colt is a far cry from the Ruger only level loads that spit 335gr bullets at 1300fps. Besides the modern Bisley grip didnt even exsist until after Elmer's death so how could he offer any insight on it?

That having been said like all grip matters it is a very personal thing. I have a custom made Ruger in a #5 configuration with Persinger carved ivory grips featuring the Mexican Eagle as Elmer's #5 did. Likewise it is in 44sp, a round that will never even approach what a Ruger can do in the 45 colt for power and recoil. I find for my hands the #5 shape and the carved grip took some time to get figured out and used to. The natural tendancy for me is to allow the carving to fill the void in the hollow of the palm of my right hand. The issue was that rotated my grip around from the backstrap to the right more than I normally would and it caused my hits to go high and rotated to the left, especially as my grip would fatigue. I found I needed to make sure that the backstrap ran properly down my hand as it would with normal non-carved grips and that placed the carving more along the balls of the pads of my fingers but I shoots perfectly for me now that way and gives me a couple of quick reference points to insure my grip is consistant. It hard to explain without visual references of the grip to explain it.

Now than the next thing is how does it manage recoil? For me the 44sp shoots 255gr Keith style cast bullets or 255gr Keith style cast bullets. I vary the speed but seldom waffle from that same bullet, and from 750fps to 1050fps the grip is fantanstic. But then the full Keith load at 1200fps will bruise the palm of my hand after a couple of cylinders if I dont wear light leather gloves. Now my uncle and others have no issue with the grip at a full 1200fps but again everyones hands are different from bone structure, grip strength, and recoil tolerance. I would bet that you find you are good up to "X" recoil level without a glove to protect your hand. But then again maybe not.

[zac0419]

Fowler, I never get tired of that picture.

[RABULL]

I have a Bowen Custom Ruger Bisley .44 Magnum Revolver that has Nutmeg Ivory Grips with a carved Steerhead on it. As mentioned by others, I think the carving does give you more handling/control of your grips/handgun. I also have Carved Ivory Grips on some other Colt and Ruger Single Action Revolvers and a couple of 1911's..... Let me see if I have a couple of photos to post......

Of Course, in searching my files, I can't find my Ivory Ruger Bisley .44 Revolver Grips but it is the same type of Steerhead as on these handguns of mine....

Attachments:

[dmize]

Aug 22, 2014 11:45:04 GMT -5 TERRY MURBACH said:

In 1973 I killed 10,000 LBS of meat [ with less than one box of cartridges ] with that very load from a SR INC 45 BH 4 5/8" and did NOT recover a single bullet, all completely penetrated from shots including almost every angle imaginable including from straight above, end-to-end, quarter-to-quarter, and side-to-side. EVERY 454424 slug went straight through as straight as a lazer beam no matter what bones were hit and broken in between.

Since I am not the only one here thinking this,but the only one that isn't afraid to ask...What the hell exactly were you hunting in 1973?

[Cholla]

Aug 24, 2014 21:19:20 GMT -5 dmize said:

Aug 22, 2014 11:45:04 GMT -5 TERRY MURBACH said:

In 1973 I killed 10,000 LBS of meat [ with less than one box of cartridges ] with that very load from a SR INC 45 BH 4 5/8" and did NOT recover a single bullet, all completely penetrated from shots including almost every angle imaginable including from straight above, end-to-end, quarter-to-quarter, and side-to-side. EVERY 454424 slug went straight through as straight as a lazer beam no matter what bones were hit and broken in between.

Since I am not the only one here thinking this, but the only one that isn't afraid to ask...What the hell exactly were you hunting in 1973?

I was thinking the same thing. Actually I bet it's more accurately 10,000 lbs. of game, rather than meat. A fellow would have to kill a lot of large animals to have 10,000 lbs. of meat from less than one 50 round box of cartridges. (10,000 lbs. / 50 cartridges = 200 lbs. per cartridge).

[TERRY MURBACH]

ACTUALLY, IT WAS A BIT OVER FIVE TONS TOTAL !!! My Daddy was a state meat inspector who got a call one friday night to come in to the plant to inspect a small herd of twenty-five steers that weighed a bit over 500LBS apiece. They were to be slaughtered for dogfood as they were unfit for human consumption, but I cannot remember why anymore. I was there when the call came in and hurredly ask said " ask 'em if I can shoot 'em all with a 45 for bullet penetration tests?" Sure, no problem !!
So, off we go to the slaughter house where the steers are run down chutes into the plant which has all poured concrete walls. I shot 'em from head -on, both sides, from straight above-straight-down,behind, head shots, shoulder shots, lung shots, heart shots etc etc etc. The only thing we did not get to really test was penetration in animals with a full stomach--they had not eaten in three days--as that can seriously affect penetration I am told. NOT a single one of those twenty-five 454424 bullets at 1075fps stopped in those steers. They'd go all but arrow-straight through, hit the concrete walls and drop to the floor mangled from bone hits and then hitting the concrete.
ALL of this was instigated earlier by my killing a man's Angus bull who tried to corner me in the squirrel woods and stomp my butt. That same load settled his hash with a head-shot just to the right of center between his eyes, and the bullet went into the carcass never to be recovered. After all of this I never EVER doubted my 45COLT sixgun and it is always with me when we are up in the High Lonesome.

[dmize]

Thank you for explaining.