So I made a boo-boo and over-tightened the grip screw on my Ruger SP101 Wiley Clapp cracking the inside of one of the grip panels (I strongly suspect that Ruger sources these grip panels from Altamont). While I was able to repair the crack with some wood glue, I had my reservations about how well the repair would hold up under .357 Magnum recoil (my chosen carry ammo for this revolver is Hornady Critical Defense .357 Magnum 125 gr FTX). As such, I decided to replace the grip panels with a set made from Bird's Eye Maple from Chig's Grips.
https://chigsgrips.com/
I received the grip panels today and overall, I'm pretty pleased with them. The only negative that I can find is that the left panel sits just a hair proud of the rubber grip body in the bottom rear corner, but this is only a barely noticeable cosmetic problem as I'm right handed and thus cannot feel this imperfection when I take a normal shooting grip. On the positive side, the figure and finish of the wood is very nice and honestly, looks even better in person than the picture on the website. I also like that the grip panels curve out ever so slightly giving the grip a gentle palm swell which makes it much more comfortable in the hand and I expect will also help distribute the recoil better than the originals. Finally, perhaps its a small thing but a new stainless steel grip screw was included which I find to be a very nice touch. One of my gripes with the original grip was that they did not use a stainless grip screw and the head of the screw developed surface rust in short order. While again a cosmetic issue, the unsightly surface rust right in the middle of otherwise nice looking grips always bugged me and with the new grips from Chig's, this will not longer be an issue.
The grips cost $38 plus $7 for shipping for a grand total of $45. They were also shipped quite quickly as I ordered them on Saturday 7/13 and they were delivered today. He also offers free shipping for veterans. You all can make your own judgement on the price, but I personally think they're a decent value as they're real wood rather than the cheaper laminates that others tend to use and they're hand made. If I had any other Ruger DA revolvers which used the rubber grip/wood insert setup such as a GP100 or Super Redhawk, I'd very seriously consider another set of Chig's grips.
https://chigsgrips.com/
I received the grip panels today and overall, I'm pretty pleased with them. The only negative that I can find is that the left panel sits just a hair proud of the rubber grip body in the bottom rear corner, but this is only a barely noticeable cosmetic problem as I'm right handed and thus cannot feel this imperfection when I take a normal shooting grip. On the positive side, the figure and finish of the wood is very nice and honestly, looks even better in person than the picture on the website. I also like that the grip panels curve out ever so slightly giving the grip a gentle palm swell which makes it much more comfortable in the hand and I expect will also help distribute the recoil better than the originals. Finally, perhaps its a small thing but a new stainless steel grip screw was included which I find to be a very nice touch. One of my gripes with the original grip was that they did not use a stainless grip screw and the head of the screw developed surface rust in short order. While again a cosmetic issue, the unsightly surface rust right in the middle of otherwise nice looking grips always bugged me and with the new grips from Chig's, this will not longer be an issue.
The grips cost $38 plus $7 for shipping for a grand total of $45. They were also shipped quite quickly as I ordered them on Saturday 7/13 and they were delivered today. He also offers free shipping for veterans. You all can make your own judgement on the price, but I personally think they're a decent value as they're real wood rather than the cheaper laminates that others tend to use and they're hand made. If I had any other Ruger DA revolvers which used the rubber grip/wood insert setup such as a GP100 or Super Redhawk, I'd very seriously consider another set of Chig's grips.
