All of my most-used harder recoiling guns wear rubber grips. Those oversize 'target stocks' that came on most guns of the 60s and 70s were waaaaay too big for my hands.
Back when I was about 16 or so I bruised my hand trying to master shooting my brand new Python one handed with full-house Mag loads and those stupid big grips. Almost let it fly out of my hand from recoil once, too! It would have been a sin to see that brand new 6" Royal Blue beauty hitting the pavement!
Back in the mid 70s there weren't a lot of grip options. I never shot the gun again. Hmmmmm. I wonder what my father ever
did with that gun.
When I got my Dan Wesson .357 years later, it too had those oversize grips. After I replaced then with a set of Pachmayr Grippers, no more problems.
My Taurus snubbie was another problem. The factory stocks were too small and smooth to control it in rapid fire. I still wanted a smallish grip, but one that would enable me to control recoil better. I found a friendly shop that let me try out the various grip panels on the gun (without firing). I tried Hogue, Uncle Mike and Pachmayr in both rubber and wood. I liked the feel of the Pachmayr Compac rubber the best, mostly for the generous palm swell. Maybe if I could have a similar grips in wood it would work, too.
Anyway, they are a joy to shoot the way they are, just not as pretty as they would be with wood grips.
My other revolvers still have factory wood. The Blackhawk and the target .22., although I'd like to get a set of fake ivory or maybe stag for the Blackhawk, just for looks.
My autos are split, wood and rubber. The S&W39 has wood but the 4006 wears rubber instead of the slippery factory plastic.