I have medium size hands and have owned just about every Ruger single action except The real oddball ones like 32-20 Single Six. I shoot them all single handed, including .44 magnum and .45 Colt (hot Ruger Only loads) and a Freedom Arms .454 Casull with beautiful wood grips. I like the Bisley style grips best, other people hate them.
The rubber grips universally gave me blisters or abrasions unless I used a shooting glove. I really don’t like them. The only problem I have ever had is with the old dragoon “knuckle buster” trigger guard and there... yes, a grip that fills in the gap so you don’t forget not to hold up there is very nice. Rubber or wood custom, that trigger guard ... okay, I got a new grip frame and problem solved forever. I know other guys that love those grips, they work for them.
As for making your own grips- absolutely! You don’t need one single power tool.
First step- get on eBay and buy some old beat up grips unless your grips are already old and beat up. Keep your pretty grips pretty for resale value.
Slow and steady, use sandpaper to fit your beater grips to frame. Then slow and steady to fit the grips so you get a “natural point.”
Natural point: pick up your gun. Put it in your hand firmly so it “feels right” to fire. Take a proper stance and raise your gun to target. Without moving your arm or hand left to right, you only need adjust up/down to put the sights on target.
“Proper stance”: stand ready to aim. Close your eyes then “aim” your gun by memory- eyes closed. You will be off left/right. Adjust your back foot to rotate your hips and bring target to bear. When new at this it may take three Or 4 passes. Under recoil, your gun arm rotates up then back down but with proper stance it’s aligned l/r automatically, making follow up shots less effort and more consistent. After a while, you just know your natural stance and only need one little adjust at most.
Short version- you hold your pistol, look at a target, bring up to aim and the sights are right where they should be with very little adjustment needed.
After working on a couple of cheap eBay second hand grips, you might want to take a try at making your own. I recommend laminating wood or micarta as the lamination lines make shaping by eye easy. I use a coping saw and a little Dremel tool rotating drum for roughing but use rasps, files and sandpaper for all but the coarsest shaping. A band saw or power jigsaw would be nice but ... only so much room at my house. I don’t care too much that my grips don’t look artist grade as hey... my pistols are tools. It might take me 2 weeks to make a set of grips or more, with how I fuss, look at them and come back later and decide I need more off, shoot, adjust more, etc. I am a hobbyist.
There are fellas that make grips professionally. They have the tools and skills to make fantastic grips out of very difficult rare materials, they can do it right the first time and time efficiently too. The results are works of art. I’m not talking about that.
I’m saying... every hand is different, and with a little patience and sandpaper, you can make grips that are a better fit than factory. They won’t be as pretty, most likely, until you’ve made quite a few. If pachmayer grips work for you, use em! First and foremost, guns is for shooting! Not no beauty contest until the good shooting part is covered. Just be aware they plain don’t work for me and lots of other fellas just as they are the bees knees for others.
