ihmsa forums

Hello everyone!

I'm a 5' female, shooting Met Sil in Australia. Whilst my ground games are coming along nicely, my standing is reasonably sucky - both with irons sights and peep sights, both rimfire and centrefire. I've had many experienced people look over what I'm doing and offering suggestions, and I fine tune my stance, my grip etc.

One of the theories that's come up a few times is that due to my small hand size, especially with centrefire recoil, is that my grip on the grip is in no way ideal and may be contributing to my issues. I've tried several grips for my T/Contender setup, both wooden and polymer, and none are small enough to permit a true and correct position (webbing at the rear of the grip, finger pad on the trigger). I pretty much have to have the first thumb joint at the rear to reach the trigger in full.

One suggestion was to look at custom grips, that still meet our MS criteria (i.e. readily manufactured item that anyone can request from a catalogue/website). From our research, these are some options:

http://www.bullberry.com/custom-woodwor ... tions.html
http://www.tonysforendsandgrips.net/2.html
http://www.highplainsgunstocks.com/grip-styles.html

Has anyone gone down this route for ergonomic reasons? If so, how successful was it getting something to fit? Have you got any supplier suggestions/recommendations?

Bullberry makes a nice grip. I sent a trace of my outstretched hand to them and the grip I received feels great. I had this made about 7 years before I started shooting silhouette and I use it for FP and SB. The others could probably do the same.

For standing I keep my thumb on the back of the grip pointing right at the hammer. The grip has finger grooves and I choke down and put my little finger under the grip. This takes left and right misses down since sometimes I would squeeze more than other times when I was wrapping my thumb.

I'm a AA standing guy so not the most expert advice. I love to shoot standing. My fight now is up and down misses with peep on post. I will be ordering some front clear apertures from Martens so I can shoot peep on peep. Hopefully that will get it under control.

The first TC Contenders had wood grips with a very small circumference in the palm/finger area. They probably would fit your hand if you could find one of those. They had a very slight palm swell for right handed shooters. There is one on eBay now.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thompson-Center ... Sw7FRWXO~X
I can't quote the exact rules but if you have a grip made to fit just your hand then that might not be Production legal. I don't know who would be able to tell the difference though. The high plains stocks version looks like it would have the smallest circumference of the three that you asked about.

Lynn, I see your point about a custom grip possibly not being production legal. To me production legal T/C's are a grey area in itself due to custom barrels being allowed. I am very much in favor of that.

I remember reading a Todd Spotti ariticle that summarized a survey he conducted in the 90's. One comment he metioned was from female shooters not being comfortable with factory grips. They were too large. I would hate to see a female shooter DQ'ed for shooting with a grip that was made to be comfortable for them. Maybe this could be looked at a little further to help keep a shooter from being discouraged due to the gun being awkward to hold. If a shooter was trying to use a fully adjustable bullseye type grip that is a different story.

In my case with the grip I have from Bullberry it seems they make grips like T-shirts. Small, medium, large, etc. If you look at inventory on their site grip are listed this way. I assume they take a few measurements from the hand trace and make you a grip by which size it falls into. I use this grip on the frame I shoot small bore and field pistol iron sight standing. My scores in both are pretty crappy so if I got DQ'ed I would get over it pretty quick.

With the great selection of grips that are available today I don't see a truly "custom grip" as a reason to disqualify a Production gun. If any grip improves the ability of a shooter to "safely" handle their firearm, then I say great. This is another one of those rules that can't really be enforced and should be changes. Three different people could look at a grip and probably could not tell if it had been tailored to the shooters hand. If the rest of the gun is Production legal then ignore the grip. Of course adjustable grips are a whole other issue. I go for safety first and being able to control your firearm is number one. If our sport was sponsored by industry and megabucks were on the line then rules are more important. IHMSA is just for fun and some things shouldn't be taken too seriously.

260 Striker wrote: IHMSA is just for fun and some things shouldn't be taken too seriously.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your thoughts everyone! I've been trying to reply for a while now, but the forum wouldn't let me

I've just come back from a competition, where I had the chance to feel a lot of grips and check out some custom grips (Bulbarry and High Plains). It also gave me the chance to talk to some of the top shooters and gauge their thoughts, and while it's not going to be my only issue (with poor standing results), it certainly isn't helping. In fact the current TC grip I have was one used by a top shooter because it angles backward and provides him with a greater reach for his large hands!

I had my suckiest score in Standing for the last twelve months but I also had a great Production so a good comp regardless. I admit I do find it a little odd that shaving something from an existing grip renders it non-regulation, when others just order a custom grip and it's fine, but dem's the rules!

So now to order one! Hopefully the next twelve months will see less Standing suckiness, and more Standing awesomeness.

Bring it on "minion"

Unsub wrote:Bring it on "minion"

You betcha!

260 Striker wrote:The first TC Contenders had wood grips with a very small circumference in the palm/finger area. They probably would fit your hand if you could find one of those. They had a very slight palm swell for right handed shooters. There is one on eBay now.

Thanks Striker - I think I tried one of those at the weekend's comp, but it might be a better interim option than what I'm currently using.