Eagle Grips Review
Keeping Control with Style
Here we have a selection of some of the single action grips available from Eagle Grips.
I have often been asked what’s the best part of my job and I’m sure most of those who inquire expect me to say all the grand sixguns and lever-guns I get to shoot. However, though this may be at the top part of the list, it is not number one. Actually, the best part of my job is all the great people I get to meet. About 40 years ago I met a young fellow at the Eagle Grips booth at the NRA Show. His father, Arban Singh, was the owner of Eagle Grips and the young fellow was his son Raj. We struck it off from the very beginning and have been friends ever since.
Second Gen
That young lad Raj is now the president of the company and has greatly expanded the line of grips offered. In the early days, the grips were made in India and I have a pair of buffalo horn grips marked thusly on the inside. Today everything Eagle offers is manufactured right here in this country and proudly marked so on the inside of each grip panel.
In the past, Eagle has offered genuine stag horn, buffalo horn and mother of pearl grips for most handguns in addition to ivory. Genuine stag comes from the Indian sambar deer and these are now not legal to be exported. Of course, ivory is still under an import ban while pearl is very difficult to come by. Eagle now offers Elk horn stag to replace the sambar variety and has come up with Kirinite, a synthetic that can be made into a large range of colors as well as pearl and ivory. The latter can be acquired in both regular and aged versions and I will say the Kirinite Ivory in many cases looks more like ivory than the real elephant tooth.
Skeeter Skelton came up with his grip design that slightly modified the original Roper. Eagle produces this basic grip for double-action sixguns of both wood and synthetic materials. It is offered as their Classic and is available both smooth-
finished and checkered.
I recently equipped two of my N-Frame Smith & Wesson with Kirinite grips. A blued 3 ½” .357 Magnum is fitted with the hand-filling classic ivory grip and really looks striking with the grain pattern found in this synthetic grip. An older nickel-plated 1926 Model .44 Special has now been upgraded with Kirinite pearl Magna-style grips. These have an exceptionally good feel as well as being very good-looking.
Classic Rosewood grips look especially good on stainless steel and nickel-plated sixguns. A pair of these reside on my pre-Model 19 nickel-plated .357 Magnum while I went with finger groove checkered grips for extra control on a 5″ Model 629 .44 Magnum and smooth finger-groove grips on a 6″ heavy-under lugged barrel .357 Magnum Model 686. The .44 Magnum was a special favorite; however, I also had a very special friend who really wanted that sixgun. I rarely ever trade guns but I valued his friendship even more than I did that .44 Magnum so it now happily resides with him. It has become so special to him he mentioned it in a book he wrote.
Of special interest to me is the concealment stock design from Eagle known as the Secret Service. These tiny grips are of the boot grip finger groove-style offered in Rosewood and Ebony as well as Kirinite synthetics. This is about as small as a grip can be made for J-Frames and still be usable. This design has been extremely well thought out, combining a small size for concealment and finger grooves for control. The back strap and bottom of the butt are left open while two finger grooves fill in the front strap.
They are the smallest grips I have ever encountered for the round-butted large Smith & Wesson such as the .44 Magnum Mountain Gun. The Secret Service grip style from Eagle conceals easily without printing on the jacket lining and is as small as a grip can be made and still be practical for shooting a big bore sixgun. When Diamond Dot saw the J-Frame grips, she simply said: “I want those.” Her blued 2″ J-Frame is now fitted with Kirinite Pearl Secret Service grips while her 3″ stainless steel pocket pistol wears black ebony Kirinite Secret Service Grips.
Years ago, Raj designed the Gunfighter Grip for Single Action Sixguns. This grip has a small shelf at the top of both panels that helps to control the sixgun under recoil. They’re good enough the design was stolen by others. In the beginning, I did not care for this grip particularly as I liked the thinner-feeling original grip. However, times change and hands change and now the Gunfighter-style serves me better when it comes to reducing felt recoil.
In addition to Rosewood checkered Gunfighter grips,
Eagle also offers Kirinite grips in several colors as
well as pearl and ivory.
Size Matters
Not all sixguns are equal when it comes to grip frame size, even though they are supposed to be the same. I have found double-action sixguns do not change much. The same grip that fits on my 1907 Triple-Lock .44 Special also fits equally well on the Model 29 Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum. But then we come to single action sixguns, we find both Ruger and Colt have changed their frame sizes ever so slightly over the years just enough to keep the grips from one being able to be transferred over to the other. Colt Single Actions are found to have different grip frame dimensions from the 1st to 2nd to 3rd Generation. When ordering single action grips, especially Rugers, make sure you know exactly which model you need grips for. It would be also a good idea to talk with Raj about custom fitting.
It is a rare sixgun or semi-automatic for which Eagle cannot provide grips, whether they be of original materials or synthetics. One of the lesser-known — and not very easy to find — single actions is the Virginian Dragoon. Eagle Grips even offers grips for this single action sixgun. Kirinite grips open all kinds of possibilities for really dressing up and personalizing a cherished handgun.
I’m normally pretty much old-school when it comes to sixguns, grips and leather. However, my stainless steel .44 Special 4 ¾” Ruger New Vaquero is now fitted with a pair of Kirinite Lava grips that are black with red streaks. Very striking appearance. Perhaps this is the new me. In addition to regular pearl and ivory, Kirinite grips are also offered in a wide variety of colors allowing a personal handgun to be really, I mean really, personalized!
