Here are a some of the 1911 grips I've made for my customers. The hides are placed over my standard Carbon Fiber grips. The pictures are Alligator, Ring Lizard, and Elephant. Other hides and a variety of colors are available.
Brian@DesignerGrips.com

American Alligator. (1) by Brian Schneider, on Flickr

IMG_4253 by Brian Schneider, on Flickr

IMG_4300 by Brian Schneider, on Flickr

IMG_4301 by Brian Schneider, on Flickr

My only 1911 has simonich gunner grips and they're great.

Visually I like the 1911s that have the Railscales grips, but they're $120.

VZ thins.

I like most checkered double-diamonds, but my favorites are stag and ivory as shown here.



Edited to add: these are carry-guns, carried and shot regularly, both with a bit more wear on them now as opposed to when the picture was taken. The stag-gripped gun has some not-very-fancy stair-safety tape on the frontstrap while the ivoried Baer has checkering. A little fancy and still a lot functional, for me, anyway.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TheFrontRange,

Another vote for LOK. Every bit as good as VZ, way better prices!!

Finally, the band is back together. I think I have satisfied my Commander craving now.

^^ @P220 Smudge - thank you!

The stags on the Springfield Mil-Spec came from Lone Star Custom Grips (ordered them from their Etsy page, of all places!)

I have a set of “Tru-Ivory”-brand synthetic ivories that I really like but jumped on those elephant ivories when they turned up for sale locally.

That is an excellent 1911 you have there and I agree, either set of grips looks really good on it. You may need another 1911 to keep both sets of grips deployed ha-ha! :-)

I'm a real fan of Esmeralda Sheehan's grips. Beautiful, functional, and yet still priced reasonably enough for EDC. My most often carried 1911 is a Nighthawk Custom GRPII and it has "Dorado" flavored Cocobolo wood grips with the traditional "Diamond" pattern checkering.



This wood also looks great without checkering and I've got a set of her smooth grips on my Les Baer .45:

I like those on that Baer! Nice!!

As far as grips I prefer Pachmayr rubber combat grips or Ergo XTR hard rubber for actual use.

For looks I like wood (smooth or checkered) or ivory. Some of the G10 grips are nice looking as well, but feel a bit cold to me.

For a slight variation on a popular grip...the Stan Chen Gen2 magwell on this 1911 uses VZ grips that have been modified to fit. Chen carries a few different sets from their online store, plus I’ve been told of a gunsmith that will make the applicable cuts to other grip panels.

This is another one that is carried and shot regularly.

All that to say...as much as I like stags and ivories, VZs work darn well for me, too. I had a set on a Dan Wesson CCO that were perfect.

Without front strap checkering, those super nice looking ivory grips would be like picking up a wet bar of soap in the shower, on a hot day at the range. Definitely a no go on a SD gun.

^^ Indeed, I’d be hesitant to use smooth grips like ivories without checkering or at least grip-tape on the frontstrap.

I shot this Colt XSE with synthetic “ivory” grips and stair-tape at a local Single Stack Championship match - a little over 200 rounds or so total - a couple of sweaty, humid Augusts ago - no problems at all.

(I believe these are smooth holly grips shown here, but, same idea...)

quote:

Originally posted by JDG:
Without front strap checkering, those super nice looking ivory grips would be like picking up a wet bar of soap in the shower, on a hot day at the range. Definitely a no go on a SD gun.

I have Glocks for that stuff. My WWII stuff is for pure enjoyment and I’m not putting any skateboard tape or G-10’s or red dots or any of that on them.

Thanks, TFR.

I always prefered tacky VZ's.

My one and only 1911, a S&W, wears ERGO XT square bottom rigid grips (polymer instead of rubber), which are thin, very grippy like skateboard tape, and fit perfectly with the EGW magwell with flat checkered mainspring housing. I bought them both from Dillon several years ago. The current Blue Press still shows the EGW magwell, but it appears they stopped selling the ERGO grips and are now selling the Magpuls instead.

Yeah, I like the thin VZ grips with the thumb cutout.




Photo Feb 04, 11 56 10 AM by Dave Steier, on Flickr

Another vote for Esmeralda double diamonds

All my 1911s have Wilson Combat G10 Starburst pattern grips. I did look at a DW Specialist in 9mm with the VZ grips. They were okay to me, but I would have changed them to the WC G10 Starburst grips. YMMV.