I hate the Bear Hug grips that came on my 686 Mountain Gun. Painful to shoot with full magnum loads. Anyone have experience with the new rubber finger groove round to square target grips on current production Smith revolvers?

I’ve got Hogue Tamers on my 329 which are pretty much a requirement on that gun. I just don’t like how the covered back strap with them lengthens the reach to the trigger. Wanted to get a feeling before ordering them. So went too Cabela’s and while they had a 686 and a 610 with the new style rubber grips, they won’t remove the trigger locks so I could judge the trigger reach.

Link below to the grips in Smith’s on-line store:

https://www.smith-wesson.com/p...-k-l-frame-revolvers

The 629 I bought a couple of years ago had this style of grips. I liked them a lot. All I had for comparison though was an old set of wood grips (which is apples/oranges anyway) and an old set of Pachmayr rubber grips. While I can’t speak for all S&W frame sizes, the N-frame version of this style of grips had much better support than the Pachmayr grips for the webbing between index finger and thumb. It also had a rigid polymer skeleton underneath ensuring a perfect fit to the revolver’s frame. I still slightly prefer the texture of the Pachmayr grips though.

Slight thread detour…

quote:

Originally posted by MacGyver:
The 629 I bought a couple of years ago had this style of grips.

My 629 was causing pain in my wrist.
(Turns out, my hot reloading back in the day, trying to launch a bowling ball at the speed of light left a lasting impression on my dominant hand.)
I switched to a rubber X grip and it’s night and day better!


2000Z-71, I really like the look of those S&W grips.

I have yet to find finger grove grips I can work with and N frames add size to the challenge.

My favorite are the old Fitz Gunfighters in wood, but good luck finding a set.

The Herrett Shooting Stars work if you have medium hands. I still found the reach a bit long.

I have Hamre Forge grips on my k frame and I am very happy with those but they only make them in small batches. Hoping the make them in N square.

One thing to watch out for ( if it matters for your applications) is a lot of S&W factory grips are not compatible with easy use of speedloaders.

The J frames in particular