A couple of friends and I bought my girlfriend an SP101, bag, cleaning kit, accessories, and 500 rounds of ammo for her birthday/christmas present (pictures to follow when I get my scanner working later today).
She's a new shooter, and this is the first gun she's ever owned herself. We decided to get her a .357 revolver because she doesn't live in the greatest neighborhood, and because we all have .22's she can practice with. We went against a shotgun, because her arms are fairly short, and her rib cage, shoulders and chest are a bit large; so none of the shotties we tried fit well (including the youth models).
We went to the last gun show a few weeks back, and had her try out every different revolver we could, but I had a feeling she'd go for the small Ruger, or the medium S&W, and I was right.
We went with the SP101, because it’s a good little gun, and she liked the feel of it in her hand (the only one she really liked); but she (and I for that matter) doesn’t like the stock SP101 grip.
She said it felt cold and dead.
So this weekend I went to the gun show, and picked up a set of hand carved highly figured laminated rosewood finger groove grip panels for the gun.
When she first saw them on the gun she said “Ooooh, pretty and alive”. Then she picked it up and said “Much better, it has soul now”.
The grips feel great to us both, and we have what you might call widely divergent hand sizes (she wears a size 6 ring, I wear a size 13). The only problem is that they slightly impede ejection and the use of a speed loader. I may dremel them at some point, or we may just live with it because they are GORGEOUS.
I also grabbed some black silverwood hand carved finger groove grip panels for my 1911, but they need a little dremeling. I tried them out, and they feel GREAT, but the fit is just a bit off.
Sometimes, all you need is a little bitta soul.
