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Review of the new Delta Grip for J-frames

Crash7795

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
90
Location
Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
http://ergogrips.net/products/handgun-grips/delta-grip.html

I will begin this by saying that I am not a firearms expert, or a journalist, or anything like that. I’m just a guy who grew up with revolvers in the house due to my dad’s police service, shooting the hell out of them, and who loves the smoothness of a S&W action and the feel of a J-frame or 3 tucked away about my person or my surroundings. I own 4 snubbies and have put hundreds of rounds through them if not thousands. So when I saw the Delta Grip by Ergo, I thought, “Huh, that looks…different. Interesting.” So I decided to pick one up. This will be part one of my experience with the Delta Grip, everything but shooting it. As soon as I get to the range, I will write section 2.

First, the purchase. They are asking $20 for the grip, which is nice, but $13+ for standard UPS ground shipping. A little steep. It comes with a small catalog of all their other products, which is nice, but unnecessary. I would like to see cheaper shipping and an option to opt out of the catalog to save money. Even if I loved this grip, the high and standard/slow shipping would make me reconsider buying more.

The first thing I thought when I opened the package was, “Man this thing is U-G-L-Y.” If you love the simple art of a boot grip sweeping up into the blued or stainless frame of a Chief’s Special or Bodyguard…this will set you back on your heels. It’s not pretty.
I heard someone compare the Delta to a standard grip with the old Tyler T-grip on it. Ehhh…kinda. The Tyler filled your hand, but this is thicker, both laterally and longitudinally. It’s just fuller all the way around.

I put it on my 640-1, a full stainless hammerless snubbie and the heaviest one I have. I wanted to see how it felt with some weight in the hand. My first impression was not the best. The grip doesn’t fit together as well as the old one did, in that you can see a miniscule gap in the line where the two halves come together, as well as gap at the top of the grip where it meets the frame. I suspect some of that will smooth out as I grip it and shoot it.

The second thing I noticed as I grabbed it is that it really fills my hand…not entirely in a good way. I wear a men’s large glove, and there’s usually just a little bit of extra length on my ring and pinkie fingers in a standard large glove. When I grab this grip, my trigger finger position doesn’t feel any different reaching to the trigger guard, but my thumb and other three fingers feel spread out. I can’t close my hand like I can with my other grips. Which, I suppose, is the idea. My concern is…when you are, say, doing a pull-up or lifting weights or something similar, the tighter the grip you can get on the bar, the better you can hang on. Smaller bars are better than larger bars in order to get a strong grip. Similarly, with my hand not all the way closed, I feel like my purchase on the gun is a little weaker. On the plus side, the rubber is nicely textured and just the tiniest bit tacky, so that will help a lot.

My support hand also does not fit as usual. Instead of fitting on top of my strong hand and giving me a thumb-on-top-of-thumb grip, it is more conducive to a thumb-forward grip, like a lot of competitive shooters advocate. If you shoot an auto this way, this will be a familiar feeling. It’s not for me, so I will have to get used to it.
Bringing the pistol into my line of sight….it’s on target. No thought necessary. With a standard J-frame, I have to cock my wrist a little to make sure that my sights come up level. Most revolver shooters were also taught to keep their hands as high on the backstrap as possible. Not necessary with this grip (and I’ve actually heard it’s not desirable, at the range, but I’ll have to check on that). My wrist comes up already cocked forward because of the grip, and the sights are immediately point-of-aim. The down side is that I can feel a tension in my wrist and forearm that isn’t there with my normal J-frame grips.

Which leads me to believe that in order to keep a good grip on the revolver when I touch it off, I will probably be putting more force on the grip through my hand than usual, which leads me to believe I may experience more fatigue sooner than with my usual grips. I’ll have to check that at the range.

I usually wear my snubbies in IWB holsters by Dead Eye Luke (www.deadeyeluke.com), just simple Kydex rigs with enough room to get my hand over the grip and pull. If I am wearing it on my strong kidney in a palm-out configuration (that is, I have to put my palm out and slide my hand between my back and the pistol to get to it), I don’t get my hand all the way onto the grip before the tackiness of the grip fetches my hand up. If I am wearing it IWB with a palm-in grip, there’s no problem. Same is true for a palm-in grip crossdraw, or any OWB holster. The thought did occur to me today that I have too many holsters…

So far, my opinion is that if you are a long-time wheelgun guy (or gal, no offense intended), this is going to be flat weird, at best. You will have to retrain yourself. On the other hand, if you are an auto guy and are just interested in a backup, or are somewhat new to revolvers…you might adapt pretty well, especially if you are used to larger-gripped double-stack autos. Oh, and if you have smaller hands…I suspect you can forget it.

I am going to continue to draw and dry-fire, to get my hands used to it, and them I am headed to the range to see what’s what. I am going to put it on my 640-1, which is capable of .357 – not sure how I feel about doing that with this grip. I know damn well I don’t like it with standard grips. But for sure I’m going to try some +P rounds. And I think I’ll bring my 442 hammerless Airweight, to see how it does on that frame. So…more to follow.
 

Firearms Iinstuctor

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
3,428
Location
northern wis
Thanks for the report personally if a grip doesn't feel right when I grab it.

I don't keep or modify it so it does.

There are many grips out there. No use dinking around with one that doesn't feel right.

I have brought, made, modified, many grips over the last 45 years of handgun use and carry.

13 dollars shipping on a 20 dollar grip they are making a lot of profit on shipping when a 5 dollar flat rate box would be just fine.

Doesn't sound like a grip I'll buy or company I'll be doing business with.
 
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