A gripping 1911 story…

It’s no secret I’ve become a big admirer of the .45 ACP Rock Island Compact 1911.  I worked through literally thousands of rounds and a number of personal preferences on mine and about the only thing left to mess around with was the grips.  The standard wood grips on the Compact are okay, but I wanted better.    The best grips I’d ever tried on any 1911 are the ones made by Pachmayr, and that’s what I wanted for my Rock.

It had been quite a few years since I bought a set of Pachmayr grips, and when I searched for them online I found that they appeared under the Lyman site.  So I called Lyman.  I learned Lyman acquired Pachmayr about 20 years go (shows how much I know, I guess).  The guy on the phone was nice and he was able to answer my question, which was would their shorter grips fit the Rock Island Armory Compact’s frame (and the answer was yes).

Good buddy Greg had also purchased a Rock Compact based on my raving about it, and after Greg shot mine, he immediately purchased one for himself.  Greg’s 1911 is completely unaltered (it has not had the custom work I had done on mine by good buddy TJ), but it shoots just as well.  I had a few issues on mine; Greg’s had no issues or failures of any kind with his Compact 1911.

I told Greg a couple of weeks ago that I had ordered a set of Pachmayr grips for my Rock, and he ordered a set, too.  I was out of town, so Greg got to shoot his Pachmayr-equipped Compact first.  One of the Pachmayr grip emblems fell off on Greg’s gun his first time at the range with the new grips.  That was not a good start.   Greg has another full-sized 1911 with Hogue grips and he likes those, so he ordered a set of Hogues for the Compact.  The Hogue grips have finger grooves in them, and Greg likes that feature.  I don’t, but hey, different strokes for different folks.

I’ve been shooting my Compact 1911 with the Pachmayr grips and I love them.   They give me a better grip on the little 1911 and I think they make the gun easier to shoot.  And wow, it sure shoots well, especially with that 185-grain SWC bullet and the Bullseye load.   That’s my go to load for this gun.

Where I’m going with all this is that this weekend I was able to try both Compact 1911s; one with the Pachmayr grips (that’s my gun) and one with the Hogue grips (Greg’s gun).  Both feel great, but for me, the Pachmayr grips get the nod.  They’re what I’m used to, I don’t care for finger grooves, and I like the checkered texture of the Pachmayr style.   My grip emblems are staying put, so I haven’t had the issue Greg (and others, if you poke around a bit on the Internet) have had with theirs.

I shot a few targets on this past cold and windy Sunday morning at 50 feet, and I continue to be amazed at just how accurate the Compact 1911 is with my newly-discovered accuracy load (and that’s a 185-grain cast semi-wadcutter bullet over 5.0 grains of Bullseye with a CCI 300 primer).  Surprisingly, Greg’s Compact fed the SWC bullets just as well as mine (my gun is throated and polished; Greg’s is in “as delivered” factory condition).

The bottom line?  Either set of aftermarket grips is good (both the Hogues and the Pachmayrs).  You wouldn’t be making a mistake with either.

One more thought:  I think it would be cool if Rock Island offered the Pachmayr grips as an option with an inlaid Rock Island Armory emblem.  That would work for me, and I’d buy the first pair if they ever offered them.

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Want to see more on the Rock Compact, reloading .45 ACP ammo, and other shooting topics?  There’s more good stuff here:  Tales of the Gun!