1911 Grip Panel Spacers?

by FOG, Friday, April 05, 2013, 15:39 (4195 days ago) @ Hoot

Searching Google suggests that Brownells used to have something along that line, but it seems they no longer carry the product.

FWIW, I used to shim the grips on my Ruger Mark I Target, mainly to sort of fill in the step downward toward the frame flats at the front and rear edges of both panels.

As I recall, I used two spacers under each grip panel:

Being a poor college student, I resorted to using materials I found readily at minimal expense: I made tracings using the grips themselves as templates and cut the spacers out of the cover from an expanding file folder using a pair of scissors.

As an added bonus, the typical color of these file folders (sort of 'off-brown') nicely matched the grips.

Later on, I came to prefer the feel of the grips without the spacers, so I removed them, but they stayed in place for several years with no problems. I lived in a very dry climate, though, and would probably use another material less likely to absorb water, if that was a concern.

If not, the folders come in a wide variety of colors nowadays, including Basic Black.

Lastly, I'm not sure I quite fully grasp the apparent interference problem with the Laser Grips − "take-down pin" (???) − but I nonetheless HTH.

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