Hello all, this is my first post here on SigTalk but I have been a lurker for quite a few years now. I just wanted to stop by and let you all know about my adventure I had having wood grips made for my Sig P227.
It started back in early February when I bought a new P227 Enhanced Elite. Like with all my Sigs I fell in love, but maybe a little more so with this pistol. My only turn off was the fact that I had yet another all black Sig pistol. This pistol needed to look more like an X5 I thought. It needed a stainless (or similar) finish and a nice set of exotic wood grips. Only I figured that could take the folks at Sig some time before they release a stainless P227. My best bet might be to go ahead and spend some time and have it done myself. I decided to go with the wood grips first. And wow has it been an adventure. After close to 4 months, 2000 miles, 35 hours of driving, and more money than I want to mention, I wound up with what is in my opinion the worlds most beautiful set of wooden grips. Let me have your ear for a few and listen to my tale...
So I go to google thinking surely there are wooden grips sitting on shelves somewhere for my P227. This should be another quick 30 minute jaunt ordering some grips I figured. Was I ever wrong. Grips for 226s and 220s were readily available but any of you guys that have a 227 and have looked into wood grips knows live dinosaurs are easier to find. After a day of stumbling around the web searching thru forums and google I decided I was going to need to find a custom grip maker. I googled "Custom Wood Pistol Grips" and started emailing and calling every name and business that came up. I called or emailed 18 different so-called "custom grip makers" before finding anyone who said they would even be willing to look at making them. I was told things like,They have to be CNC machined, It will tie up one of my guys for one month just to make the CNC program, The grips will be more than the price of the pistol, The grips will never hold up as they will be too thin, and the complexity of the take down lever and slide lock are too much for wood. I was pretty much in the dumps starting to think wood grips for my P227 were going to be an impossibility. It was looking like Hogue was going to be my olny option for any type of aftermarket grip.
A couple of days later I got an email back from a grip maker down in Corpus Christi, Texas. He said he had done his friends P226 when he first started doing grips and was interested in taking a look at the 227. He asked me for the particuars on what I was looking for. At the time I really was not sure what type of wood I wanted. After looking at some websites I did not see anything other than flame maple that was speaking to me. Then I remembered about what I thought was some of the most beautiful wood I have even seen. Louisiana sinker cypress! And who better to get the stuff than the crazy old "Swamp Man" Shelby Stanga. Yes the same Shelby you might have seen on Discovery TVs shows "Axe Men" or "The Legend of Shelby the Swamp Man". Surely that would be a conversation starter at the local gun range! So the wood type was decided, do I need any logos engraved, any stippling or checkering, lacquered or natural. Oh the decisions and stress, it is just a set of pistol grips. I decided on a logo, it was a III% logo I found on americanfreedomdesignsDOTcom. After getting permission from the logo designer I got back with the grip guy and updated him with what I was wanting to have done. He said it was an interesting project and he would be willing to give it a go. Only he was backed up for a couple months with previous orders so I would have to wait a couple months for him to start. Perfect for me as I still had to figure out how to get the wood.
Ahh the wood, must be just the right piece. I jumped on the interwebs and started trying to find out where one buys wood found by Shelby Stanga. I came across a facebook page with a link to a website called Shelby Stanga Treasures. I shot them an email describing what I was wanting to do and asked if they had a showroom I could visit. You just can not tell how big a piece of wood is from an internet picture. A lady named Joy emailed me back telling me to come on down to Ponchatoula and check out the wood. Well I am a Texan so a drive to Louisiana shoud be quick and dirty right? No, I just happened to pick the first week of March to make the trip. Those of you in Louisiana and Texas might remember the rains from March. It was 19 hours of fun in the rain. And for anyone who has never been to Louisiana, it is just a big swamp. Anyhow I met some nice folks and got to see where one of my favorite TV shows is made. I did not get to meet Shelby Stanga, he was already out for the day. But I did get a T-Shirt and one beautiful piece of sinker red oak. The cypress they had just seemed to light in weight to be very durable. The sinker red oak was not far from being petrified, it had a lot of weight from soaking up the Louisiana swamp minerals. A picture of the sinker red oak...
So after getting the wood and myself safely back to the Dallas area I fedex the wood and my pistol (minus the slide assemby) down to Mr. Lance in Corpus Christi. Now I have worked with quite a few people in my 40 years on this planet. And Mr. Lance at Texas Grips is one of the nicest guys I have met. If your a fellow Texan you might agree that the really good guys down here are few and far between now days, goes for anywhere I guess. Mr. Lance was very easy to work with and I had some pretty crazy ideas there for awhile, like pecky holes in the grips and crushed turquoise epoxy inlays. As crazy and hairbrained as my ideas were he was willing to try it. We emailed each other on what I wanted and what he thought he could deliver for a couple months then he started sending the gun porn pics. Pictures of the "prototype set" he had just completed using mesquite wood...
After seeing the mesquite wood I started thinking I might have wasted a trip to Louisiana. I started thinking I might have to buy two sets of grips off Mr. Lance. I shot him an email and he let me know he would make me a mesquite set as well. Fast forward a few emails and many more gun porn updates and it was the begining of June. I got an email and some pics of the final product. I was godsmacked with the results. After seeing the pictures my impatience set in and i called up fedex to setup having my pistol returned to me. After fedex failed to pickup the package I decided it is just Corpus Christi, I can drive it in the morning. So another 16 hour trip and a few tanks of gas for the pickup. But honestly I would have driven to Canada for the grips I received.
Some pictures of the final sinker red oak wood grips.
The mesquite set I picked out.
Now I do believe I am the owner of the very first set of wood grips for a P227. At least from what I can dig up I am, and the one off set I had made from the sinker wood is in my opinion the most beautiful set of grips I have seen to date. But as we know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and my opinion is purely biased :D
For any of you that have a P227 and would like a set of wood grips you are in luck. When I went down and picked up my grips I got to meet with Mr. Henry Lance and he invited me into his office and shop. I spent some time talking with him and seeing some of his work. He showed me 5 sets of mesquite grips for the p227 he had made, one was a very nice mesquite burl. I picked one set so he had the burl set plus 3 more in the office. Then in the shop I noticed he had about a bakers dozen of not quite finished mesquite sets. I did not ask him but I am about 99% sure he saved a CNC program and can whip them out in other wood types. I can not give any idea as to price he might charge for P227 grips. You can try emailing him through his website TexasGripsDOTcom or calling him, contact info at the website.
Mods, This truely is not intended to be a advertisement. It is just a very happy customer letting Sig pals know they have a wood grip option for not just a 227 but probably any Sig 22X pistol. Keep in mind I paid collector money for collector grips. I honestly believe Mr. Lance could make any grip for any pistol. He even had a set for an old schofield revolver. I was very impressed with his work, from the mass of spring cut outs on the underside of the grip to the mini magwell that they require it is all perfect.
Up next, deciding on a refinisher. Any suggestions on a stainless looking finish?