Guns: Hogue Bantam Grips

One of the oft-overlooked virtues of using a revolver is the ease of modifying the grip shape. Since you'll always have to accommodate the magazine in an autoloader, designing radically lightweight or shaped grips is more difficult. The bulky profiles of double-stack service pistols are even harder to change (even if you figure in the interchangeable backstraps a lot of the polymer guns have nowadays).

Case in point: the Hogue Bantam is a small, lightweight grip that weighs 0.9 ounces less than the Uncle Mike's boot grips that come standard with the J-Frames. The boot grips are already fairly diminutive, but the Bantam grips are smaller. Now, 0.9 ounces might not seem like much, but considering that the gun with the heavier grips is only 15-odd ounces to begin with, it's a significant weight decrease.

The circumference of the Bantam grips is smaller than the Uncle Mike's model, making them better for smaller hands. The Hogue set is of one piece construction, so there are no seams or screws to irritate your hand while you shoot the revolver. The one problem I have with the Hogue grips is that the molded rubber is sticky; it's more likely that a shirt or jacket will get caught on the Bantam material than the stock grips. For people who carry in the pocket, though, the grippiness is a nonissue, and the Bantams are a worthwhile upgrade.