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As I window shop for a new gun, I find myself drawn to something
different, the form of which is one of those full size Taurus semi-auto's
with the pearl grips and the gold safeties.

Rib me if you want - You may consider the owner of such a gun
to be a pimp daddy, a modern day George Patton wannabe, or just a guy with pearl grips.

Since the gun would be concealed I have no problem with the white of the
grips, or if they were mounted on a stainless frame.

The drawback to the above Tauruses is that they are somewhat 1911-like,
but I don't think they really qualify as a classic JMB design due to some
roundness in the grips instead of the classic 1911 angularity.

What I would really like would be to find a true 1911 that could be easily
modified with pearl grips. The gold safety would not be necessary. The
guns that I would consider for this mod would be a Rock Island Armory,
a Taurus PT1911, or a Springfield Armory 1911 (various Springers con-
sidered).

Are grips as easy to switch out as using a hex driver to remove the old ones
and then put the new ones on and tighten them?

Let me know what you know about switching out grips. Do they loosen easily?

I assume that this is an easy process and will not interfere with any mechanical
parts within the grip.

Thanks in advance.

SIA

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:As I window shop for a new gun, I find myself drawn to something different, the form of which is one of those full size Taurus semi-auto's with the pearl grips and the gold safeties. Rib me if you want - You may consider the owner of such a gun to be a pimp daddy, a modern day George Patton wannabe, or just a guy with pearl grips. SIA

SIA, I am not making any judgement calls about you or your taste in pistol grips, but the correct reference about General George S. Patton's Colt is: "They're ivory. Only a pimp from a cheap New Orleans whorehouse would carry a pearl-handled pistol."

1911 grips are very easy to change - even a cave man can do it. It is one of the easiest ways to customize your gun.

Take a look here:

http://www.gripus.com/MainGalleryFeature.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click on 'Etched Acrylic', 'Inlaid Acrylic', and 'Custom Design'.

White grips that don't require an explanation.

Personally I put the mesquite, scrolled with Texas Seal on a couple of my PT1911's.

They do custom work if you don't see anything you like. I had a set done for my brother with his HPD badge engraved on one side and the 82nd Airborne emblem on the other.

WildBill:
Thanks for the full quote from Patton. I did not
realize that his grips were ivory, not pearl. These days I believe
ivory is on the contraband list and is no longer available.

Mike1951:
Well, browsing around the site that you provided definitely has
expanded my horizons beyond my initial idea about just plain pearl.
My first thought would be to go with the Texas star within a circle,
but since I now know that they do custom work, I'd have to put my
thinking cap on and chew on it a while. Thanks.

SIA

Two things: First, the handgun in question in the General Patton quote was a Single Action Colt in .45 Colt not a 1911. Back then General Officers had great leeway in choosing their personal arms. Patton also carried a S&W .357 magnum at times. Second, Sid Ryan http://www.sidryan2.com/ordering.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; makes some nice grips I have a couple sets of his grips here's a photo of one set on my STI Spartan.

MoJo wrote:Two things: First, the handgun in question in the General Patton quote was a Single Action Colt in .45 Colt not a 1911. Back then General Officers had great leeway in choosing their personal arms. Patton also carried a S&W .357 magnum at times.

My grandfather was a fellow officer and friend of Patton's, he had several handguns including a 1911 with ivory grips. My grandfather's personal arms choices as a general officer were an M1 Carbine and a Browning .380. Somewhere around here I have a picture of Patton aboard one of his boats, which my grandmother said she took, carrying a small semi-auto with three stars on the grips.

S-I-A, anyone who knows anything about Patton should know better than to even think pearl grips.

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:These days I believe ivory is on the contraband list and is no longer available.

There is plenty of legal ivory grips available. Good ones are not cheap. Actually no ivory is cheap anymore (if it ever was).

Although ivory looks good, it is not very durable. If you tighten the screws too tight when installing them, you can crack them. Even if you get them on correctly, they eventually began to "shrink" a bit and will crack then too.

I had a set from a well known maker who had his name rubber stamped on the inside of the grips in BLUE ink. On a somewhat hot and humid day here in Texas I was outside for a long period with the pistol in a OWB holster and when I got back inside and took off the pistol I found the blue ink had seeped through the grips and was visible on the outside! What a mess! I took them off and the ink was all over the gun grip frame. Even in the inside of the magazine! Had a heck of a time cleaning the gun and the maker of the grips claimed no responsibility. So, I was out 300 bux and no better off.

All of my 1911 grips are now exotic wood (pic attached) or alumagrips. I will never buy ivory for a carry piece again. Maybe OK for a safe queen, but I don't own any of those.

If you want the look of ivory but not the cost and the problems, there are makers of grips that use ivory dust mixed with polymer to produce a grip that looks like ivory (more so than just polymer ones) but is much more durable and affordable.

MoJo: I never stated that Patton's gun was a 1911. I was tying together
the idea of the white grips he had on his revolver(s) with the gun that I
would like to have - a 1911.

jimlongley - I'm sorry that I was aware of Patton's white grips, but not
to the extent of knowing that they were ivory instead of pearl.
Please accept my heartfelt apology for only being close, but incorrect. :-)

SIA