Oregon Shooter

Glock Grip Work - G17

Posted: December 04, 2008 | Last Updated: June 06, 2009

A pictorial of how I modified my G17 grip and saved $180.00+ in the process.

This gun replaced the previous G17 I owned that is shown in the G19L project article. 

I like the full-size 3rd Gen. glocks the best so far, but all Glocks are slicker than snot without some sort of grip sleeve, skateboard tape, or some kind of traction device.  Below is a short list of grip improvement options.

• Hockey Grip tape (i.e. Powerflex) is cheap ~$1.00 a roll if you look in the local Co-Op at the horse care area.

• Hogue Handall slip on grips work great for 2nd Gen. Glocks but finger grooves on top of finger grooves?  I’ll pass.

• Skateboard tape, too abrasive and needs replacing often.

• 3M Safety Walk Tape is the best alternative to permanent grip texturing IMO, but needs replacing also.

• TruGrips, I tried a pair and loved them, but as you can see on the slide of this gun the abrasive (bead blasting media) does a fast number on even Glock’s tough finish.  The beads flake off and if you use a leather holster they get imbedded and work like sand paper on your nice finish every time you draw and re-holster. They also hang your cover garment very easily. :(

• Stipple the grips.  BINGO!

Can you guess my “final answer?”

I was going to send the gun to Bar-Sto or Bowie Tactical, but in the end I said to myself… “I can do that!”

I saved some good ammo cash and am totally satisfied with the outcome, so all well that ends well. 

Also, by me doing it I knew EXACTLY how much material was being removed from the grip.  I didn’t want to weaken the grip and some of the pics I’ve seen of professional grip jobs scare me!

Before

After

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There really is not much too it other than going SLOW and it helps to practice on a spare mag.  The Glock mags are pretty close to the frame material if not the same? 

Dremel off just the “nubs” on the factory checkering with a sanding drum. Use light strokes with the Dremel on the slowest setting, moving constantly while touching material.

Smooth down with 240 grit emery cloth.

Get a soldering iron with a standard tip (rectangular) and go SLOW (It took ~2 hours.) at making pock marks.  It works better to push down and in the direction toward the slide.  I started at the top of my outline that I drew with a silver Sharpie marker. 

It’s similar to sliding into home base and having the dirt pile in front of you.  This leaves a “scale” indent and the next mark below should roughly cut this in half, continuing this until you are at the bottom of the grip.

As you can see above it’s VERY EASY to get into a rut and make a linear path instead of the random one you want.

This pic show how to break out of making a set linear pattern by adding a little randomness to it.

This pic shows the desired pattern I decided on.  It’s a course pattern but I wanted the most grip I could get first.  I can always smooth it out latter if it’s too aggressive, but so far I like it the way it is.

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My grip test was to wash my hands with liquid soap and not rinse off the lather then draw, TRB, reload from slide lock and fire (with dummy rounds of course) and not have the gun shift.

02-03-07 UPDATE:

I recently shot 4000 rounds through this gun (3000 in 10hrs straight then 1000 the next day) and did not have issues with the texture of the grip causing sore spots in my hand.  If the gun does not shift there is nothing to worry about.

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