To Palm Swell or Not

[dbarn]

I've tried both and can't tell a lot of difference. A palm swell seemingly fills the void in my right or dominate hand and may or may not give better control when rapid firing.

However thin grips on both sides appear to allow more of my hand around the front strap and more of my finger on the trigger. In theory it would seem that having more of your hand around the pistol would be better.

Which have you found to work better for you when doing dynamic drills?

[jabate01]

That is an interesting observation. Almost like a custom grip. Similar to those personalized wooden grips you see on super high end target pistols.

[dbarn]

Repeatability and consistency would seem to win the day. The palm swell gives more to hang on to, though you are hanging on to more of the grip vs the pistol.

I hadn't thought about it but you're right many of the old wooden target grips had palm swells. But wasn't the emphasis more towards bullseye shooting?

Hoping there are enough competitive shooter here that have tried both and will give their opinions.

[The Conservative]

Palm swells help me for the most part, but I have large hands and long fingers. 

[dbarn]

I like them both and have shot both. Perhaps a slight edge to the thin bogies vs palm swell both from LOK.

Have medium hands with longer fingers and am seeing a difference of trigger finger placement with more of the first joint on the trigger which I prefer for rapid fire.

I also have to say that the thin bogies are very aggressive. Even more so than the palm swell.  Even so the palm swells still feel good in hand.

[1SOW]

Short trigger finger on strong hand.  Otherwise small hands.
I like the LOK Bogies and tried palm swell on the weak hand side and thin on the strong hand side.
Anyway,  I ended up using the thin Bogies both strong and weak side.  PIC is strong=thin, weak= palm swell



Great feel with the Bogies and now don't need grip tape other than front and rear straps.

[SlvrDragon50]

As a person with super sweaty hands, I think I've come to the same discovery as you OP. I thought that palm swells were the best thing ever (having come from aluminums to LOK bogies), but now that I've moved on to a Shadow 2 with front rear strap stippling, I've discovered that the stippling makes a far greater difference than anything.

That said, I have small to medium hands, and I could easily see how someone with L or XL hands could want a thicker grip. I still use Scales 2.0 which have a swell, but I'm considering going back to  thin LOK grips as I always have to redevelop my finger callouses with the Scales as my finger tips get crunched in my grip.


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[dbarn]

Thanks for the responses guys. I believe I'll stick with the thin bogies on both sides for now. Both styles are still very nice and great options for our CZ's.

[Ferris13]

I have both the regular LOK Bogies (not thin) and the LOK Palm Swell grips for my Shadow and have been going back and forth for the past few months.  I've got smaller hands and initially was leaning towards the Palm Swell since it filled up my grip and gave me great purchase on the draw.  I've recently settled on the regular bogies as I think I can control the pistol a little better under rapid strings and gives me better finger placement on the DA pull..

[newageroman]

I have medium/small hands and I love the LOK bogies thin/no swell. I do however like the palmswell on most other pistols (that just happen to be single stack). I started shooting on a ruger MkII and really liked the long/thin grip target grips with thumb rest and palmswell. They were noticeable help for accurate/bullseye shooting. I have palmswell rubber grip sleeve on my PF9 that makes a huge difference too. Then came my CZ (first double stack) and although it is very comfortable to shoot with stock platic grips, the thins just plain feel/shoot better.

[2morechains]

When I was setting up my Shadows to shoot USPSA I tried a couple different styles of grips.  Ended up with the aluminum ones from CZC but added some fairly aggressive grip tape to the front straps as I found that was more important to help me maintain a good grip rather than the side panels. 

I just got a P10C which has some pretty decent grip texture and have been playing around with the different backstraps to see which ones I like.  I think the small ones feel better even though with the large backstrap I still can reach the trigger just fine. 

[optimator]

I like palm swells, but I have long fingers.

[Rickytick]

I vote for palm swell.  Long fingers too

[Grizzlie]

Recently I've come to the conclusion, that the best grip size (thickness or length, whichever you have the ability to adjust), is that which allows the finger pad of the distal phalanx to comfortably sit on the trigger (center of the distal phalanx), 'pulling' the trigger as opposed to pushing it, without pinching the finger pad of the middle phalanx between the trigger and grip when shooting double action. Also, the pull on the double action shouldn't move or slide about on the finger pad.

Best way to find out the correct grip modification, is to randomly grab your pistol (off the floor, draw from holster, etc) and see which grip configuration give you the most consistent grip which allows for the above finger placement. Then stick with that grip size/modification.

But of course, this is only my opinion...

[MoRivera]

This is what I've also noticed between my SP-01 and Shadow 2, mainly because of the different grip profile on the Shadow 2.  I like palm swells on my SP-01, but the S2 seems to have a longer grip frame front-to-back and also more of a 'rake' on the upper backstop, so I prefer narrower grips on the S2.  It's a different gun than the SP-01 and I like that...also, from the draw, the S2 seems to get on target more naturally with narrower grips than when I tried palms swells on it.  I have pretty large hands and prefer large grips on my 1911's too, but for some reason I like the 'slimness' of the Shadow 2, but the meatiness of the SP-01 with swells.

But not the stock aluminum thin grips for the S2, I have a set of Henning Group aluminums which have a moderate swell in the palm....just enough to feel, but not full like on the SP-01.