match grips

[silvershooter]

Great job.
For the regulations the pistol has to fit in a box 42cm X 20cm X 5 cm, so it looks legal. One thing I read recently is that it's ideal to have the second finger section going across the grip at right angles to the barrel and the last joint of the finger fitting exactly on the edge of the grip. So there is a definite sharp angle on the grip.

How did you bake the plasticine ?

[Eidem]

Yeah I saw something about a right angle to the barrel too. Might try to correct that and shoot a few hundred rounds to see if it
ups the average some. The Joint of the finger is exactly on the edge where it is carved out. I tried a bit different sizes when carving.
Slowly working my way in and testing and removing more material and testing again. The grip never felt right until I got the edge just
under the joint.

Grip
It is not a sharp angle but it is a perfect fit to each individual finger.
Grip

The grip was originally about a cm and a half wider on the back side and the extra of it almost wrapping around the thumb gave really
good support But as I tried with the bottom support to it became quite wide so I decided to sacrificed the back side for the front side
to get it down to 5cm width.

Loosing the grip around my thumb did make it less supportive, but having tried both, I feel the support on the front side is more important.
Shame the box is not 6.5cm wide, that would have been awesome

Working with the plasticine:

I heat the plasticine lightly and knead it a little as it makes it soft and easily shape able. I then grip it and work it around where it needs to be,
I use more than I need leaving it sticking out everywhere apart from where it shapes around my hand. The baked plasticine does not have that
much structural strength so it is easily cut and sanded afterwards.

It says that it needs baking for about 15 minutes up to, but not more than 130 degrees Celsius. At first it put the grip with the plasticine
in the oven at 130 degrees. Having put oil on the grip it hardened but would not stick as the heat made the wood sweat oil, but it was easily
glued back on with both contact glue and epoxy glue.

I then realized that a heat gun works fine just heat it up well a few times and let it cool of. Because of the oil it still comes off, but again it is
easily glued back on.
If one heats it to much with thew heat gun it tends to bubble a little almost like melting plastic, but the bubbles does not go deep. they are just
in the surface so one only have to be careful where it is shaped to the hand. For the rest there is always extra material that I cut off.

I am sure it can be hardened with a decent hairdryer too, but it might take a bit more time.
It is easily figured out and cheap so just give it a shot!

Cheers!

[Eidem]

The chase after the "perfect" grip continues. I decided to try some further development to see if it
would be an improvement, so it was out with the plasticine again.

The objective this time is to get the middle and ring finger to 90 degrees to the gun.

Ready to start

I warmed the plasticine carefully to soften it, placed it on the grip and worked my fingers into it.

Front side

Back side

Heated it to cure it, then cut and sanded it a little.

Finished front

Finished back

The grip has become quite large now and the fingers are now a little over 90 degrees to the gun.
I figured it was easier to start a little over and remove material than to layer up and bake it over
multiple times.

Fingers

I am not sure yet if I see a massive improvement yet. I have shot about 200 shots with it. The previous
angle did not feel to bad either.
This grip is much larger as I had to add quite a lot of material to move the angle a little. But it feels
just as "natural" if I should use a word to describe it and I think I prefer this angle better.

The thumb and middle finger now does most the holding. A little less force used by the ring finger and
the little finger is very relaxed. This I think is an improvement compared to before. I feel I can control
the strength I use better and it is affecting the accuracy less. It now feels more like I am pinching the
gun between my thumb and middle finger.

The grip is now starting to feel very anatomical

The grip is not looking so pretty anymore, but I do not care anymore. I decided to sacrifice it for testing.
I will later get a nice piece of wood and redo it in one piece.

At least I am back on 187 pr. card averages again

Cheers

[Eidem]

I found the official issf rules for the shape of grip and translated it to English.
This is a PDF visually explaining the limits to the ergonomics for the shape.
I uploaded it to mega for anyone interested.

08 ISSF grip rules 2013 EN.pdf 338 KB