VZ vs AlumaGrips

[polekat]

I'm looking for opinions on these two grips. Plus and minus!

How does the finish hold up?

How much do they weigh and how durable are they?

Are the ultrathins fragile?

I have not found them locally and I'm looking for grips for a DW Bobtail Commander with ambi safety.


Thanks for any help. I searched but couldn't find a comparison.

[Chieftain]

I do not use AlumaGrips.

I live in Arizona. It has been known to get a bit warm here. (I am originally from Florida, but Arizona takes hot to a new level) I have never been enamored to burning my hand on my weapons grips. That is why I will not use a metal grip.

I have VZ gator backs of various colors and base materials. They wear well. Putting a set of their 'thin' gator backs on a Colt Government for my daughters 45. She will take possession on her 21st birthday, next year.

Every so often I take them off and throw them in the dish washer. Cleans any grease and such right off and they become "grabby" again.

I believe Almagrips are a fine product. Many folks use them and are happy with them. I just will not use them for the reason stated. Not a knock on the product at all.

[polekat]

Thanks Chieftain. I'm in Wisconsin and I never would have thought about heat and metal grips.

[Huevos]

I have both AlumaGrips and VZ Gatorbacks. Both are comfortable and pretty much indestructable but are not what I would call real "grippy". I use them on guns that have 30 lpi checkering so I don't really depend on the grips for "grip". My grips of preference these days are Larry Davidson's (Lazza). I have a set of Lazza's on one gun with a smooth front strap and another set on a gun with serrations instead of checkering as (for me) these guns need some "grippy" grips. They're all good and you wouldn't be disappointed with any of them. Here's a few pics....

AlumaGrips
http://www.fototime.com/61EFEE87E2AB5F4/standard.jpg

VZ Gatorbacks
http://www.fototime.com/16A0124672FA4E9/standard.jpg

Lazza Horned Lizards
http://www.fototime.com/00D19C82082C4CF/standard.jpg

Lazza 4X4's
http://www.fototime.com/529D137869A2198/standard.jpg

[polekat]

Thanks Huevos.

Those are nice looking pistols.

I'll look at Lazza grips too.

[kel]

I had Alumagrips but they would not stay on the gun. They were murder on screws and the bushings and the frame finish and I decided to switch to micarta and tru-grip. If you get Alumagrips you need something like the frame savers they sell or rubber o-rings to keep the screws from backing out. Loctite wasn't enough. I would also stay away from hex head grip screws.

The grips themselves are great and incredibly durable.

[polekat]

Thanks kel,

All this helping me............

[Chieftain]

Thanks Chieftain. I'm in Wisconsin and I never would have thought about heat and metal grips.

Polekat, I would assume you boy's up there might have the same problem if those metal grips got a bit chilly?

I really don't know, though. After all If God wanted me to live where white particulate fell from the sky, and melted later, I would have been born with fur and very wide feet.

Go figure.

[polekat]

Chieftain,

Some years we do get heat up in the low 100s and some years we get minus degrees in the very low double figures (-20s). I can put on more clothes to stay warm, but working outside all the time limits how much I can take off. I prefer the cold to the heat. When it gets really hot..........the lids blow off transformers when I replace the fuses and the wires burn down. It is hotter when you have to wear rubber sleeves and gloves while working.

I have received an email from Lazza and it is looking like I may be ordering his grips.

Stay cool!!

Tim

[elijdub]

I live in Neuvo Mexico (we're neighbor's, Chieftain!). It get HOT here too! 100 easy today! I'm buyin' VZ's. Personally, i like the feel of Micarta over the Alumagrips. I'm sure they're a good product, but i've heard SO many good things about VZ, that i know i can't go wrong.
We also have temp extremes here (you wouldn't think we have cold, but we do...i'm at 5000 ft. altitude).
Also, (and someone please tell me if i'm wrong) i've heard that Alumagrips "mar" the surface of your frame...metal on metal, and all.
VZ's don't absorb moisture, aren't affected by temp, clean easy, and so on. VZ's all the way for me!

[Chieftain]

polekat,
I prefer the cold to the heat. When it gets really hot

Now, it don't get really hot here, only 120's plus. Down in Australia it gets hot.


elijdub, I am surprised at 100 that high up (5000). The -20 don't surprise me even a little bit. Don't expect me to visit in January.

Oh, and John at VZ is a Homey from Florida. Even if he lives in the same town as those heathens at FSU. GATOR BAIT! shucks maw we only got two national titles this year. Next year we will get serious and try harder.

Go figure.

[elijdub]

elijdub, I am surprised at 100 that high up (5000). The -20 don't surprise me even a little bit. Don't expect me to visit in January.
Yeah, i didn't think it'd be this hot here either. We really do get the extremes though. ...And i work outside, and feel every, last, one of 'em!!! Actually in the winter it usually doesn't get below 0, and really there are only a couple days in the single digits. We usually hover around 20 degree's for two months.

.....those heathens at FSU.
:lm:

[dls56]

I put a set of VZ ultra-slims on my Colt and like them so well that I'm getting another set for a custom gun being built. The first set were black paper the next set will be blasted black canvas. I try to keep carry guns as thin as possible. Best of luck.

[elijdub]

I put a set of VZ ultra-slims on my Colt and like them so well that I'm getting another set for a custom gun being built. The first set were black paper the next set will be blasted black canvas. I try to keep carry guns as thin as possible. Best of luck.
I'd really like to see some pics of the blasted black canvas' when they arrive. As great as VZ's are, the pics on his site leave something to be desired IMHO. That particular color shows up in a few different "hues" on my screen. Very nice grips for sure, but i'd like to really see what the "true" color is, especially on a gun.
Lookin' forward to seeing your new grips on your new gun!

[sethmark]

I'd really like to see some pics of the blasted black canvas' when they arrive. As great as VZ's are, the pics on his site leave something to be desired IMHO. That particular color shows up in a few different "hues" on my screen. Very nice grips for sure, but i'd like to really see what the "true" color is, especially on a gun.
Lookin' forward to seeing your new grips on your new gun!
I've had both Alumas and VZs. The Alumas were great carry grips on bare skin. It was subtlely reassuring, but didn't agitate my side. The VZs are more aggressive and less comfortable against bare skin. The Alumas also had a tendency to loosen which the VZs don't.

I really like both and both companies have excellent customer service. With my current gun, I'm sticking with the slim VZs. They're sweet in my hand.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/ltc/ltcart2.jpg

[elijdub]

I've had both Alumas and VZs. The Alumas were great carry grips on bare skin. It was subtlely reassuring, but didn't agitate my side. The VZs are more aggressive and less comfortable against bare skin. The Alumas also had a tendency to loosen which the VZs don't.

I really like both and both companies have excellent customer service. With my current gun, I'm sticking with the slim VZs. They're sweet in my hand.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/ltc/ltcart2.jpg
Didn't think about the "carry" angle. I'm thinkin' of goin' with the 320's which are a little less aggressive and probably easier on the skin for carry.
Nice pics and grips!
What color are those? Hard to tell if they're black of blasted black?

[polekat]

Thanks EVERYONE. I have order a pair of custom thin 4x4 grips for my DW commander and I'm considering the 4x4s or thin VX 320 for my government model. I'll be deciding after I have tried the 4x4s for a while. The pics helped and so did your experience........

[dls56]

I'd really like to see some pics of the blasted black canvas' when they arrive. As great as VZ's are, the pics on his site leave something to be desired IMHO. That particular color shows up in a few different "hues" on my screen. Very nice grips for sure, but I'd like to really see what the "true" color is, especially on a gun.
Lookin' forward to seeing your new grips on your new gun!
I'll do just that. But there is no guarantee that my pictures will be any better.

[elijdub]

Lookin' forward to 'em!!!!

[Quasi Moto]

My Nighthawk came with Gatorbacks which were OK but standard thickness. I prefer thin grips and have two sets of 320 thins on my Smith 1911s. Some pics of my grips can be found in the grips forum post titled "VZ candy."
Link http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=32099
No pics of my second set at this time, perhaps I'll take some soon. The 320s really do feel like sandpaper, very even texture across the entire surface. The set pictured on the thread I mentioned is on my Smith PD scandium frame which has become my favorite shooter with those grips. The VZ website often lists products as out of stock but it is worth a phone call to check with John. Both times I ordered he had them when the site said otherwise.

[cameroni]

I really like the looks of those 4X4s;been meaning to try a set of micarta grips;so this thread has helped me a lot also.

Whatever grips I use have to be thin. I have 4 pair of AlumaGrips;it's good advice to use the liner thingys to protect the under-grip finish. They are cheap and easy to install.

I have shot the hex-head screws loose with AlumaGrips;but I wasn't using Loc-Tite at the time. One healthy drop per screw seems to have solved that issue. The hex-heads are so easy for me to tighten;it's not a problem from my perspective. kel,why do you advise not using hex-head grip screws?

Yesterday(100+degrees/90%rel. humidity) I stopped on a backroad for some informal plinking(Alumas thinline on S&W1911). I only shot 40 rnds. The Alumas do warm up;but I've never even come close to worrying about burning my skin even with prolonged 100+ rnds of shooting;I don't use gloves.

I like the feel of the AlumaGrips against my skin in carry mode;not a factor in cooler weather with undershirts.

eli,I lived in the Land of Enchantment for 20+years,camped in the desert,my only source of transportation a bicycle for 2 years,swamp cooler for cooling/no freon-air-conditioning. The air there is VERY dry compared to here in the deep-fried South.
I have NEVER felt heat like here in middle- Georgia with its oppressive humidity(polkat,my big brother said Viet Nam heat was a lot worse;but he was being sprayed with Agent Orange constantly). The altitude for 'Burque is over a mile high for much of the city. I would trade places with you in an ignosecond regarding overall climate.

Looking forward to New Mexico in the Fall!!! Woooo Hoooo!! :p

mike

[Chieftain]

kel,why do you advise not using hex-head grip screws?

Yesterday(100+degrees/90%rel. humidity) I stopped on a backroad for some informal plinking(Alumas thinline on S&W1911). I only shot 40 rnds. The Alumas do warm up;but I've never even come close to worrying about burning my skin even with prolonged 100+ rnds of shooting;I don't use gloves.

I like the feel of the AlumaGrips against my skin in carry mode;not a factor in cooler weather with undershirts.

eli,I lived in the Land of Enchantment for 20+years,camped in the desert,my only source of transportation a bicycle for 2 years,swamp cooler for cooling/no freon-air-conditioning. The air there is VERY dry compared to here in the deep-fried South.
I have NEVER felt heat like here in middle- Georgia with its oppressive humidity(polkat,my big brother said Viet Nam heat was a lot worse;but he was being sprayed with Agent Orange constantly). The altitude for 'Burque is over a mile high for much of the city. I would trade places with you in an ignosecond regarding overall climate.

Looking forward to New Mexico in the Fall!!! Woooo Hoooo!!

As to hex heads, the old theory was that if you were campaigning and couldn't find an allen/hex head wrench of the proper size you were screwed. And for the Deployed Military I would agree much easier to find an edge to turn flat head screws. That last bend at the top of the sear spring is to turn the little screw in the Magazine release lock. But these days I come home most nights and if needs be can use my wrenches to torque'em up.

The heating up of the metal grips wasn't from shooting it was from the ambient temperature and the sun. At times when I must leave my weapon in the car, like when I go to the VA hospital for instance, My weapon gets very hot here in Phoenix. Frankly the inside temperature of a car here can get close to 200 degrees. Now I know you're from Georgia, but for us Florida boy's in Arizona, that's hot.

AS to humidity, My home town is Melbourne, Florida, I don't doubt your central Georgia location has much more humidity than my coastal Florida community, but we have been known to have a little. The south is wet and warm, but Phoenix, even compared to Albuquerque is hot, real hot. You ain't lived until it's 122 in the shade, even if it's a dry heat.

Who was your big Brother with. I spent two tours with the 3rd Marine Division. In fact the VA has attributed my Type II Diabetes to the Agent Orange I sucked while they were building and later trying to keep McNamara's wall clear of foliage with Agent Orange, or more properly the pathogen Dioxin. Frankly those poor bastards in the Air Force that were working with that poison were in much worse shape than we Marines were because of it.

Any way, that's why I will not put metal grips on any of my weapons. I just assumed that folks that lived where they had that White stuff, might have similar issues in the other direction.

Go figure.

Fred

[polekat]

cameroni, I hope your brother is well. VN was very hot and many were exposed to AO. When I returned home from VN it was in the upper 70s and I was cold even though wearing full dress uniform (jacket, shirt, tie, t-shirt,pants, etc....) and a full length coat. I had lost a lot of weight (wandering around the central highlands on foot does that) and when the wife met me at the train station, she thought I had malaria (or something else that wasn't good). She was wearing a light short sleeve shirt and jeans and thought I was nuts when I told her I was very cold :-)

[cameroni]

As to hex heads, the old theory was that if you were campaigning and couldn't find an allen/hex head wrench of the proper size you were screwed. And for the Deployed Military I would agree much easier to find an edge to turn flat head screws. That last bend at the top of the sear spring is to turn the little screw in the Magazine release lock. But these days I come home most nights and if needs be can use my wrenches to torque'em up.

The heating up of the metal grips wasn't from shooting it was from the ambient temperature and the sun. At times when I must leave my weapon in the car, like when I go to the VA hospital for instance, My weapon gets very hot here in Phoenix. Frankly the inside temperature of a car here can get close to 200 degrees. Now I know you're from Georgia, but for us Florida boy's in Arizona, that's hot.

AS to humidity, My home town is Melbourne, Florida, I don't doubt your central Georgia location has much more humidity than my coastal Florida community, but we have been known to have a little. The south is wet and warm, but Phoenix, even compared to Albuquerque is hot, real hot. You ain't lived until it's 122 in the shade, even if it's a dry heat.

Who was your big Brother with. I spent two tours with the 3rd Marine Division. In fact the VA has attributed my Type II Diabetes to the Agent Orange I sucked while they were building and later trying to keep McNamara's wall clear of foliage with Agent Orange, or more properly the pathogen Dioxin. Frankly those poor bastards in the Air Force that were working with that poison were in much worse shape than we Marines were because of it.

Any way, that's why I will not put metal grips on any of my weapons. I just assumed that folks that lived where they had that White stuff, might have similar issues in the other direction.

Go figure.

Fred

I copy the hex-head to campaigning idea;that makes sense to me.

Wish I was conversant in the "last bend at the top of the sear spring"..."magazine release lock";but I ain't there yet.

Oh,yeah,Phoenix vs. Albuquerque is a whole 'nother thing. Ungodly heat in the AZ. I cain't study 122 in the shade!!! Whew!

My brother,Danny Ray Cameron, was a Sea Bee,trained at Camp Le Jeaune(sp?),he served in Viet Nam 1966-'70. He developed some kind of Hodgkins' lymphoma cancer that lead to all sorts of physical illnesses. He died in 1998. He fought hard. He and I were born on the same day,June 29;three years apart. He always looked over his little bro.(and I know he still does).

polkat,I know it's true;them that weren't there,hard as they may try, can only imagine. I still pray for all our troops wherever they may be;especially the missing in action. You have my undying gratitude for your service.

Please forgive me for going off topic.

Regards,
mike

[polekat]

Mike,

Take care and remember your brother..............

[Chieftain]

Cameroni,

May your brother, who is also my brother, Rest in Peace. He is one of my hero's.

And as to polekat,

What's going on Bro....

I have Malaria too. The 3rdMarDiv averaged 250 cases per day. As to coming home, I lived in Florida, wasn't that much different than Vietnam frankly. Just no one shooting at me. That was/is a good thing.

AS to our brothers who are still fighting the fight today. May God bless them all. And bring back as many as possible whole, and complete.

Good luck to you all.

Fred

[polekat]

Chieftain, I did not have malaria. I was so skinny my wife thought I looked sickly and assumed too much. She immediately started to fix the problem. She is a very good cook and in a month I put 10 pounds back on. The uniform I wore home, never fit again :-)

[Chieftain]

Chieftain, I did not have malaria. I was so skinny my wife thought I looked sickly and assumed too much. She immediately started to fix the problem. She is a very good cook and in a month I put 10 pounds back on. The uniform I wore home, never fit again :-)

Well we were all skinny over there. Between humping the bush, dysentery, and not always having enough to eat.

I bet you did put back on the weight. I tell the story of a convoy I got stuck on security for. We were out at Vandegrift Combat Base, which was LZ Stud when we first pulled out of Khe Sanh in the summer of 68, after the siege.

We were in an 8 truck mini convoy. The good news was that the NVA rarely gave away their positions to hit small convoys. so we run our convoy to Phu Bai, and get ready to come back, when we get orders to take it to Danang.

Well, we were all set to get to the good stuff in Danang, when we find out we have to line up with a major convoy 100+ vehicles to go.

Now we are nervous. Lots of empty fuel trucks, (they blow up quicker empty than full, that fumes thing) and we had the one hundred and and worst screaming chicken ***ts Airborn as security. (101 airborne). Driving around in all those 151's set up as rat patrol vehicles. Even had a couple of UH1H guns for security part of the way.

To much stuff, we thought, this is going to attract attention. Actually the trip was pretty quiet until we were about to go through the Hai Van pass(I don't remember the spelling but I think that's it.) Just north of Danang.

We drive by a battery of 11th Marines shooting a fire mission into the pass. We can see the impacts above us. Some of our vehicles are on that long bridge just north of the pass waiting to go. We are all starting to get rather twitchy.

Anyway we get the go, and running the switchbacks up the pass. We are driving by this old French strong point/fort manned by ARVN.

Some ARVN yahoo decides at that time to step out and test fire his rifle, in full auto. I figure it was a Miracle that we didn't blow him away. He had about 250 rifles on him with very twitchy trigger fingers.

Otherwise we wasted all that perfectly good anxiety. We never got hit.

I ate so much in Danang that I puked, and went back for more. I hate vegetables. That trip I ate almost nothing but Veggies. Guess my body was telling me something.

Sorry for the ramble. your story just triggered one of those memories.

Hope you and your wife are doing well. God Bless.

[polekat]

[QUOTE=Chieftain]Well we were all skinny over there. Between humping the bush, dysentery, and not always having enough to eat.

We were fortunate in never having anybody in the company I was with get dysentery. Another company in our battalion did and they got it real bad. They were making it and burn it as fast as they could go. Everything they ate came right out - one way or another. They were so sick that they stayed on base and we had to stay out, instead of getting our three day stand down.

Rationing our food was bad enough, but then we were told that they were out of medicine to treat jungle rot because of cost cutting..................

This probably ain't the place for this :-)

[tonka]

This thread has pretty much steered me toward thin VZ grips, and I really didn't even stop in for any help in that matter. Thanks everybody; I love this site.

While I'm at it, Big Thanks to all you vets!