Handguns – October-November 2019

GP100 DIY UPGRADE

NEW GRIPS, NEW SPRINGS MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE.

By J. Scott Rupp

AS SOON AS RUGER INTRODUCED THE

GP100 in .44 Special, I bought one. A
five-shot revolver with a three-inch
barrel, I find it an excellent field
gun—not heavy like my five-inch
S&W .44 Magnum but with plenty of
punch. I’ve shot it a ton, both at the
range and on the set of “Handguns
& Defensive Weapons,” and it’s well-
behaved and accurate.
But I love to tinker with things,
even though I’m not particularly
good at it. One day the notion
popped into my head to install dif-
ferent grips on it, just for something
to do.
I settled on Altamont. The com-
pany offers both full-size and com-
pact grips for the GP100, and since
I already knew what the full-size
grips felt like, I figured it would be
interesting to see how smaller grips

| SPEEDLOADS

affected how the gun handled. I

chose the compact snakeskin combo,

which consists of a rubber grip and

rosewood “snakeskin” inserts. Cost

was $44, plus $6 shipping.

Part two involved the springs. The

trigger pull on the gun wasn’t bad

at all, but one day I was surfing the

Wilson Combat website while fact-

checking an article. I stumbled on

the company’s Custom-Tune spring

kits for the GP100 (just $10 plus $

shipping), and I ordered one.

All of what follows starts with an

unloaded gun, of course. Changing

the grips is a breeze. This version of

the GP100 has a synthetic one-piece

grip that’s secured by a screw at the

base. Remove the screw and the grip

pops off. The screw threads into

a swinging foot at the base of the

frame (which, I discovered, is part of

Hogue’s patent for a one-piece hand-

gun grip). The foot is easily removed

by sliding a fingernail underneath

the spring clip and lifting it off the

cylinder that supports the foot.

Remove the locator pin in the

base of the Altamont grips by first

popping off the rosewood inserts

and then pushing out the pin. Slide

the rubber grip onto the frame, run

the locator pin through the holes in

the grip and in the revolver frame,

replace the wood inserts and use

one of the supplied screws to secure

the grips. Easy peasy.

On to the spring kit. Look, if

Ruger’s designers thought lighter

springs would be better for the

GP100, they would’ve used them. But

they need to ensure the gun is 100

percent reliable with any appro-

priate ammo, and the springs are

12 HANDGUNS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 WWW.HANDGUNS.COM