espresso

I really like my wood grips by Hogue but ran across some Lett grips on Ebay NIB for a good price and thought I'd give them a try.




Well I see now what all the fuss is about. They just work better for me, felt better in my hand and they look a lot better in person than in pics.

I can also see myself getting sucked into the custom inserts to personalize the grips as I love stuff like that.

The Hogue's are great but for me the Lett's are the way to go.

I may still keep my Hogue's just in case I want to switch back, but if they collect dust I'll end up selling them.

Seneca

Nice...
I'm a fan of Lett grips...I don't know why Ruger dropped Lett and went with Hogue...Yet the did. I'm always on the look out for Lett grip take offs particularly their compact size grips for the GP100. They are the most comfortable grip I've found so far...

Amishman44

VERY NICE!!! Those Rosewood grip panels are fantastic! I love my 'smaller' Lett Grips on my fixed-site GP100 (see avatar). They fit in my hand perfectly! Congrats on the find and switch!

espresso

On the smaller Lett grips, can most get their full pinkie on the bottom of the grip?
I have med sized hands and might want to try a pair

Amishman44

I have small to medium hands...and the small grip simply feels 'tighter' in my grip that the full-sized Lett grip does! I like it so much that I bought another one off of ebay to put on the Ruger Alaskan (the GP100 and the Super RedHawk grip peg are the same size) and it works great for me. It's really only about a 1/2" shorter grip. My hand (and pinky) fit on it just fine with nothing slipping off the bottom or feeling the need to hold it up underneath like one would with a Glock 26/27/33 without a pinky extension.

If you're wanting to try one, keep an eye on ebay as they roll through occasionally and will run $35-$55 shipped. The cool part is they take the SP101 grip panels...so if you find a cool SP101 grip panel...it'll fit! Size-wise, they are about 1/2 way between an SP101 Lett Grip and a regular-sized GP100 Lett Grip! If you can see my avatar good enough, you may be able to determine the slightly smaller difference between the larger Lett Grip and the one(s) I have.

Good Luck!

Iowegan

Seneca, The Lett Grip Company was family owned. When Mr Lett died, there was no one to take over the business so Ruger had no choice than to go with a different grip company. Hogue now makes the grips for GP-100s and Super Redhawks. I'm not sure what company made the rubber but Lett only made the wood inserts.

41RED

Nice grips espresso. I've taken all the Hogue grips off my Rugers and replaced them with the rubber/wood combination. If you're looking for the compact or even the full size you can get them from Midway. Either one runs about $8.30 plus shipping. I can get all of my pinky on the compact but no room to spare.

This is a picture of my 2 3" GPs one with the full size grip and the other with the compacts for a side by side comparison.

41 Magnum

Here's a few of mine with the Lett's grips. I like them, much better than any Hogue grips. They are just more comfortable, & fit my hands better. Another worthwhile change is the front sight.

Seneca

Iowegan,

Thanks for the info...

Brownells is still offering them as an option for the GP100, they are listed by individual item by pair and by rubber grip only (no panels). I found them listed under Ruger factory parts in the catalog...

espresso,
I have hands on the small side and the small letts are great. I find that the placement of the finger grooves on the hogues spread my grip out...not necessarily a bad thing, just feels kind of odd...

kiwihunter

A couple of good looking twins there.

kiwihunter

Stock std and loving it.

espresso

Nice Pics!

Midway and Brownells are out of the Letts right now but I'll keep checking there or Ebay.

I supposed If I bought a pair of smaller Lett's and didn't like them I could always find someone who would take them off my hands.

Seneca

Probably....

I have recently seen letts on new Rugers...I seem to recall the panels had some checkering and I believe a logo quite possibly they were a distributor special...Lipsey Davidsons etc...I prefer the plain panels even so the ones I saw were nice...One can always make a new set of panels to suit their tastes.

I'm off to the gunshow today so I'll have to look and see if I can find a set of take off letts...

dm440c

I might be talking about stuff when I really don't know enough to talk but Bill Lett III (grandson of the one who first got into business with Bill Ruger on gun parts) was a close friend of mine during high school and for a few years after until I moved away from NH in the mid 90's. Kinda lost touch since then... if you ever bought a set of the Lett grips that had scrimshaw work done to them, Billy was the guy who did it by hand. But anyhow, after Bill Lett Sr. died in the early 90's I got the impression that the business relationship between Ruger and Lett Mfg slowly cooled off until the Letts eventually closed down the grip shop alltogether sometime in the late 90's if I remember correctly. They moved away from the area and went into a different business. I wasn't intimately involved in their business dealings so maybe I shouldn't speculate but in response to the question, that's what I can tell you about "what happened to Lett Grips"... I really need to look Billy up again and catch up....

Ale-8(1)

It stands repeating that Lett manufactured only the insert panels for these grips, not the rubber main grip . . . and that Lett has been out of business for several years.

There have been at least a couple of different sized grip sets from Ruger, but Lett did NOT make any of the rubber portions. I'm not sure who did.

As far as handling goes, I have a hard time believing that the inserts, whether wood or some other material, would make much difference. I could be wrong and am open to comments from those who have tried alternatives.

I'm happy with the pieces that came on my GP, which have inserts of the "wood" variety, and no finger grooves in the rubber portion.