Get a Grip!

Right off the bat I want to say that I did not "invent" this idea. I learned this from a Christian Warrior and excellent intructor - Gabe Suarez. If you have a chance to attend some of his courses I recommend you take advantage of the opportunity. His site is linked over there on the right.

Gunfighting is not range shooting. Gunfighting is not gun gaming. Gunfighting happens usually when you least expect it and oft times when under much less than "ideal conditions".

Darkness, rain, mud, blood (and Johnny Cash is singing in my head...) can characterize your environment. Stress, fear, injury and pain could make an appearance. As I've said before when discussing bad things: Murphy will show up and he usually brings friends.

Working your slide is easy in the living room or on the range. Doing it under a variety of stressors can add to your challenges. Your weak hand (yeah, I call it that) can slip while conducting any of a number of immediate action drills. Let's face it - smooth steel is slippery in it's own right. Add mositure and it gets worse. Add shaking hands and you may have a problem. Enter Grip Tape.

After learning of this idea from Gabe I thought about it but I really didn't want to "mess up" my brand new Glock. Then one day my daughters (who were then going through a Skater Chick phase) showed me how they had added skate board tape to their boards and I asked if they had any left.

"No, we threw it away."

"Where?"

"In our waste basket"

"Well bring it down here."

My girls periodically clean their hair brushes out and toss the strands into the waste basket. The girls had tossed the tape scraps (sans backing) into said basket and the scraps were covered with hair.

I am a frugal man...

I pulled the hair off the pieces, cut them to general shape and stuck them on my Glock. While I was at it, I added some to the grip portion also. Really, I just wanted to see how it felt. I figured if I liked it, I would just buy some more tape, "cut it out correctly" and make it look nice.

That was over a year ago.
It's still there and still going strong. I don't see any need to replace it.

I showed the idea to a friend of mine and today he came over and showed me his Ruger. He did the same thing - sort of. Because he is neater than I, he masked off parts of the slide with tape and then he sprayed a truck underliner rubbery compound on his gat. Guess what? It works.

Now, he just did this last week so we don't know how it will hold up but after inspecting it, I suspect it will last a good long time.

So, if you think this idea sounds cool - give it a try. To paraphrase Bruce Lee - "take what is useful, discard the rest."

See ya out there.

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:21

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If you have any comments I’d love to hear them.
If they really interest me, I may even post them.
You can reach me at Joe

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