Fitz "Duramite" Grips for the S&W Masterpiece

One of my favorite guns is the  Smith & Wesson 14-3 "Masterpiece," one of the most accurate revolvers ever made in the U.S. There was a time when it was regularly seen on the firing line at Camp Perry, but that was a long time ago, before target autos replaced revolvers. It's still popular, in modified and tuned firm,  at PPC matches.

I don't shoot PPC or competitive bullseye, but I do enjoy informal bullseye shooting with this gun. It has excellent sights and a very good trigger, thanks in part to some work my friend Ric did on the sear, mainspring, and trigger return spring. The only thing keeping it from being a first rate 1950s era bullseye gun was better grips.

Good bullseye grips are not cheap. Randall Fung will make you a custom set for $180, and there are some European makers who go a lot higher. The cheapest halfway decent grips I found cost $65. But then I was searching on eBay one day and came across several sets of Fitz grips.

Fitz was a popular maker of match grips, both in wood and later in synthetic. The story was that the founder carved a set of 1911 grips for a friend who remarked, "it fits!" I first saw them in Col. Charles Atkins 1953 book, "The Pistol Shooters Book."  I saw this posted in Facebook and  a few other places:

Fitz Grips was established in 1924 with the patent of the Accuriser grip with a palm swell plate that was adjustible for right and left handed target shooters. Grips were made for Smith, Colt Ruger and High Standard weapons only. My last production was in 1975 for 500 Smiths our Govt sold to the Egyptians who demanded my ebony Gunfighter grips on them for the sale to go through. I retired in 1979 and have had a few grips in storage since then and my wife convinced me to dig them out of the barn to sell them off to assist our social security. They are available in Cherry wood and Duramite, a Nylon-Plastic blend (Very Tough) in Olympic, target, Gunfighter styles and a very realistic Stag for cowboy shooters. There are well known to your Parents and Grandparents that were competitive shooters and our slip top blood red Ammo Safe boxes from the 50's are still being used as they are a lifetime ammo box. Many sizes sold out but there may be one for your favorite weapon. fitz_grips fitz_grips@hotmail.com send your email address for information and picture attachments Thanks Paul "Fitz"

The most recent post (in Facebook) was in 2013 so I don't think the info is very current.

These may be plastic, but they're an identical copy of the hand carved walnut grips Fitz sold. The price? $25, shipped, from an eBay seller. I've since seen them a few bucks cheaper. No, they're not as pretty as wood grips, but they're just as functional.

They fill my hand and have a good thumb rest, two things lacking in the stock grips. I'm anxious to take them to the range and see how they work. I might even start looking for an original wood set.

Postscript: I did take them to the range, and they make a huge difference in my offhand shooting. The biggest difference is the improvement in shot-to-shot consistency. There's no fussing about to find the right grip. Now I'd like to find a set in wood- or even better, a similar but larger set of grips to fit my XL-sized hands.