[Magnum Wheel Man]

if you guys have seen my posts, you know I collect old top breaks & early pocket cartridge guns...

along with that collecting, over the couple years, I also ended up with several extra old sets of MOP grips, either bought alone, & they didn't fit as per the description, or they came ill fitting on a gun I bought, or they had a lot of chips, & I replaced them with something better...

...one of such ill fitting grip guns I received, was an old S&W top break in 32 S&W, with the grip safety... it came with ill fitting hard rubber grips, which I pulled right away, but I didn't have anything that fit them properly...

... I also had a set of MOP grips, that were badly chipped up, I don't remember if I pulled them from a gun & replaced the grips, or if this was a set I bought outright, but when I put the pin in the hole, a good portion of the grips outline followed the grip frame... the MOP was too big, & most of the damage, could be cut off, when fit to the lil S&W

... well, last night ( one of the benefits of finally being able to display all my guns ) I just got sick of looking at the gun with the chipped, oversize, MOP's screwed to the grip frame, & I got out a sharpie marker, & my dremel with a couple file stones, & went to work...

1st off, the dust is nasty ( & I read it's very bad for your lungs, so if you're going to do this, you should at minimum wear a dust mask ) I didn't have one handy, so I limited my time, & tried to avoid the dust as best I could... but in about 20 minutes, & with 2 stones, I was able to rough fit one of the MOP scales... I had to reform the part circle on the top, with the flats on each side, which as far as rough fitting, & my 1st attempt, actually came out pretty good... I'd suspect using a scribe & the gun frame to draw the outline, would work better, but I was able to get a nice grip panel, with only 2 small nicks on the 1st one ( which was the only damaged panel, before starting ) I'll take a dust mask down next time, & expect I'll have the other done soon, then I'll just need to polish out the edges I ground down...

anyone else ever work with MOP ??? got any suggestions for a newbie ??? I was using the sharpie to darken the edges where they were high, then grinding the black off, & that seemed to work well for general shaping... I may want to find a better way to do the radiused top part, if anyone has suggestions... I may find I just get better with it as I go, this was after all my very 1st attempt at any grip...

my goal here, is to try to use up 3-4 extra sets, by getting them to fit existing guns, & possibly... I always thought Abalone would look cool as a grip media, & you never see them, so maybe some day, make a set from a big shell I have laying around ???

any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...