After 3 months and a complete transition to the P320 for the majority of my personal pistols I starting experimenting with improved gripping surfaces. I have done some stippling in the past and while it generally works and looks fine for my needs, I found that on the P320, stippling did not offer a drastic enough improvement for my needs.
Below is an example of the first one I did.
From the factory the P320 has a decent texture that is excellent for carry and most general purpose shooting. But for competition both Bullseye and USPSA/IDPA type stuff, I wanted some heavy duty traction!
I also tried the grip tape from various manufactures but still not what I wanted. I saw a few examples of ways to re-texture grips online and after some exhaustive research I started out with a plan and put it into action.
Below is my first attempt following the same pattern as the stippling above.
It turned out a little rough around the edges, but was the perfect surface texture that I was looking for and it was permanent. Taping off the edges and following a clean edge line proved a little more difficult than expected. But all and all, I wasn't as concerned about looks as I was function. The Above gun now has had approx. 1000 rounds through it, and has been riding in a Safariland GLS with several hundred Holster presentations. The gripping surface has smoothed out a little but still is excellent with sweaty or wet hands and have not seen any breakdown of the material yet, not even around the edges. So far oil and cleaning residue has not affected it, but only time will tell. The surface has also started to turn a little "tan" or "Caucasian" in color from the skin on my hands....LOL
but with a cleaning brush and some water it comes right off.
So this weekend I decided to really take some time and do a couple more to see just how good a job I could do. The best thing is with these frames. If you screw it up, you are only out $35-$40 bucks so my thought was , no big deal lets do it!
The black one was the first. The white residue is just tape residue from the masking tape, I will clean it up once the grip is set and solid in about 5 days. (Its only 48 hours but I don't touch them for 5 days just to make sure)
All and All I think it turned out very well. Please feel free to critique!
Then I moved to a second frame and it went even better IMHO......
I am open to questions, but please keep in mind, I am still experimenting with some of my processes. (It ain't hard to figure out guys, just time consuming
)
Still, I am open to both suggestions and questions.
cp