PT Steel 2011 Grip

technetium-99m

Mighty Righty
Joined
Sep 18, 2010
Messages
1,840
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
I had a number of people ask me to let them know how I liked the steel 2011 grip I ordered. I figured this was as good a place as any to do a little writeup.

I ordered this from Phoenix Trinity in late September and it was delivered a few days ago. At first glance it looked like a good part, no horrible machining marks or obvious defects. I picked the standard texture after feeling the aggressive on a buddy's gun. It's quite a bit heavier than the plastic grip at 10.4 ounces.

Install was interesting...

The grip fit on without too much drama, there are 2 pads/flats you can remove material from on the inner sides (right where the grip screws are) if the grip is too narrow for your frame.

The right side of the mag catch has to be dressed to match the profile of the grip.

The slot for the mainspring housing is undersized. I had to narrow my MSH and work on the pin hole to get the thing installed.

They use a slitting saw to make the notch for the sear spring, I had to dress the tab on the bottom of the spring a bit to let it to sit flat.

At least on my grip the notch for the sear spring is lower than on any 2011 grip I've seen. The spring I was using was too short (the left leg would slip under the sear when it rotated forward). I looked around through my parts bin and found a spring from EGW that was quite a bit longer and worked fine.

Both legs of the spring have to be adjusted. The notch is in a slightly different place and the MSH sits differently than it does in the plastic STI grip, so if you get one make sure you can set up your sear spring again.

The guns shoots nice, it's maybe a bit softer than before. What I really like is the solid feeling in the hand, the texture, the undercut on the trigger guard, and most of all I can't smash it and prevent mags from falling out.

Obligatory picture, gun weighs right at 3 pounds without a magazine.

Fgu9vxa.jpg
 
Register to hide this ad
Interesting. I'm a bit surprised at the work for parts fitting. I assumed it would require minor fitting to the frame and that the small parts would all drop in like normal.
 
Grant Wood has one of these also I would like for him to chime in and see what all fitting he had to I also. Thanks GT for the write up.
 
Mitch Gibson said:
Interesting. I'm a bit surprised at the work for parts fitting. I assumed it would require minor fitting to the frame and that the small parts would all drop in like normal.
Fitting is a strong word. Really most of the work was dealing with the sear spring.
 
I think polymer grips shoot softer than the metal ones; the recoil feels harsh. I spoke to a guy who builds a lot of these and he said the main benefit of the steel grips is on open guns, where the dot settles a little faster than on a polymer gun.
 
mike cyrwus said:
I think polymer grips shoot softer than the metal ones; the recoil feels harsh. I spoke to a guy who builds a lot of these and he said the main benefit of the steel grips is on open guns, where the dot settles a little faster than on a polymer gun.
.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    35.1 KB · Views: 35
Back
Top