The grip adapters fill the area underneath the frame and behind the trigger guard, where the gun rests on your middle finger. The Tyler units are made from either aluminum or bronze, and the BK Grips units are made from molded polymer, but they all perform the same function. Today, we’ve still got Tyler Manufacturing making grip adapters (after some interruptions, as the family business changed hands) and they’re joined by a new kid on the block, BK Grips. The copper tabs on this Tyler T-Grip pinch the front strap of the frame and hold the unit in place, with the assistance of pressure from the grip panels. By the time disco was being replaced by new wave, only the Tyler T-Grip remained in production. The target stocks made grip adapters unnecessary, and as they became more popular in the 60s and 70s, the market for grip adapters began to fall off.
The influence of Walter Roper’s target stock design was strong, and it wasn’t long before Colt’s and Smith & Wesson were making their own target-style handles, circa 1950s. Smith & Wesson developed their own copy of this design in the 1950s, and the collection of companies did a good business selling the adapters even after the improved (but still not great) S&W Magna-style stocks were introduced right before WWII. These metal tabs gripped the front strap of the frame, and the grip/stock panels were placed over them and secured in place with the grip screw, which held the adapter in place. The single-piece adapters had little metal tabs that extended on the backside of the adapter. These adapters did the same job, however, and filled the gap behind the trigger guard. These designs were different than the S&W adapter, because they were composed of a single, curved piece, instead of several parts. Other companies, like Pachmayr, Mershon and Tyler produced their own versions of grip adapters in the post-WWII era with great success. This adapter filled the area where the frame rests on the middle finger, in a similar manner to the Roper-style target stocks that were starting to become popular in this era.
The Smith & Wesson grip adapter had two blued steel plates which fit under the stock panels, and held a rubber filler in place (which was secured to the plates by a screw) in the area forward of the front strap and behind the trigger guard. Smith & Wesson introduced their first grip adapter for the N-Frame guns around 1932, with a K-Frame version that followed around 1934. These adapters were used in conjunction with the existing stocks to change the feel of the gun, and the idea was popular enough that they were made by many companies. The fix came in the form of grip adapters, which were added to the skinny frames to change the shape of the gripping surface, and reposition the hand on the frame. This pre-war Colt Police Positive demonstrates the problem with early grips and stocks that followed the lines of the frame. These skinny grip frames didn’t give much purchase to control the gun during recoil, and they also didn’t work very well for shooters with normal-to-large sized hands, who quickly ran out of space to put all their digits. It was Peter Paul Mauser’s legendary autopistol that earned the sobriquet of “broomhandle” in this era for its unusual grip, but the Hand Ejectors didn’t lag far behind in terms of poor ergonomics. They closely followed the lines of the skinny frames, giving nothing extra to hang onto. The tiny handles of wood or hard rubber used by Colt’s and Smith & Wesson on these early “Hand Ejectors” left a large part of the upper frame and recoil shoulder area completely exposed.
The grip frames on these guns were universally small, and the grips (or “stocks,” in S&W parlance) almost looked like they were afterthoughts. When the double action, swing-out cylinder revolver began to take shape in the late 1800s, it seemed like the designers had already used up all their energy by the time they got to the back end.