I'll be honest - the factory plastic grips on the Vigilante are terrible. They wiggle and squeak, and although it's a fine pellet gun, those grips make it seem like a toy. In searching for upgrades, a found a lot of Vigilante owners have ditched the grips altogether. They state it's better anyway because your hands warm up the CO2 cartridge yielding more shots. ? Coolness! Now, I have no evidence, but wimpy plastic snap-in parts like these usually break sooner rather than later. I have not seen aftermarket grips, although they may well exist.
So I'm posting to ask for some guidance from experienced wood workers. My thinking is to start with a basic block of hardwood. Route out a channel so the CO2 fits. Add pins that mate to some of the frame voids to align the grip onto the frame. Then use a single inset flat top thumb screw type fastener. A close friend of mine makes guitars and offered me "scraps" of some really exotic hardwoods!
What are your thoughts? Should I just live with it? Or do you think such a project would be worth a try ? Thanks in advance for any input you can offer!
well any idea is worth a trying and that's first off and any idea that doesn't hurt the subject of your idea can only succeed or fail, so no harm no foul
I think I would go to Crosman and get s spare set of grips and see if you can make them fit better on the grip frame, epoxy putty would be used to put anchor points or even fix one grip to the frame so only one can be removed
but here's the but it is 50 buck pellet pistol, what is it worth to make the grips right, if you have the bits and pieces that's a start but if you are start with no supplies well then where do you stop spending
I would add a pin in the bottom front corner of each grip and rivets would be my choice and they would be in there own new hole
so you would fill the grips and mount them drill the frame with the rivet diameter and put the rivet in the frame and do the same for the other side, so is it perfect no but it will help
you might have to epoxy the rivets in place but it would be my starting point
on the wood grips your main problem is how are you going to fasten them on the grip frame before you make the panels
just some observation, all I could do is look at some picture so some guessing on my part
good luck and take care
mike
When I had a Vigilante,my plastic grip panels would shift this way and that. You could grip the gun tightly and then grab the barrel and wiggle all around.
I took off the grips and ran a piece of black electrical tape around the outside of the grip frame. It took up the slack of those grip panels.
Made a big difference. Works until someone comes up with wood. ?
Just a thought...If your plastic grips shift, what if you sanded down the inside face of the thru hole for the attachment screw just a little bit. The grips would be squeezed a little bit tighter around the edges.
Unless I'm misunderstanding you, there is no screw - they are snap-on/pop-off for easy access to the CO2 canisters.
I toyed with the idea of drilling and tapping a hole for such a mounting screw(s). Alternatively, I could drill a clean hole on one grip and the handle, and glue a nut on the other grip, then bolt the halves together together. <-- That is what I would have to do if I made wood grips.
None of that will be as fast as popping the grips off but then, one CO2 canister uses 5 magazines, so you would need to take a break and reload anyways.
@droidiphile Hi! First, let me say I know exactly what you mean. We purchased a Pioneer Arms AK-47 that had nice wooden furniture... all except for the pistol grip which was an undersized piece of plastic-like substance. I'm sure it was some kind of polymer, but it was annoying. I spent a small fortune and waited a really long time to get a beautiful & slightly larger wooden pistol grip. Now I'm about to buy a Crosman Vigilante and I expect I will run into the same issues you pointed out. Great gun, bad grip makes it feel like a toy.
Were you able to make wooden grips for yours? The only thing I can think of for easy access with wood is if you incorporate magnets in the design. Is the metal frame of the handle of the Vigilante a metal that magnets would stick to? If so, maybe you could adhere magnets in your wood grips and you'd have nice grips that could be easily removed to replace the CO2.
My only other thought is to use the OEM plastic grips, but to find a rubber Tactical Grip Sleeve. That should be easy enough to remove when you had to replace the CO2, but may help old the plastic pieces together and give you a better grip.
I am curious to know how this project turned out. Of course, we should just spend 3X the money and buy a higher end airgun LOL!
