Founded by Harbans Singh in 1971, Eagle Grips is now ramrodded by his son Raj. Because their heritage goes to India, the Singhs have maintained many connections with the "old country", which is where most of their exotic grip materials originate. But before I geet to actual stock designs, let’s take a look at some of the materials from which Eagle crafts its custom grips.

Of course, there is ivory, but Eagle Grips will be the first to say that this material is getting scarce and very expensive. For that reason Eagle has introduced Ultra Ivory, a man-made material that duplicates the look and feel of elephant tusk ivory in both grain and texture. I must admit that when I first handled a gun with these Ultra Ivory grips, I thought they were genuine ivory. Raj had to tell me the material was synthetic. He said that Ultra Ivory grips will even yellow slightly with age just like real ivory.

One of the most popular materials in the Eagle catalog is Sambar stag. These are cut from the shed antlers of Indian Sambar deer, and this material is strictly regulated by the government there. In fact, Sambar antlers can only be collected for two weeks out of the year.

Another of Eagle’s unique grip materials is buffalo horn. When given a high polish, buffalo horn develops an extremely hard surface and has to be one of the toughest natural materials ever fashioned into handgun grips.

An exotic material that Eagle offers primarily for presentation-grade guns is mother-of-pearl. While beautiful, this material is so fragile that the company warns against firing the handgun while they are in place.

Eagle also offers two types of wood for handgun stocks. The most common is Indian rosewood; it’s the material from which most of Eagle’s off-the-shelf handgun stocks are cut. This wood is reddish brown in color with a black grain running through it. The other wood is ebony, an extremely dense wood that ranges from dark gray to black in color. Ebony is so rare that it is only available on a limited basis.

From these beautiful exotic materials Eagle Grips can make replacement stocks for most autoloading pistols and both single and double-action revolvers. Eagle autoloading pistol and double-action revolver handgun stocks will fit any sample of a specific model across the board and do not need individual fitting.

Beyond the grips that are similar to standard stock designs, the company has some special models that the folks there developed themselves. For concealed carry revolvers there are the Secret Service grips. These abbreviated stocks come only to the end of the revolver’s grip frame yet have two finger grooves to give a secure hold.

Another special grip design that has quickly become popular among cowboy action shooters is called the Gunfighter; it’s made for Colt SAAs, Colt clones, and Ruger Vaqueros. Gunfighter grips are thicker at the top, and that helps keep the revolver from rolling back in the hand, which in turn makes for faster repeat shots. Gunfighter grips come in rosewood, buffalo horn, Ultra Ivory, and ebony. When crafted from the first two materials checkering is an option, but when ebony or Ultra Ivory is used, they can only be smooth. Grips for many types of single actions require some fitting because their grip frames are hand polished individually and each is therefore slightly different. Eagle Grips charges $40 to handfit single action grips to Colt SAA and its clones. Those for Ruger single actions are fitted free of charge. In this time of extremely high shipping costs for handguns, Eagle Grips has informed me that it can fit single action stocks by having the revolver'’ grip frame only.

Eagle Grips can make whatever type of stock (within reason) the customer desires. For example, a couple of years ago I picked up an S&W Model 1926 .44 Special with plastic imitation stag grips. The grips looked horrible but actually felt good for shooting. I sent them to Eagle and asked for identical replacements of real stag. I am both happy with their "shootability" and proud of their good looks.

Prices of the Eagle grips vary greatly by stock design and material, but the catalog of standard offerings illustrates that they are quite reasonable. For example, rosewood regular-size replacements for most double-action revolvers and autoloading pistols are $39.95; ebony is $10 more. The Gunfighter grips for single actions start at $49.95 for rosewood (checkering is $10 extra) and run up to $140.00 for Ultra Ivory. (Remember, there is an extra fee for fitting grips to Colt SAA and Colt-clone revolvers.) Some mother-of-pearl grips are slightly higher as are special order items.

As far as I’m concerned, Eagle Grips can provide just about anything in the way of handgun grips a shooter could possibly desire.