The New Bear Hug

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Walnut stockpile.

Walnut is sawn into pairs of blanks and carefully book-matched for grain.

Interior pattern cutting and fitting.

Bear Hug Grips was Deacon Deason's one-man custom revolver grip company specializing in custom fit-to-your-hand fancy wood target revolver grips for Smith & Wesson, Ruger and Colt revolvers. When Deacon Deason passed away, his business torch was passed on to Tedd Adamovich who renamed it Blu Magnum Grips and continued the grip making until his death in 2021. Having no business succession, the Blu Magnum assets were mostly sold to benefit his beneficiary and the custom target revolver grip business stopped.

Or to it seemed. 

About 2 years ago, my good buddy Bobby Tyler, the head honcho at Tyler Gun Works, called me and asked me if I had any original Smith & Wesson Bear Hug grips he could borrow for a project he had in mind. Being quite stricken with the "custom grip" disease, I affirmed that I indeed had some and my reply was "of course, K or N frame?", to which he replied that he could use both sets. I quickly sent them to him, but with a return address label! Fortunately, he didn't need that address label and hand delivered them back to me about 6 months ago. with a bit of an explanation for the nature of his request.

Bobby was able to purchase the patterns, rights, and the last remaining grips from Tedd Adamovich's beneficiary and had invested a significant amount of time, energy, and capital to replicate them in a production environment. Using patterns obtained from my, and other, grips, Bobby was able to develop a CNC program, patterns, and jigs to faithfully replicate these highly effective grips in a production setting. No, these are not hand fit, hand carved, hand finished one at a time sets of custom grips, these are intended to be the best fitting production grips available en masse that provide both durability and longevity.

As Bobby set his sights on taking production strictly CNC, he knew that precision and repeatability would be critical. In the search for perfection, he reached out to someone widely regarded as one of the sharpest minds in the CNC world: Ronnie Wells of RW Grip Frames, in Houston, TX. Ronnie is more than just a talented machinist; he's a true artisan with a deep understanding of CNC programming, and an unmatched eye for detail. Tasked with writing the programs that would bring Bobby's designs to life, Ronnie took on the challenge with characteristic precision.

This collaboration marked a turning point. By leveraging Ronnie's expertise, Bobby ensured that every pair of grips produced would not only be just identical, but also flawless, down to the thousandth of an inch. Consistency, quality, and craftsmanship were no longer ideals, they were now guaranteed in every single piece and pair of grips coming off the CNC machine.

While working on developing the CNC machine and programs, Bobby also set out to find the best possible supply of the finest quality walnut. Though it took some time, the mission was accomplished and Tyler Gun Works now sits on the largest supply of cut and dried fancy walnut in the country, some of which has been cut since the late 1990s. Claro, Black, English and Bastogne walnut bins are sitting in his climate controlled storage facility waiting to be turned into the finest sets of production grips. Bobby explained that wood selection is one of the most important steps in successful grip making and that it's not as simple as just grabbing a block of wood out of a bin, as it's critical to match the grain of the wood. Each block only provides a small platform from which to make a good final product, and Bobby believes that wood selection is about 50% of the process of making a good set of grips. If the wood is selected well, and the grip making is executed well, then a great set of grips will be created. 

After careful selection, each blank is split in half to ensure proper book end matching of the grain. Each blank is then planed to ensure level, flat and smooth surfaces. From there, each individual pair of blanks is patterned out with a goal of getting 5 to 6 panels out of one blank, and the the matching 5 to 6 panels out of that blank's matching half. Each pattern is then numbered and the number matched on the matching panel to ensure the best possible grain patterns on both sides of each grip. The rectangular panels are then cut out from the blank and are ready to be turned into grips. They are placed in the CNC machine and firmly held in place before the automation starts. After about 40 minutes of proprietary work, what were flat rectangular wood panels are now carved with the inside of perfectly shaped grips, grip stud locator holes drilled, pilot holes for escutcheons drilled, and the maker's mark and description all carved in. These are starting to take shape and are technically able to be fit on a gun. Well, at least technically, as the outside of each panel still needs to be carved. That's right, the making of these grips is a two step operation process, with the back side, or inside, of the grips being perfectly carved first, and then each panel being removed, flipped and installed into another jig for carving of the outside, or hand/grip side of the panel. Another 25 minutes of CNC machining and, with the cycle over, 4 flat panels have been turned into 2 sets of matching grip panels, complete with a perfect palm swell, and ready to be finished.

Now, while these are production grade grips, not hand made and hand fit, there is still a good bit of manual work involved once the grips come off the CNC machine. First, they are hand sanded and polished to remove any imperfections from the CNC machining, edges are sanded and hand fit to a frame, supplied by the manufacturer, and once finely sanded and polished to the frame, three coats of oil are applied in succession, with air drying in between each coat. An oil finish was specifically chosen for these grips because it's much easier for the user to repair minor damage to the surface finish. Bobby explained that anyone can head down to their local hardware store, buy a small container of stock oil, and quickly repair and blend any surface scratches with the oil and a Scotch-Brite pad.

Once the final coat applied and dried, escutcheons are pressed in and each panel gets hand buffed before final inspection, which includes a final fit-to-frame check, before being packaged up and shipped out to their final destination. All grips are scrutinized and inspected throughout the entire manufacturing process, sorted, and culled if they do not meet Bobby's high quality standards. In fact, Bobby showed me a small bin full of what he called "seconds" and I was unable to find any defects in them, until he pointed out some of the most minor imperfections. He was clear that he would not sell any grips that weren't perfect and exactly to his standards.

For now, Tyler Gun Works is supplying these custom Bear Hug grips to Smith & Wesson for their round butt K and N frame Mountain Gun double action revolvers and Magna style J-frame grips for the newly reintroduced Smith & Wesson model 36, and to Ruger for the Bisley John Taffin Perfect Packing Pistol single action revolvers. Bobby tells me that there are other models pending, but other than hinting at some special edition guns yet to be announced, he remained tight lipped on the details.

As grips and wood are not hand selected, some grips are definitely more striking and fancy than others; as such, it's the luck of the draw as to what will be on each gun, as the grips are shipped to S&W and Ruger for installation there, prior to shipment to distributors and on to customers from there.

Bobby is currently waiting for another CNC machine that should help double his capacity and get him caught up with the tremendous demand for the guns these are installed on. Be on the lookout at your local gun shop, as more of these guns should start showing up soon!

Matt Olivier

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