ReCover has given those with a non-railed 1911 an opportunity to run a standard light or laser with their CC3P grips that feature an integrated rail. When I heard that I was getting the ReCover Tactical grips in for review, I sighed and reluctantly accepted the assignment. Little did I know I was in for a bit of a surprise. Ever since the ReCover railed grips came to market, I chuckled at the idea among friends and dismissed it as neckbeardery of the highest order. I had no idea that I would be eating crow by the end of the range day.

The people over at ReCover sent us some of their more traditional rubber grips as well as the railed CC3P grips. Since I was a bit skeptical of the railed grips, I decided to start with the traditional grips. While I was over at my friend Joe’s shop, I asked to borrow a couple of his 1911s to see how the ReCover grips fit. We decided to mount the RG11 and RG15 grips on his new .22 LR 1911 since it came with some awful target grips.

An interesting feature of the RG11 and RG15 grips is the quick change mount base. While I don’t think it is something that I would use normally, it is a neat option for shooters who will be using the pistol for range use only. The idea is that the plastic base is screwed to the frame of the pistol, and the grips are stretched over the mount locking the mount base in place under the grips. If you decide you want to run another set of rubber grips, changing them is as easy as peeling the rubber portion off and replacing them with the desired set.

The grips are fully compatible with an ambi safety thanks to the cutout in the grip, good news for those southpaw shooters.

The RG11 grips feature a sort of zig zag, tiger stripe look. While not my taste visually, they did feel pretty good in the hand. I found that fitting the grips was a bit fiddly, but again, if you change your grips often it might be a good choice for you. 

The RG15 grips look a bit more traditional, and I quite liked how the raised ribs felt when shooting. Installing the grips was the only hitch, as I stated before getting the grips situated over the base is fiddly. The ridge around the hole that pins the grips to the base needs to be situated under the base to keep them in place; I found that it took a fair amount of pulling and massaging to get everything into place. 

The Remington R1 1911 that I was using to test the grips out thankfully was a non-railed model, and a prime candidate for the CC3P railed grips. Inside the package, you find the two halves of the grip shell, two black inserts, two gray inserts, a small bag of hardware and a hex wrench.

Installing the grips is pretty straight forward, the only thig different than installing standard grips is that you need to insert two screws and hex nuts into the holes at the bottom of the trigger guard and in the rail.  

The colored panels are a separate part so that you can decide if you want an accent color or if that part should match the rest of the ReCover grips.

Shooting the RG11 and RG15 grips felt just like a standard set of rubber 1911 grips. I enjoyed the ribbed RG15 much more than the striped RG11 grips, though. I felt as though I had a better grip on the pistol. 

Shooting the 1911 got pretty interesting when I installed the CC3P grips. I was blown away when I lined the sights up with the steel I was shooting at, I have never had a 1911 in my hands that felt anywhere near as modern as this. The ReCover grips not only added a rail, but it transformed the 1911 into a handgun that feels much more modern.

The grips that I once dismissed as being only for mall ninjas suddenly became an option that I seriously looked at. If you have one of these old 1911s and think you might want to add a light, it might be a solid option. 

At the end of the range day, I decided that the CC3P grips were rather praiseworthy and shouldn’t be dismissed as tactical doucery. I really liked them a lot much to my surprise; I wasn’t expecting them to have any merit at all. On an evening range outing, I mounted a Streamlight TLR-1 HL to the grips to see if they would hold up under fire and experienced no issues at all.

But how about the RG11 and RG15 grips? I cant say that I could give them as glowing of an endorsement as I can the railed model. I found the grips to squirm a bit after some sweat got under the grips and had issues with them sliding off a bit under heavy courses of fire.

The MSRP for the RG11/RG15 is $27.50 per pair on ReCover’s site, the CC3P has an MSRP of $54.95 and is available for purchase now at ReCover.