what does "stippling" do?

1riot1ranger said:
I'm torn on this issue... I keep thinking "what if I try to sell this thing?"
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If you decide to sell it, there will definitely be a smaller market for the stippled gun, and you'd probably have to offer a discount of some sort (though not necessarily if you did a great stipple job). Unless it was actually ruined (fairly difficult to do just by stippling, btw), I'll buy a stippled Glock or M&P and re-stipple it to my preference. That's one nice thing that plastic frames allow and steel frames do not. I'd guess at a $50-$100 discount on resale for a stippled gun, depending on the quality of your work. Considering how the other costs of shooting stack up, that's really not a significant cost. Plastic guns simply do not have the same long-term value that steel guns do: If you messed up a checkering job on a quality 1911, the cost would be much, much greater.

Regardless, I don't buy my guns for the consideration of the next user. Especially my primary high-mileage sidearm. Once I know it's going to be part of my kit, all bets are off. If resale is a primary concern, or if you're worried about the appearance of your guns, then you'd rightly be cautious about stippling.
 
plinker 777 said:
I believe stippling became popular when early generation Glock's had a grip that could be improved by doing this...
Stippling was copied off the texturing some smiths where doing to metal guns (1911 and BHP's), it was a way to add usable texture to poylmer guns that can be very slick.

Glock eventually responded to what the market (or a percentage of) was doing with their product by introducing the RTF models. I've never held an RTF, but apparently the texture was he11 on clothes for our southern cousins that carry. Glock responded again with the Gen 4 and a new texture, which is a compromise (toned down RTF). I actually like the texture on my G17, if I owned an earlier Gen model I might stipple it...not worth much anyhow.
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I still find the RTF Glocks not to do great when covered in oil, sweat or blood --

I'm a stippler, so I do it to all the guns that I can.
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Mags take a solid 45-60 min to do. This is one of my favorite items to stipple, I have @ 40 (5.56)p-mags 10 of each color all stippled.
 
I'd do it on my glock if i could stay in IPSC production, that why I use Grip tape, but i need to change it once in awhile. If i could carry, i'd defenetly do it. Ad a lot of Grip and personalyse your gun, as for being ugly, a Glock is'nt a beauty queen to start with.
 
it makes your pistol look bad ass.

my hands are rough as hell so i prefer stippling to tape as i feel it can be more aggressive. it will not wear like tape, nor will it start coming off halfway through a match on a super hot day when it gets a bit old. my sti edge is stippled and i love it. i also have steel guns that have tape, and its still pretty good.

i have seen one salient glock in the lower mainland and it felt so nice in my hands, i believe it is even a bit slimmer. the guy said it was like 4g or something tho...
 
what does stippling do--- decreases resale value on your gun. look how long most guns sit on the ee that have this done. Ruins a good pistol etc IMO
 
I just spent about 1.5hrs stippling my new M&P Shield. My wife has one, and she put grip tape on it - but I still find the small gun rocks in my hand.
Mine is a back-up gun, I was originally going to use my M&PC as my BUG, but it's virtually impossible to put anywhere. However if I need a BUG, it's been a really bad day, and I need to qual with it with both strong and weak hand - and without the stippling it jumped to much to make the qual times.

I'd have prefered to run the 9C as it can use the same mags - but my other option was a 5 shot JFrame, and so the 7+1 Shield won.

I get in Canada for personal guns stippling may not be a need, and most LE/MIL entities would #### a blue money if you stippled a work gun. However in the US with CCW, and a lot of departments authorizing personal guns stippling makes a great deal of sense.

Shoot a gun with it covered in blood - and see how hard it is to grip properly --
Me, I aim to deal with stuff in the worst possible environments, so if stuff really goes bad, that I am not even further behind the power curve than I would have been without.

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In most cases its simply "tacti-cool" . In situations where an enhanced grip IS operationally required - skateboard tape "does the trick" faster and cheaper and is easily replaced or removed. BUT its not "cool" except when function is a higher priority than "looks". All my competition 1911's are hand checkered with 20 lpi frontstraps. Lotta tedious work but best results.
 
I tried the Grip tape route, it works but like Kevin pointed out, solvents, excessive moisture, and regular wear will kill it.
I took the plunge on my M&P on the stippling with soldering iron in a "tree bark" pattern. I don't care what my handgun looks like, rather how it performs. For those that say they don't see the point, I guess you either have hands like sand paper to begin with or have never shot in the rain or wet snow. My gun is soooo grippy, I sometimes have to shake it off at the end of the day!
 
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