BY: NICK JACOBELLIS
To this company’s credit, Talon Grips took the concept of improving handgun ergonomics for a wide variety of pistols to the next level. This was accomplished by applying a set of Talon Grips with an adhesive backings that are designed to fit on the grip portion of the frame on specific types of pistols. Even though a set of Talon Grips are very thin, this product is extremely effective in enhancing the gripping surface on a pistol. Talon Grips further took the concept of enhancing the ergonomics on a rather impressive number of pistols to the next level, when they developed Talon Pro Grips. The Talon Pro Grip provides legally armed individuals with a more textured/aggressive gripping surface, which can aid in maintaining control of a pistol under firing conditions. Failing to maintain the proper grip on a pistol can also cause what are known as “shooter-induced malfunctions.”
TALON SLIDE GRIPS
Rather than rest on their laurels, Talon also developed a product called Slide Grips. Anyone who has had the opportunity to handle and train with a wide variety of pistols knows that the slides on certain makes and models can be easier or somewhat more difficult to manually retract. DA/SA pistols come to mind right away, because in order to easily retract the slide on a DA/SA pistol, the operator needs to apply a bit more effort in order to override the position of a Double Action hammer. In contrast, once the hammer is cocked on an unloaded DA/SA pistol, the slide is easier to manually retract. Retracting the slide assembly on a pistol that is fitted with different types of “specialty triggers” can also take a bit more initial effort. This includes SIG DAK Triggers, DAO triggers and the Heckler & Koch LEM or Law Enforcement Module Trigger. This is the case because “specialty triggers” are a bit closer in pedigree to a DA/SA trigger, but are not equipped with an external hammer than can be manually cocked, to make it easier to retract the slide.
With one exception that I reference below, Single Action or S/A pistol slides are usually fairly easy to manually retract, once the hammer is placed in the cocked position. This factor makes retracting the slide on a S/A pistol, similar to the amount of effort that it takes to retract the slide on a DA/SA pistol, once the hammer is manually cocked. Naturally, this entire topic of discussion is also directly related to the strength that a particular individual has in their hands. A legally armed individual who has hands that have become weakened for any reason will generally have a more difficult time manually retracting the slide on some pistols over other specimens.
The ability to manually retract the slide on a pistol also involves the depth and relative design of the rear slide serrations. While it’s true that a new trend is emerging, which has certain pistols being manufactured with deeper cut and angled slide serrations, there are still a number of pistols on the market that are fitted with more traditional slide serrations. That said, even a pistol that has more aggressively designed slide serrations can benefit from the application of Talon Slide Grips.
One of the main reasons why it is critically important to be able to quickly and easily manually operate the slide on a pistol is to ensure your survival, if you experience a malfunction during a lawful use of deadly force situation. Should you ever find yourself in such a confrontation, you will need to be able to operate whatever pistol you are carrying with precision and without difficulty. Even when participating in firearms training, you won’t be able to hone your skills to perfection if you utilize a pistol that is difficult to manually operate.
Whether you suffer from any hand impairments to include painful arthritis, or you have what can best be described as weak hands, you can find the slides on certain pistols to be difficult to impossible to manually operate. This is nothing to be ashamed about, because this can happen to the best of us. After training with, carrying, and field testing numerous firearms over the span of several decades, I developed arthritis that makes it somewhat difficult to comfortably manually operate and shoot certain pistols. As a result, when I find products that make it possible to easily operate a wider variety of pistols, I will promote those products because they deserve to be promoted.
TALON TO THE RESCUE
One pistol design that has an outstanding reputation for reliability, which includes the rather famous 9mm CZ 75, is the 9mm IWI Jericho 941PSL. All it takes to become impressed with the Jericho 941PSL is to watch the IWI video on YouTube, which shows how these amazing pistols are able to endure a regime of torture testing, which includes complete submersion in water, sand, and mud. As someone who regretted the day that I sold my 9mm IWI Jericho 941PSL to my best friend, I recently found a number of these pistols in Good to Very Good Condition on sale, for the amazing price of $289 at SARCO INC. In fact, the IWI 941PSl that SARCO shipped to my FFL was in like-new condition. SARCO INC. is a Firearms and Parts Company in Pennsylvania with five-star customer service.
As amazing as these pistols are, I always found IWI Jericho and CZ 75 variants to have a very limited/narrow gripping surface on the rear of their slide assembly. If there was ever a pistol slide assembly that would benefit from a set of Talon Slide Grips it has to be the IWI 941 and the CZ 75. Even though Talon does not make products specifically for the 9mm IWI 941 PSL, Talon does make Slide Grips for other IWI 941 variants that work well on the 941PSL. Since the slides are basically the same on all IWI 941 pistols, I ordered a set for my new acquisition. Once installed, Talon Slide Grips made it considerably easier for me to manually retract the slide on my 9mm IWI 941 PSL. Mission accomplished.
One pistol that has a fairly heavy recoil spring (as far as I am concerned) is the 9mm Springfield Armory XDM 3.8. This is likely due to the rather robust recoil spring assembly on the XDM. Even though my 9mm XDM 3.8 that accommodates 19-round magazines is a flawlessly reliable pistol, it wasn’t until I field tested a 9mm Compact XDM 3.8, which was equipped with Talon Pro Grips and a set of Talon Slide Grips, that I became a HUGE FAN of Talon Slide Grips. Once I installed a set of Talon Slide Grips on my full-size XDM, the ease with which the slide on this pistol could be manually retracted went from being somewhat challenging to being no problem at all. As a result of this field test, my 9mm Springfield Armory XDM 3.8 with the full-size grip, my 9mm XDM Compact 3.8, and my 9mm Springfield Armory XD-S Sub Compact are all fitted with Talon Slide Grips. I also have Talon Pro Grips on my pair of 9mm XDM 3.8s.
It’s also no secret that the Springfield Armory Echelon series of 9mm pistols have what has to be THE MOST WELL DESIGNED SLIDE SERRATIONS on any pistol in current production. To date, I have field tested a Compact Echelon, which I ended up purchasing, as well as a Full Size Echelon with a Suppressor Ready Barrel, both pistols that were fitted with a set of Talon Pro Grips. I am also in the process of field testing a Full Size Echelon Comp Model and a Desert FDE colored 9mm Echelon Compact. The Echelon FDE Compact was “upgraded” with a Talon Rubber Moss colored Grip, because this pistol is being featured in an article for Concealed Carry Magazine, which addresses effective ways to improve the ergonomics of pistols.
As innovative and deeply cut as the slide serrations are on the Echelon series of pistols, I also plan to add Talon Slide Grips to my Compact Echelon. I plan to do so, because using Talon Slide Grips will make manually retracting the slide on my Echelon pistol even easier.
My Kahr Arms P9 also had its ergonomics elevated from being rated Very Good to Excellent, once I installed a set of Talon Pro Grips on this flawlessly reliable pistol. However, after decades of shooting and developing arthritis, I have come to find the slide on my lightweight Kahr P9 to be a tad heavy to easily manually retract. As a result, I recently installed a set of Talon Slide Grips on my Kahr Arms P9. Problem solved. I’ve trained with and carried my Kahr P9 so much that I also recently ordered another set of Talon Pro Grips to replace the set that is showing signs of wear.
My stainless Ruger SR1911 with the lightweight aluminum frame, which is chambered in .45 ACP caliber, is another pistol that benefited greatly by the installation of a set of Talon Slide Grips. If you are a fan of S/A 1911 pistols, you will be familiar with the fact that it is virtually impossible to find a full size Government Model 1911 chambered in .45 ACP caliber, that is fitted with a lightweight aluminum frame. The day I field tested a full-size Ruger SR1911 in 9mm and .45 ACP with alloy frames I was so impressed that I decided to purchase both pistols. As someone who has carried a full size government-issued 1911 in .45 ACP, as well as a few personally owned all-steel 1911s, I can attest to the advantage of carrying a lighter-weight Government Model like the Ruger SR1911, especially in hot desert T-shirt weather.
Despite all of the good things that I can say about the flawlessly reliable and very accurate lightweight Ruger SR1911s, the .45 ACP caliber model has the heaviest recoil spring that I have every encountered on a 1911. Once again, Talon came to the rescue by manufacturing Slide Grips for the Ruger SR1911 series of S/A pistols. Thanks to Talon Slide Grips, the slide assembly on my full-size Ruger SR1911 in .45 ACP with the lightweight aluminum frame is now much easier to manually retract.
The FDE colored 9mm AREX Delta M Gen 2 pistol that I evaluated for Concealed Carry Magazine turned out to be an amazing striker-fired performer, which also utilizes one of the heaviest recoil springs in the firearms industry. The use of an exceptionally heavy recoil spring required more effort on my behalf to manually cycle the slide on this pistol. Even though I was able to equip the 9mm AREX Delta M that I evaluated with a set of Talon Pro Grips, this pistol was another one of my personal favorites that would have benefited greatly from the installation of Talon Slide Grips. Unfortunately, Talon does not currently manufacture Slide Grips for the striker-fired AREX Delta lineup of pistols.
I am also in the process of field testing a TISAS Px9 Duty Comp Pistol, which has a slide assembly that would be a bit easier for me to manually retract if this pistol were equipped with a set of Talon Slide Grips. Unfortunately, as popular as Tisas pistols are, Talon does not yet offer Slide Grips or grip options for the Px9 series of firearms. Hopefully, this will change in the future. For the record, the Tisas Px9 Duty Comp is one of the most ergonomic pistols that I have field-tested to date. This is made possible, because the Tisas Px9 Duty Comp comes with a set of 27 interchangeable polymer grip panels and different-sized backstraps. After some experimentation, you can install the interchangeable grip panels and the right size backstrap that best accommodates your hand size. Doing so will turn your Tisas Px9 into an incredibly ergonomic Personal Defense Weapon (PDW).
The good news for people who utilize pistols like the Tisas Px9 Duty Comp and the AREX Delta Gen 2, is that Talon does sell individual sheets of material that can be used to enhance the gripping surface on a pistol slide, that Talon doesn’t currently make Slide Grips for. This can be easily achieved by cutting narrow strips of Talon material, so these adhesive-backed strips fit over the slide serrations on a pistol that could use some enhancement. I experimented with this concept by cutting slivers of Talon material and attaching these pieces of adhesive-backed Talon material to the slide serrations on one of my pistols. It worked and proved to be an “ad hoc” field expedient way to improve the ease in which allows the slide on a pistol to be more easily retracted. As a result, I plan to add some Talon material to the slide assembly on my Tisas PX9 Duty Comp, as well as on my 9mm AREX Delta M 2 Compact.
Even when a slide isn’t all that heavy to manually retract, I am sold on using Talon Slide Grips, because this product provides THE MAXIMUM level of ease of operation when one manually retracts the slide on a pistol. As referenced above, this could especially come in very handy during a use of deadly force situation, when time is of the essence and you need to reload a pistol or clear a stoppage, in order to effectively remain in the fight. Equipping pistols with Talon Grips, especially Pro Grips and with Talon Slide Grips, it can also make it possible to operate a pistol with wet, sweaty, bloody, or ice-cold hands, especially when operating outdoors in inclement weather. Talon Grips and Slide Grips can also help make it possible to operate a pistol more comfortably when you have hands that have weakened due to age or injury.
The bottom line: Thanks to Talon Grips and Talon Slide Grips, we’ve come a long way as far as dramatically improving handgun ergonomics and the ease with which a pistol slide assembly can be manually operated.
About the Author
Nick Jacobellis is a medically retired U.S. Customs Agent and a former NY police officer who was physically disabled in the line of duty while working undercover as a federal agent.
To date, the author has published 258 articles and 15 action-packed nonfiction books, historical military and police fiction books, and a fictional Christmas story. Controlled Delivery Books One and Two, The Frontline Fugitives Books I, II, III, and IV, Buck Banderas U.S. Marshal Books One, Two, and Three, A Special Kind of Hero, The K9 Academy – The Second Edition, Guns South, Tactical Survival 101, Area 55 and The Soldier Priest, and Santa’s Christmas Tree Convoy have received 4.5 and 5-star reviews and are available on Amazon.com (US) and (UK).
The author was born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, N.Y., and has a BS degree in Police Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.