Fitting an air pistol grip: size, angle, putty and the rules

Fitting an air pistol grip, in six points:

• Start from the largest size your hand can use, in the maker’s own sizing: Rink, Morini and Nill all size by the width of the hand, and Rink says to take the larger size when you fall between two.
• The hand sits as far into and up in the grip as it can, so that a straight line down the barrel continues down your arm; the pistol should point at the target by itself.
• The trigger finger touches nothing but the trigger, and reaches it; the second and third fingers do the gripping.
• Take wood away first, then fill: a rasp, sandpaper and a two-part filler, with the grip off the pistol.
• Keep to the rules: the wrist visibly free, no compressible material, no glue or resin, the horn on top of the hand no longer than 40 mm, and the pistol with its grip still in the measuring box.
• Then shoot with it for months before you change it again.

The ISSF Pistol Rules decide what a grip may be, and the national bodies take them over: Sweden’s SPSF prints in its handbook that its air-pistol class follows the ISSF rules, and Germany’s DSB, in its 2021 rulebook, adds only that thumb rests and finger grooves are allowed and the wrist must be completely free. The rule that the wrist must be visibly free is on the ISSF 10 m air pistol target page; the rest is here:

Beyond the hand

Neither the grip nor any part of the pistol may be extended or built so that it touches beyond the hand. No glue or resin to improve the contact between hand and pistol; chalk, talcum powder or magnesium is allowed. No bracelet, watch or wristband on the hand and arm that hold the pistol.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.1 a, ISSF Rule Book, Edition 2025 (Second Print 07/2026), effective 1 July 2026

Adjustable grips and materials

Adjustable grips are allowed if, once adjusted for your hand, they still keep to the rules; equipment control checks them at random. Compressible materials are not allowed.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.1 b

The heel rest

No part of the grip, frame or accessories may touch any part of the wrist. The heel rest must extend at an angle of not less than 90 degrees to the grip, in front, behind and at the sides; on the wrist’s side its end must be cut by an angle of 30 degrees or more, perpendicular to the end of the heel rest.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.5 c and d

The horn

The rear part of the frame or grip that rests on top of the hand between thumb and forefinger must not be longer than 40 mm, from where the grip first touches the top of the hand forward to the grip’s deepest part; from that point the back of the grip must angle upward by not less than 45 degrees to the barrel’s centre line.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.5 e

No encircling

From the deepest part of the grip backwards, the curve must go downward from the barrel’s centre line, never up to it or parallel with it, and the grip must not encircle the hand. Curved surfaces along the pistol’s length, heel and thumb rest included, are permitted.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.5 f and g

The measuring box

A 10 m air pistol with all accessories fitted, the grip included, must fit a box of 420 × 200 × 50 mm.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.5 and 8.12

25 m pistols

The same grip rules, with the horn no longer than 30 mm and a smaller box, 300 × 150 × 50 mm.ISSF Pistol Rules 8.4.1.6 and 8.12

The rules have changed, Pye notes, and some older grips no longer comply: the horn on one Rink grip in his article had to be cut down by 4 mm, which he calls easy to do. The makers warn too. Feinwerkbau’s P8X manual asks you to check the pistol against the ISSF measuring box after adjusting the grip, and Nill-Griffe says some of its XL grips for sport and standard pistols are over the ISSF measure.

A 3D-printed grip is judged by the same rows. The pistol rules say nothing about how a grip is made; what they forbid is compressible material, glue or resin, and a shape outside the drawing. The rifle rules, for comparison, name 3D-printed and lattice grips and allow them on a rifle only when they are not moulded to the hand, which is the opposite of what a pistol grip is for.

Three checks, with the pistol unloaded and checked, pellets out of the room and the muzzle in a safe direction. First the line: Szarenski wants a straight line down the barrel to continue down your arm, with the hand as far into and up in the grip as possible without grinding into the frame; TargetShooting Canada, a coaching site, seats the pistol deep into the web of the hand and calls the barrel a natural straight-line extension of the arm; Walther’s sheet on its grips says the barrel axis should run in a straight line into the arm, which you only get by gripping far enough behind the pistol. Pye’s version: the pistol should point at the target by itself.

Then the fingers. The trigger finger must not touch the grip at all, TargetShooting Canada says, and the gripping is done with the second and third fingers, in Pye’s words. His test is the sharpest: you should be able to shoot with every finger completely off the grip apart from the second, on a range and under its rules. Walther sets the grip’s volume so that the middle joint of the middle finger is roughly at a right angle to the barrel axis, and Szarenski wants the pressure to come straight back into the crotch of the hand and straight forward into the middle segments of the fingers. Where the finger goes on the trigger, and how it presses, is in Trigger control.

Then the contact. All parts of the grip should touch the hand and palm, Pye says, and Rink, a grip maker, wants the hand’s outline against the grip to be closed, the heel and the edge of the hand set in from behind at an angle. One sign that it does not fit: the US Army Marksmanship Unit’s pistol guide names fast fatigue and soreness of the shooting hand as usually the result of an incorrect grip. The same guide describes what a small hand runs into on a stock of the wrong size: a shooter whose trigger finger reaches the trigger only with its tip must compromise between pressing straight back and the position of the pistol in the hand that lines the sights up by itself. Whether the sights line up as the pistol comes up, and what to do when they do not, is the stance post’s.

The order matters: first take material away, then fill any hollows, Rink’s technique page says. Pye’s tools are a rasp with a flat and a curved side and a two-part wood filler; Szarenski’s wood removers are a Dremel, a file, sandpaper, a chisel or a rasp, and her filler is a two-part putty that, mixed in equal amounts, works like clay. A Dremel, Pye warns, may not take wood away very quickly. Removing wood or sanding is done with the grip off the pistol, and Szarenski puts on safety glasses for anything that sends wood chips or filler into the air.

Filling, in Pye’s method: to thicken the palm shelf, take the shelf off the grip, apply the filler in a thick layer and, once it is hard, rasp and file it down to the height and shape you want. For a shape taken from the hand itself, he has a helper hold the pistol aligned with the target, wets his hand so the filler does not stick, puts the hand into the grip and sights down the pistol, then rests it on a tripod or stand at the right height, aimed at the target, until the filler is hard. Unload and check the pistol first, with pellets out of the room and the muzzle in a safe direction.

Nothing is final. Filler comes back off, Szarenski says, and ground-off parts can be filled back in. Pye leaves a little room: the hand swells and shrinks with the temperature, so he gently cuts away the sharp edges that go into the creases of the hand. Whatever you add must set hard, since the rules allow no compressible material, and the finished grip has to fit the box.

The makers size a grip by the width of the hand — Rink measures it across the knuckles at the base of the fingers — and their letters do not line up. Rink’s sizes run in 5 mm steps from XXS at 75 mm up to XXL at 105 mm and up, with M from 90 mm; Morini gives M as 86 to 94 mm and XXL as over 105; Nill’s M is 80 to 90 mm and its standard size 85 to 95. So a Rink M, a Morini M and a Nill M are three different grips, and Morini says its measurements are indicative and may vary with the type of hand.

Rink sizes on five parameters: size, side, shape, angle and volume. A thicker volume is for long hands, which it defines against the middle finger (a normal hand is as wide as its middle finger is long); the sideways turn is 0 degrees for a normal hand and head position, so that the barrel axis points straight into the arm, and 7 degrees for a cross-dominant aiming eye or a short hand, to reach the trigger better. Unsure, you send a hand outline: the hand drawn round on a sheet of paper with two 10 cm reference lines on it, never a photocopy or a photo of the hand itself. Nill draws the outline on an A4 sheet with the forearm and hand flat and without pressure, then presses the heel of the hand down and draws it again, dashed.

An adjustable grip moves instead of being cut. Feinwerkbau’s P8X has a hand rest, a turn and a tilt, with the figures in the stance post, and its manual asks for a check against the ISSF measuring box afterwards. Walther’s LP500 comes as Regular in S to L and Slim in XXS to XL, adjusts its hand rest to the width of your hand, its lengthwise angle through about 10 degrees and, on its 5D grip, its volume without steps; the manual has you repeat the angle until the best personal one is found. Steyr’s evo 10 is offered with a choice of 13 grips and pivots its grip in all directions with screws under and behind the frame, with the grip off; its manual warns that at the largest offset the grip must not press against the housing when the bolt is tightened, or it may split. Pardini’s K12 has an anatomical, adjustable walnut grip in XS to L for the right hand and S to L for the left.

A custom grip is made to your hand: Rink fits grips in its own workshop and copies existing ones, Pardini makes custom grips or copies of a personalised grip on request, and Morini makes grips individually on request while saying plainly that it cannot guarantee a perfect fit for every person. One air pistol grip has been 3D-printed for an Olympic medallist: Athletics 3D scanned the original grip, altered it in CAD and printed prototypes for Céline Goberville, in a case study the printer’s maker, Zortrax, published and the reseller Additive-X reposted.

Whether to buy one is the older question. The USAMU’s guide says shaped, moulded or custom grips must fit perfectly, that they mainly help the shooter who cannot repeat the proper grip on a factory grip, and that only an experienced shooter knows what they need in one, because only they know what their proper grip looks and feels like. Pye recommends the standard walnut grip that comes with the pistol, because an expensive aftermarket grip will not fit your hand perfectly either unless it is made for you.

Firm, but not to the point where your hand starts to shake, TargetShooting Canada says, and once you have found a good pressure, keep it the same. Rink wants the fingers to press evenly, along the barrel axis, against the ball of the thumb, and the grip to sit the same way in the hand every time it is seated. How hard the coaching sources want the hold, and why a strong hand matters, is in How to hold a gun steady; seating the pistol the same way every shot is in One-handed pistol stance.

Never thoughtlessly change your grip, the USAMU’s guide says: a correct grip is a precious commodity, and the shooter who keeps changing it in the hope of chancing on the right one will generally lower their scores. Szarenski shoots with a new grip for several months before judging it. So fit it once, with the checks above, and then leave it alone while the hand learns it.

A changed grip can move the group, since the pistol now sits differently in the hand: read the card before you blame the grip or yourself, and be ready to adjust the sights. How to read a group is in Reading your shot groups. And if the pistol points off the target when you take your stance, the fault may not be in the grip at all but in the feet and the body angle, which are the stance post’s.

Can I use putty on an ISSF air pistol grip?

Yes, if it sets hard. The rules forbid compressible materials and any glue or resin that improves the contact between hand and pistol, and the finished grip must keep to the drawing and fit the measuring box; Pye and Szarenski fill with two-part wood filler or putty and rasp it to shape once hard. Equipment control checks adjusted grips at random.

Is a 3D-printed grip allowed?

The pistol rules say nothing about how a grip is made, so a printed grip is judged like a wooden one: no compressible material, no glue or resin, the wrist free, the horn no longer than 40 mm and the whole pistol in the box. The rifle rules name 3D-printed grips and allow them on a rifle only when not moulded to the hand; that rule is the rifle’s.

How do I measure my hand for a grip?

By its width: Rink, Morini and Nill all size a grip by the width of the hand, and Rink measures it across the knuckles at the base of the fingers; take the larger size when you fall between two. The makers’ letters differ by several millimetres, so use the maker’s own millimetre band, or send the hand outline they ask for.