Well, got it on. Would have liked to have gotten it a little tighter, it wouldn't stretch much. (JimB I'm pretty sure this IS alligator after all. Either that or the ostrich it came from had a TERRIBLE skin condition!
) But it's snug enough and feels pretty good when I grip it, which is all I'm asking. Had to use a black lacing instead of the ivory tone I was planning-it was too thick.
May re-do it later on now that I've had a first shot at it.
I gave the grip two coats of satin poly, giving it a day between coats to dry. I never even had to steel wool it to blend the finishes, they blended perfectly on their own.
This was a pretty good learning experience for me. Making the change to the grip has made an automatic improvement in my grouping. I tried a set of three snap shots-starting with my bow pointing down come up to draw and fire all in one movement-no holding-and was able to put all three inside a small pie plate from 15 yds.
It is NOT that I'm a dead shot-some days I hit pretty much everywhere EXCEPT where I'm aiming-but it was quite a noticeably different shooting experience with the new grip. But then that was also because I was shooting with the OLD grip.
~*Hmmmm....maybe I AM a dead shot after all!*~ :eek:
Like I said, while for someone else the original grip might have been perfect, one size doesn't really fit all.
So for anyone else thinking of trying this, but are fearful of harming their bows-it's not brain surgery, ya can do it. Just take a little off at a time, you can always take more off, just don't try taking a lot off all at once. Ya can't put it back on if ya went too far-tiny bites.