Why Colt Chooses Premium Grips?

By Thomas

Pick up a Colt 1911, and your hand finds the wood before anything else. The frame and the slide are Colt. The part your palm actually wraps around, the rosewood, the checkering, the medallion under your thumb — that’s us. Colt works with Premium Grips as an OEM grip supplier. Not a copy. Not a knock-off. The real thing, built to Colt’s standard.

That word, OEM, gets thrown around loosely in this business. Here’s what it means for us: we build grips to the spec a brand like Colt will put their name behind, across their line, from the 1911 to the Python. There are a lot of grip makers out there. Meeting that bar is not the same as listing a product online.

The pattern Colt has run for over a century

Look at our Colt 1911 Rosewood Double Diamond grips and you’re looking at the double-diamond checkering Colt has used on factory 1911 wood grips since the early 1900s. Two smooth diamonds around each grip screw, framed by sharp cross-hatch checkering. It isn’t a trend. It’s the look that has said “Colt 1911” for more than a hundred years.

We build to that pattern because it earns its place. The smooth diamonds give your fingers a reference point. The checkering around them bites into your hand and holds, so the gun doesn’t shift under recoil. Form that happens to work, not form for its own sake.

What makes these right for a Colt?

A few things separate a grip Colt will stand behind from one that just looks the part in a photo.

The wood is laminated rosewood, not solid. Solid wood moves with heat and humidity. It can swell, shrink, and crack. Laminated rosewood stays dimensionally stable, so the panel that fits clean in your shop in January still fits clean in August. On a gun you carry, that matters.

The gold Colt medallion is pressed flush into each panel from behind. The logo detail sits raised enough to catch light from any angle, but it won’t snag a cleaning patch or work loose under holster wear. It’s set, not glued on top.

And the fit is cut for the gun, not adapted to it. Full-size 1911 frame, 3-1/16-inch screw spacing, with the ambi safety cut already there. It drops on.

Who these are for, and who they aren’t

Real talk: these are a presentation-grade grip. Rosewood and a gold medallion belong on a Colt you’re proud to hand someone — a dress carry gun, a range gun you like looking at, a Series 70 you’ve had for years, a gift, a collector piece. The gold reads warm and traditional, and it pairs best with blued, case-hardened, and two-tone Colts.

If you’re building a hard-use duty gun and you want maximum grip in the rain with sweaty hands, wood checkering is good but aggressive G10 is better. That’s an honest call, not a knock on the wood. Pick the grip for the job. For most Colt 1911s that spend their life at the range and in a nice holster, the rosewood is the one people reach for.

If gold isn’t your finish, the same grip comes with a blue, silver, or black medallion. Silver suits stainless and brushed steel. Black goes low-vis on a tactical build. Same wood, same fit — just match the medallion to your pistol.

Will they fit your Colt?

These are built for the standard full-size 1911 frame. That covers Colt Government, Commander, Series 70, Series 80, and M1991A1, plus Government-model clones from Kimber, Springfield, Ruger SR1911, S&W, Sig, Rock Island, and Taurus.

They do not fit compact and Officer-size 1911s, and they do not fit double-stack 2011 frames. If you’re running a compact Colt, you want a different panel — start with 1911 compact size Grips instead.

Quick way to be sure: measure center to center between your grip screw holes. 3-1/16 inches means full size, and these are your grips.

How to put them on your Colt 1911?

Swapping grips on a Colt 1911 takes about two minutes and one tool.

1. Make sure the gun is unloaded. Drop the magazine, lock the slide back, and check the chamber. Then check it again.
2. Back the four grip screws out with a properly fitted screwdriver. A hollow-ground gunsmith bit sits flat in the slot and won’t chew up the screw heads.
3. Lift the old panels off. On the left side, watch the safety plunger spring so it doesn’t launch across the bench.
4. Set the rosewood panels on and snug the screws evenly. Firm, not gorilla-tight. Over-torquing a wood grip is how you crack a panel or strip a bushing.

That’s it. It takes longer to read than to do.

Not just the 1911 — Colt’s revolvers too

When Colt brought the Python back, the grip had to live up to the name. Our black rosewood grips for the Colt Python and Anaconda are cut for the new-generation Python (2020) and the 2021 Anaconda, in black rosewood Dymond Wood with factory checkering.

These aren’t a flimsy slip-on set. Two stock pins hold the panels together on the inside for a tight, secure fit, and they ship in a gift box with the screw and installation pins included. New wood, not factory seconds. They fit the 3-inch, 4.25-inch, 6-inch, and 8-inch models, so whatever barrel length your Python or Anaconda wears, there’s a set cut for it.

A 1911 grip and a revolver grip are two different animals — different frame, different shape, different job. Building both to a standard Colt will stand behind is the whole point. That’s what an OEM supplier does.

Get the grips Colt builds with

You don’t have to settle for the grips that came on the gun, and you don’t have to gamble on a no-name set either. You can run rosewood built to the standard Colt works with.

Browse the full range of 1911 Grips by finish, or go straight to 1911 full size grips for your Government or Commander. Running a Colt revolver instead? Check the Colt Python grips. Want something one-of-a-kind for your Colt? Our Custom Gun Grips let you build a set that’s yours alone.

Colt trusted us to build to their standard. We’d be glad to build the grips for your 1911. The team at Premium Grips fits these every day, reach out if you want help matching the right set to your exact Colt.