Carbon Fiber grips

[robertd]

Please be patient as I continue the learning curve. What is special about CF grips? Upon the advice of Maria, I've not removed mine but wonder if I should seeing the premium they seem to bring. I know in .22 rifles CF saves a lot of weight. Is that the point in the R9? Are they more or less durable?

[ccoorreeyy]

It's just that they are rare and look better to alot of people.  That includes myself!
Corey

[Richard S]

What Corey said.  

[PsychoSword]

They also grip better when your hands are wet. They should not have stopped making them, it was a poor decision that I believe was the result of bean counting.

[kjtrains]

Hey!  Keep your hands dry!!      

[yankee2500]

It's just that they are rare and look better to alot of people.  That includes myself!
Corey

That includes me also, but it doesn't take a lot to look better than the G-10s.
John

[slashsplat]

I lucked into buying pair.  They look really good in bright sunlight lots of colors and depth.  They also feel right, not cold like metal or plastic...

[DTM_39]

They were not discontinued due to bean counting.  They were discontinued due to availability.

[ccoorreeyy]

They were not discontinued due to bean counting.  They were discontinued due to availability.

I've heard that over and over but I just don't get it.  Everytime over the past couple years that I have searched for it I have been able to find CF for sale all over the internet.  It might not have been at the same price or from the same place that they had been getting it BUT it seems that from my googling the availability was there.  I use carbon fiber surveying poles in my business and i've had no trouble finding them.  I could be wrong.

[Richard S]

This Carbon Fiber News Update (© 2009) by TAP Plastics contains some interesting discussion on the issue of current CF supply:

http://www.tapplastics.com/info/carbonnews.php

[Corvette]

I've heard that over and over but I just don't get it.  Everytime over the past couple years that I have searched for it I have been able to find CF for sale all over the internet.  It might not have been at the same price or from the same place that they had been getting it BUT it seems that from my googling the availability was there.  I use carbon fiber surveying poles in my business and i've had no trouble finding them.  I could be wrong.

I've been an engineer in aerospace my entire career.
There are entire carbon fiber fuselages being built today.
I talked to a CF buyer at work recently and asked him about the availability of CF.
He said they are not having any difficulty in finding CF.
In fact, most aerospace sell CF scraps to dealers on line.
I'm confident I could locate a source for Rohrbaugh pretty quick

It's my guess that their reason for not building guns with, or selling CF grips is to preserve the "collectibility" value for their customers.  
People who own R9's with CF grips certainly don't want original CF grips to become readily available and lessen the value of their collectible gun.







 

[kjtrains]

This Carbon Fiber News Update (© 2009) by TAP Plastics contains some interesting discussion on the issue of current CF supply:

http://www.tapplastics.com/info/carbonnews.php

Good information!!      

[kjtrains]

I've been an engineer in aerospace my entire career.
There are entire carbon fiber fuselages being built today.
I talked to a CF buyer at work recently and asked him about the availability of CF.
He said they are not having any difficulty in finding CF.
In fact, most aerospace sell CF scraps to dealers on line.
I'm confident I could locate a source for Rohrbaugh pretty quick

It's my guess that their reason for not building guns with, or selling CF grips is to preserve the "collectibility" value for their customers.  
People who own R9's with CF grips certainly don't want original CF grips to become readily available and lessen the value of their collectible gun.

That does make sense.    

[DDGator]

As I recall, the reason for discontinuing the carbon fiber was price.  It was expensive to obtain, difficult to work with, and overall added a lot of cost to the gun.  I believe carbon fiber was originally chosen primarily for the aesthetics and uniqueness.

[slashsplat]

Seems out of character that this particular company would discontinue them to preserve the collector value of the initial ones.  They try very hard to release high quality and unique firearms, and the CF would be distinctive.

Few firearms are more appropriate for a CF grip than this one.

The price would have had to go sky high to discontinue them in a gun that could afford a $50 CF surcharge built in to cover the market scarcity.  I suspect that consistent quality was an issue, as sourcing from successive vendors is a nightmare with something whose primary characteristic is its appearance.