One of the many benefits of having a GBBR is that I am able to do things that are simply very difficult to do with an electric based Replica, Such as my TM Recoil. One of these things is to choose certain grips and accessories that simply wouldn’t allow the replica to work if I had to take into account the internal requirements for a gearbox, motor and  indeed the power source.

One of the most limiting factors for an AEG and to a lesser extent a PTW is the relatively small amount of  high quality and realistic pistol grips that can be used, Sure…  there are people  who are able to modify a whole host of real  grips for the PTW platform and there are also replicas of certain “Must Have” grips such as the Hogue Overmold and the ERGO Grip, which are very much a desirable item due to their association with specific firearms and units…

Its a silly thing to covet for purely  cosmetic reasons… When in game you’ll hardly ever see it as it’ll literally be within your hands, But fellow connoisseurs of the replica world will often pick up on the pistol grip before other, More “Replica Specific” details are even mentioned. In fact, Its probably because the part itself is often such an unobtainable item that we place such a focus on it. Every time I put  up a picture of my Recoil Mk18, no one cares that I  spent hours rewiring it to the front, tirelessly working to cut out a section of the bottom rail and sourcing specific lipos and connectors to ensure that I could have a Recoil based Mk18 with a CTR stock that adjusts freely (The .70 extended pad lipo mods have come  a long way but they’re far from perfect) and not resort to having a dummy PEQ housing a lipo. Icould have cheated… I could have gone the easy route and hidden the lipo in a dummy box or made the stock not function as it should but I have a very simple rule with anything I carry into a game…

So, without any more rambling… After a long period of watching Garand Thumb videos and being a fully paid up member of “The Church”, I decided to take the plunge and order an accessory that he, Amongst others highly praises.

Delivery took about a week through the accessories monopoly that is Brownells UK, And as a rough rule of thumb (No pun intended) you can usually expect to pay a £1/$1 rate on US domestic prices for small items, Often a lot more if its an expensive item in the US.

Once it arrived, I quickly swapped over the Tokyo Marui “A2” type grip with the BCM one. Not the most challenging of jobs, but worth noting that you must use the original TM bolt and nut (A Metric M4 standard  pitch thread) as the Americans haven’t  figured out how metric works yet and the grip (As with all AR15 pattern grips) is supplied with a 1/4″ imperial 1/28″ (Fine) thread bolt, Just make sure you include a  washer to help spread that load!

The grip does fit on without adjustment, Its tight but thats a good thing… it wont move. Also the grip as designed for real steel, does feature a recess for the selector spring and pin, Not needed on the TM GBBR as its held horizontally within the trigger housing but on the WE and possibly the GHK  (Anyone confirm this?) its going to save you a lot of aggro when fitting the grip.

The texture of the grip is tough but not aggressively so, similar to the fibre like pattern used by Magpul but a little bigger in scale, The front of the grip has horizontal micro ridges to keep your fingers locked in place and the back strap is noticeably kept “clean” to avoid blisters and discomfort when shooting a firearm equipped with this grip.

The profile of the grip is somewhat more vertical than the stock A2 type grip, the reason for this is that as shooting styles have progressed and the availability of body armour for almost anyone whose likely to field an AR15 type rifle means that a squared up “Plates front” shooting style is often preferred, With the shooters arms tucked down and out of the way  and the weapons stock in its closed state  and braced against either the armour itself or tight in the  shoulder, There are many schools of thought on this and many scenario specific ways to shoot, But it does mean that a conventional A2 type grip can lead to an un-natural canting of the wrist… uncomfortable for many and potentially leading to a loss in rapid  target acquisition and shot placement accuracy.

The rear of the grip  features a beavertail like that on the Mod 1 Gunfighter grip but differing from the Mod 1 and the Mod 0 BCM Grip, the section where it meets the trigger guard is a molded in section with a lip, this increases the comfort for the shooter and provides a little shelf for the index finger. I can confirm that this does not need shaving down to work with the  BCM trigger guard as its designed with a flat profile to the rear,  but its something that you might need to take into account if fitting with a Magpul guard or  other over-size guard. 

The grip also differs from its fore-bearers in that it flared down once past the index finger and wider throughout the main section, this wasn’t something that the original thinner grips were praised for… they often caused cramping and muscle pain after extended shooting sessions. I know from even playing with a Magpul MOE-K grip on my old 416, that its not comfortable to hold for a long time if you have medium or large hands, I can only imagine the additional pain once shooting centre-fire ammunition.

The bottom of the grip houses a hinged cover for the storage of  small items, easily big enough for a motor but I’ve yet to see one modded for airsoft. There is a passable alternative in the PTS Enhanced Polymer Grip (A very nice grip and confirmed to work with the TM Recoil series, See below pic) but I’m sure before long there will be a more direct copy made available for AEGs.

The compartment is reputedly watertight but that would depend on the top bolt  having an o-ring to ensure no ingress from the top. I’m using mine to store a few select hex keys and a spare CR2032 but you could easily store a number of items from CR123a cells to a complete survival kit (should you need to escape and evade from your man cave)

Overall I cant see much room for improvement in this grip, it’s comfortable, a reasonable price and all in all, A very nice grip and certainly one I’ll be using for the foreseeable future.