How To Add Weight To Your Competition Pistol

Last year during the stay-at-home orders, some people decided to carry their COVID weight gain over to the guns in USPSA. Nowadays, everyone is wanting to get fat—well, heavier, it seems.

Adding weight to your gun, especially a polymer-framed gun, is nothing new when it comes to competitive shooting. Heavier can be better when it comes to managing recoil when you want to shoot faster. However, simply adding weight without regard to balancing the gun could have a detrimental effect on the gun and its performance. Sticking a lot of weight on the rail of a polymer-framed gun can affect its reliability, flexing the forward part of the frame, pulling it down and causing feeding issues.

There is also the need for a new holster to accommodate a weight or a flashlight, plus the added material of the accessory to draw and clear from the holster. Adding weight and balancing the gun out will give you the best result.

CH Precision, the go-to place for your optics plates for your guns, has introduced the “Speed Feed” for Glocks in three configurations. There are the EDC Aluminum and Polymer Models, and the Speed Feed Pro that comes in brass. These come in two frame sizes, G19 and G17. The brass “Pro” model was designed with competition in mind, for the added weight and to aid in reloads. The angle of the ramp is optimized to make it easy to hit that reload at speed. The brass adds 2.6 ounces of weight into the grip area of the gun when inserting it into the cavity of the frame. The weight comes with a set screw to hold it securely in place.

The added benefits here of the weight and smooth brass surface for speed reloads for your Glock are great. The added weight into the grip is noticeable when picking up the gun and shooting it. The design makes this “plug” legal in Carry Optics and Production. CHP continues to innovate products like their mounting plates for optics and have started to bring in other well-thought-out accessories for competition and everyday carry needs. Check out the company website to stay up to date with all the new offerings that they have coming this year.

One of the first companies to bring out accessories to add weight was Taylor Freelance with its Seattle Slug. It added a brass weight to your Glock pistol as well, but extended out of the grip frame, making it only legal in Open, Limited and L10 divisions. Now that there are other players in the polymer competition handgun market, Taylor Freelance has added some new ways to get heavy.

Two guns that have seen an uptick in use at matches are the Walther PPQ and new PDP models and the Canik TP9 models. These two striker-fired polymer handguns have a similar backstrap configuration, and Taylor Freelance has introduced both brass and aluminum backstrap inserts that replace the polymer factory units.

With a simple push out of the retention pin in the grip, remove the polymer factory insert, pop in the brass TF model and push the pin back in. You now have added 2.1 ounces of weight into the grip frame. You have also added an improved grip surface as well with the nicely executed checkering the Taylor Freelance insert has. These also work with the Taylor Freelance magwells. The brass inserts come in blue, black and of course standard brass color for the Walthers. Canik models add a red and tungsten grey color to their selections.

Also available are brass basepads for the Walther and Canik models. Taylor Freenlance offers extended pads that work for Carry Optics, adding additional rounds, and Production that are +0 but add weight to clear a mag faster during a reload. The +0 brass base pad adds 2.6 ounces and the extended version weighs in at 3.5 ounces.

Taylor Freelance has the brass basepads for several different manufacturers, including SIGs and Glocks. There are several other accessories available from TF, especially for the Canik.

Balancing out the weight you have added into your grip can be done with a heavier guide rod. There are several companies that offer stainless steel and tungsten guide rods for the popular polymer handguns. From the Walther web store, I bought their tungsten recoil assembly that works in both the PPQ and PDP models. This is a factory part that pops right in and adds 2.22 ounces over the standard piece.

My Walther Q5 Match Carry Optics gun weighed 30.6 ounces with optic and unloaded magazine. Adding the Taylor Freelance brass grip insert, brass basepad and the factory tungsten guide rod, and the same gun weighed in at 36.8 ounces, but was balanced out with guide rod and grip insert.

Article from the July/August 2021 issue of USPSA’s magazine. Photos by Jake Martens.