The grips were made from salvaged plane material. I've seen plexiglass on Hi Powers, CZs, a Luger or two. Our guys used plexiglass on 1911s alot too, they'd stick photos of their family or girlfriends under the clear grips. Google image search "sweetheart grips" and you'll see what I mean. It's in the same ballpark as trench art- some guys think it's a neat field modification, the hardcore purists will gripe about it. Where do you think I fall?
I've actually been having some problems with this gun. When I first reported on how it fired, I just dumped 5 or 6 rounds out in the yard just to get the feel for it, and make sure it would function and not blow up. Everything seemed to work fine.
I took it out to the range to really spend some time with it, it was a disaster. It suffered every malfunction known to man- stovepipes, failures to eject & extract, double feeds. I couldn't get through a magazine without clearing 7+ failures. I had multiple brands and weights of 9mm on hand so I was near 100% certain I couldn't blame the ammo- the gun would not eat any of it. So I cussed out my buddy under my breath and bagged it for the day.
Once I got it home I started diagnosing it, Travis & I were talking about it earlier. The ejector looks fine. The extractor looks normal. I don't think they need replacing. So I attacked my suspected main culprit: I polished the feed ramp and chamber.
When I got it back out, I burned through about 80 rounds, and had about 6 failures to feed. But I was pleased, ecstatic in fact. I went from a failure 60+% of the time to less than 10%. My shooting partner made a comment that at first I scoffed at but he might be onto something- he said I was just breaking it in. Seems weird for a 70-yr old pistol but if it just sat for decades, perhaps it did need a warmup.
I'm going to hit it with the polish again. If I still get failures, a new mag and action springs might be in order. My buddy who gave me the gun called me up to see how I was enjoying it. I called it a piece of Eurotrash Nazi junk and him a scumbag for dumping a headache on me. He offered to undo the trade but I wouldn't do that. I know I can get this thing running right. And when it works, this is a sweet little shooter- slick, very accurate, comfortable. I'm very happy with it. And I can't wait to test my hand at 500 yard pistol shooting.