Questions on evaluating stag grips

[Oro]

Today I picked up an older 45 with some stag grips - of some species. I'm not expert on the grips enough to much more than that a) these are real, b) quite attractive.

The fit to the gun is excellent, but the grips are very asymmetric in order to get the best figuring from the pieces. You can see the left panel is pretty thin lower, and the right panel is overly thick. The feel of them is really relatively unaffected; we put a box through it today and with a proper grips it's immaterial.

I was wondering what they were, then I need to figure out what to do w/them. I actually really like the look of them on the light Parkerizing. Given the asymmetry, I imagine they are not terribly valuable? They are not signed anywhere in any fashion (I had them off the gun). Thus I might not be so disinclined to leave them on. The gun will see some "truck gun" and field carry in woods and stuff - openly carried where it can get a bit of whacks here and there. Sorry of the indoor pics; didn't get around to it before it got dark today.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[CraigC]

Those look like elk to me.

I'm pretty picky about this subject. I don't like referring to anything but Sambar stag antler as "stag". It's more dense, has deeper, darker bark and is more suitable for making grips. Only problem is that India was the biggest source of Sambar stag antler and they stopped exporting it because people weren't waiting for the deer to drop the antlers. So it's become prohibitively expensive and they've had to find substitutes. The most popular of which is American elk antler. They have to be real picky about elk antler to get the same effect. That said, I have two sets of elk antler grips by Sack Peterson that I really like and would like to have more.

 

[Oro]

Those look like elk to me.

I'm pretty picky about this subject.

Great, that's what I was looking for - someone knowledgeable/accurate. The left panel was more consistent with pictures I saw of elk, the right indeterminate but not as (I think I'm using the work correctly) "barky" as some Sambar stag I had seen. I gather "stag" can mean and male deer species including elk (and others), but may not be used that way typically here. If dating is possible, the best guess is from the mid 90s/ 25 years old. It appears the gun got some minor work when it was imported then, (crowned barrel, trigger job), but then was likely never shot again. I put more wear on it in 50 rds. yesterday than it has had in the prior 25 years since the arsenal refinish.