The cart ran from one end of the range to the other during the International Revolver Championship. It was piled seemingly full of people and shooting gear but it was not a courtesy shuttle provided by the match. No, it was for a specific group of people, shooters all named Hogue. In the Central California region, home to the San Luis Obispo Sportsmen's Association, the host range of the IRC, the Hogues are basically the patron saints of the shooting sports.

Pat Hogue tells the story of the family business as he works on a custom wood revolver grip. Photo by P. Erhardt

Barely a match takes place in that region that isn't supported by the Hogues. In fact, the shooting bays used for the IRC, as well as many other run-and-gun sports, are on a range named for the family, the Hogue Action Pistol Range, in recognition of their benefactor role in its construction. If the name Hogue sounds familiar, well, it should. Walk into any gun store in the country and you'll probably find rows of display pegboard filled with Hogue Grips. Like so many companies in the firearms industry there's an actual family behind that brand name that is synonymous with handgun grips. And, like so many of today's well known brands, Hogue started out as a one-man operation. It was in 1968 that Hogue got it start. Guy Hogue, who was with the LAPD at the time, began making custom grips for revolvers. They quickly became popular with his colleagues in the department and soon he had a local Los Angeles firearms dealer selling them as well. By 1970, when Guy retired from the LAPD, his grip business had taken off. He moved to Cambria, California, built a workshop and published his first brochure, further fueling demand for his custom wood grips. The mail-order business immediately exploded and Guy Hogue quickly reached full capacity. Everything was falling into place. Guy had a pension, a thriving new business, three young sons and a beautiful young wife. Pat Hogue, Guy's youngest son, recalls that his father "had the world." That changed abruptly when Pat's mom died in an electrical fire. Her death hit Guy very hard, Pat recalls, and that's when Guy's business started to become the family business as Pat's older brother Aaron started, at age 11, checkering grips for their father. Both Aaron and Pat, just like in any family enterprise, grew up in the business. However, it wasn't until 1985 when Pat graduated high school that the business we know today as Hogue really took off.

With Pat on board after high school, he and older brother Aaron expanded the Hogue business well beyond custom grips. Photo by P. Erhardt

Guy Hogue's business was that of an artisan. He was a craftsman of exceptional talent and could build most anything by hand. But carving grips for handguns by hand had it's limitations in terms of output, so to grow the business meant branching out beyond custom. Together, Aaron and Pat began to move the Hogue business towards non-wood grips and in the early 1980s began production molded grips. Their first grips were made from a rigid black nylon polymer and were primarily for revolvers. By 1985, Aaron and Pat turned their attention towards expanding into the semi-auto pistol grip aftermarket. Soon, the new production grips were finding their way into the retail channel through distributors such as Ellett Brothers and catalog retailer Brownells. As sales of the polymer grips climbed it was only a matter of time before one of the major manufacturers approached Hogue about becoming and OEM supplier. In 1987 it was revolver giant Smith & Wesson that became the company's first OEM customer. Colt, the other great wheelgun maker, soon followed. Today you can hardly find a major firearms maker that incorporates wood or rubber polymer grip plates on their handguns that doesn't source from Hogue. In addition to the standard production grips Hogue offered, manufacturers frequently turned to the Hogues to help design special custom-style grips to accent limited edition model runs. In recent years their efforts in unique, custom style grips have included pistol grips made from G10 as well as aluminum for both their OEM customers and the aftermarket. This straddling of the firearms market, supplying manufacturers as well as selling down the channel all the way to consumer direct, has allowed Hogue to weather many of the up and down sales cycles that have plagued other companies. Dealers are the first to see firearms sales slow down, and that feedback makes its way back through distributors to manufacturers. At Hogue, Aaron and Pat can see the slow down on a broader scale as material planners with manufacturers forecast slower production and curtail their OEM grip orders. Fortunately for Hogue, while manufacturers aren't ordering grips at the same rate as they were during the height of this most recent sales rush, firearms owners who are spending less on new models continue to spend on existing models. Frequently that means upgrading with a new grip. Over the years Hogue also expanded its business in other areas, branching out beyond just grips. They make rubber overmolded stocks for long guns, furniture accessories for the lucrative modern sporting rifle market, 10/22 stocks, a line of retention holsters, range bags, knives and even iPhone cases. The Hogue business remains a family business led by brothers Aaron and Pat with Neil and Matt, their respective sons, now working for the company. It is also a shooting family as evidenced by the large Hogue contingent competing at this year's IRC. It's their involvement in the shooting sports that keeps them tied directly to their customers, giving them unique insight into the needs of today's shooters. Though he admits he cannot prove it, Pat takes it on faith that their support for and involvement as competitors in ICORE, the Steel Challenge, the Bianchi Cup, 3-Gun competitions, USPSA shooting and even the Industry Masters, makes for a good return on investment.

The craftsmanship that Guy Hogue was famous for lives on at Hogue in the custom work of son Pat who takes particular pride in helping shooters with special needs. Photo by P. Erhardt

It also keeps them close to the company's original focus that Guy Hogue set back in 1970. And it is Pat that carries on the legacy of Guy's craftsmanship, often helping individual shooters. During my visit to Hogue, Pat proudly showed off a work in progress grip he was making for a shooter with only a thumb, index and middle finger on his strong hand. The shooter would be competing in the IRC and Pat was waiting to finish the grip with the shooter present to make sure he was getting the grip he wanted.

A work in progress, this roughed-out grip waits on Pat's bench for when he can work directly with the shooter to make it a truly custom grip. Photo by P. Erhardt

Pat likes helping shooters, especially those with unique challenges that only a custom grip can address. And these shooters usually find their way to Pat Hogue because nobody understands shooters and their grip like the Hogue family. They've built a company and a brand that shooters at every level know and trust. And what about that custom grip for the three-fingered gentleman? Pat's creation turned out so well that the shooter left it with him so Pat could make an identical grip for his other competition revolver. - Paul Erhardt, Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network Got shooting sports news? Send us an email at info@shootingwire.com.