Mammoth Ivory hardiness

I have had ivory on a couple of guns for a decade now. One of them (Ed Brown full size) has a few thousand rounds through it with the elephant on there. Call it 3500 rounds. I carry it also, in the winter months (today, for example).
I have no cracks or chips, and I have not soaked them in mineral oil, as I have seen suggested. I do use O-rings and I do wax them, as I do all my grips, with Renaissance Wax.
They are smooth if prepared smooth. I do not notice any "bite" or grippy texture on them. Certainly no more or less than smooth hardwood grips.
They are often very beautiful.
I have heard of them cracking and/or chipping from the abuse of daily carry. I expect this is a possibility if you are tough on your guns.

Thank you!

I've had excellent luck with solid ivory. Having said that, some of the cross-cut ivory I've owned was temperamental at best; I'm not a fan.

There was recently a thread in Mammoth Ivory failures on one handgun site or another. The maker backed them 100%, but attractive as they are, I wouldn't take the chance

I shoot Walrus and Mammoth on all my range guns. Boone Trading provides a breakage replacement lifetime warranty. I too avoided cross cut ivory.No worries on SK stuff to date as well.

I have both cross-cut ivory and mammoth tooth on multiple pistols. I've had no issues but I readily admit any one of them may crumble in my hand the next time I use them. So what? I think mammoth grips sitting in a drawer are kinda like teats on a boar hog .. useless! I don't worry about scratching a Yost or BEC or Reid or whomever, either, so why should I fret over $450 grips? Just my personal opinion .. to each his own.

Never had a gripping (purchase) issue, either.

The crumbling in the hand thing, not the money is the concern. No one sees my carry gun, no need for it to be pretty, just well cared for, accurate and reliable.

Ivory and the fossil have different characteristics. Do wish I'd bought Ivory for at least one 1911. 15 or 16 years ago I recall passing on a nice set at $225, of course, that bought a lot more back then.

That pic is soooo hard to look at. Like a dented Porsche 550.
I am super bummed about yours!
Is it possible that fossil may be slightly more delicate than elephant?

Squidsix said:

That pic is soooo hard to look at. Like a dented Porsche 550.
I am super bummed about yours!
Is it possible that fossil may be slightly more delicate than elephant?

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I think this incident was an outlier. Not a big deal. Bad stuff sometimes happens to good things. Any number of root causes may have contributed to the failure.

I still have mammoth and real ivories on other guns shoot those.

@Mike Stevens ,
Were these grips carbon fiber backed?? If so, it's not obvious to me how the backing broke with the ivory??? Sorry for the bad luck!

DRD said:

@Mike Stevens ,
Were these grips carbon fiber backed?? If so, it's not obvious to me how the backing broke with the ivory??? Sorry for the bad luck!

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Hey Sir,

They were not stabilized. I have not had any problems with any other Mammoth Grips or real Ivories for that matter. Hell, I've been known to crack a set of wood grips on 1911! If you shoot enough equipment including grips will fail.

Mike Stevens said:

Hell, I've been known to crack a set of wood grips on 1911!

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I could fill a book about "stuff I've broken", but I'll spare anyone the agony of listening to me! I'll tag you info about our next shoot soon!