Thanks Apoc. I think I know what you mean about the contour line.
Right now I've done practiacly nothing with the grip, it's nothing but a box with meshsmooth and FFD x4 thingy. Simply for the purpose of size & proportion. It's not even an editably poly yet, still just a primative.

I had thought about the recoil but I hoped that would simply go unnoticed! lol

Right now I'm thinking some of these problems would be aided by making the top section larger, closer to the size of the bottom section.

the sight is a bit more tricky, I'll have to play with that a bit.