All of my SAs have been Rugers so far and had the smooth wooden grips, shot Modern or traditional, never a problem, but I have big hands and have no problem controlling recoil at cowboy power level (mind you, I'm not that competitive, so I ain't noticing split seconds I suppose
).
My current guns are RNMVs and have the standard checkered gutta percha clone grips. They are ok as well.
I am about to start shooting classic cowboy and the clones I bought have checkered grips. They are in 44WCF and I intend to use healthy loads ( I always do, personal thing more realistic for me) and I will be converting to full power BP loads in the near future.
Shooting duellist would work better with smooth grips, I'm thinking. I have a spare clone with smooth grips, I will swap and change and find out which ones work best I suppose.
I was also thinking of making some smooth one piece grips from some real dense heavy Aussie hardwood to put some more weight in the grips, but this is project no: 24675, so it will be a while before I get around to it I suppose.