Welcome to the needle in the eye club. Don't worry you get used to it and it's not as bad as it sounds.
I've had one shot already and you're right, sounds worse than it is. The after effects are worse. Felt like sand in my eye and I had to drive home with one blurry eye that would not stop watering. Should be better next time.
Finally ordered some Pierce finger grips for my CCO. Looking forward to getting them on my gun. Hey Tim, do you recall if you had to trim those when you put them on your CCO, or did they just fit?
I did have to trim them and they were not as easy as most other guns I installed them on. The CCO grips are longer than normal grips were, so I had to remove a bit of material from the grip edge to get them to sit flat. Not hard, but tedious. A sharp Xacto knife is the key to getting this right. Once done, you'll love the feel.