The Ruger Redhawk is a DA/SA, large-frame revolver introduced in 1979 by Sturm, Ruger & Company.
Design and construction
The Redhawk was the first large-bore double-action revolver produced by Ruger, and was primarily designed by Harry Sefried, who previously worked for High Standard Manufacturing Company, where he designed the High Standard Sentinel revolver.
Introduced to consumers in 1980, the Redhawk was available in .44 Magnum caliber. It featured a square butt grip, adjustable sights, and 5.5- and 7.5-inch barrel lengths, and was available in blue or stainless steel finishes. The grip profile and solid frame of the Redhawk was similar to that of the Ruger Security-Six revolver. Nevertheless, the new Redhawk introduced some significant design changes.
Designed for long-term use with the heaviest .44 Magnum loads, the Redhawk included a new latch at the crane, so that the cylinder would be locked at front, rear, and bottom, a feature last seen in the Smith & Wesson's triple lock design, discontinued in 1915. Sefried himself observed that the triple lockup design "would last almost indefinitely". To simplify the design and cut the number of parts, the Redhawk used a single coil spring to power both hammer and trigger, resulting in a slightly heavier trigger pull in single action mode. Because of the single power spring, Redhawk revolvers typically show little disparity between single and double-action pull weights - often three pounds or less in variation.
The revolver has forward ramp sights with four different interchangeable sight inserts. The rear sights are fully adjustable, featuring a white outline. The Redhawk is available with scope mounts and rings.
The Redhawk holds six or eight cartridges depending upon caliber, and has been produced with 4-inch, 4.2-inch, 5.5-inch, and 7.5-inch barrels. When introduced in 1980, the Redhawk was offered only in .44 Magnum/.44 Special. Later on .41 Magnum, .357 Magnum/.38 Special, .45 Colt, and .45 ACP/.45 Colt were added to the lineup. Redhawks in .45 Colt (only) and .41 Magnum calibers were last produced in 2019.
Variants
In June 2015 Ruger announced a .45 Colt / .45 ACP dual caliber chambering for the Redhawk that incorporates a redesigned grip frame with round-butt grip. Ruger achieves this multi-cartridge functionality by partially machining the cylinder to allow use of thin-gauge moon clips for the rimless .45 ACP while still retaining enough cylinder surface for proper headspace of the rimmed .45 Colt cartridge.,
Usage
Despite the introduction of the Ruger Super Redhawk, the Redhawk remains in production today. Many shooters prefer the more compact frame of the Redhawk for hunting and self-protection, especially those who do not plan to use a scope.
The explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes carried a Redhawk on the 14-month-long Transglobe Expedition and used it to ward off a polar bear.
Production Issues and the Super Redhawk
During the mid-1980s, Ruger received reports of barrel failures in the Redhawk. The barrels of some Redhawk revolvers had separated at the junction between barrel and frame. The cause of the barrel separation was not known at the time, nor why it had not occurred before, since the Redhawk had been on the market since 1980. Ruger initially addressed the issue by introducing a new receiver design, lengthening the frame 2.5 inches past the cylinder face to the end of the ejector rod. The new design greatly increased barrel support. The extended frame also provided enough length to allow scope bases to be mounted on the frame, rather than the barrel mount required on scoped versions of the older Redhawk. This new design, dubbed the Ruger Super Redhawk also introduced a revised stub grip similar to that of the Ruger GP100 revolver.
It was later determined by Ruger engineers that the Redhawk barrel separations were the result of overtorquing threads on pre-lubricated barrels as they were being screwed to the frame, causing stress fractures. Ruger corrected this problem with revised assembly procedures. However, since the new Super Redhawk design was already complete, and because the original Redhawk remained in popular demand, the decision was made to retain both the Redhawk and the Super Redhawk in production.