I'm Done - No more - Absolutely Done! Argggg...

To be fair, I have never shot the Super Redhawk but have handled a few of them. The Redhawk I shot was the early model with the smallish wooden grips which were a bit wide at the top and bit the base of my thumb and index finger quite painfully (I am 6'1" and have big mitts). My S&W wears rubber Pachmayr grips which cover the backstrap and absorb some of the recoil. I fully appreciate having to work through a 'money manager'! We are lucky down here in that we don't have anything that will eat you when out hunting! Mind you, some of our sandflies can get fairly carnivorous! Good luck on your trips and I am sure the Super Redhawk will do the business if required.

I love my S&W 29 with target and full loads. But the 27 is like a mean, purrying cat. That one stole my spoiled heart. I only shot one Ruger in .357M and liked it. but once you fall into classic S&W fever, I guess it’s difficult to be healed again...

Back in the '80's when my brother and I first started acquiring guns and shooting, we picked up a Ruger Blackhawk in .30 Carbine, with if memory serves me something like a 7" barrel, maybe 7 1/2". There not being any much .30 carbine ammo around, we got a box of Gecko which as we found out is loaded fairly hot. We used to go to an indoor range in Saskatoon in the winter, so went there one night with a few other pistols to try out as well. It was a typical indoor range with the cable return target standards, and angled steel baffles on the ceiling with fluorescent lights and some ceiling tiles above. We fired a couple of rounds and were quite impressed with the seemingly 2' muzzle flash which it produced and the pretty skookum recoil too. The range officer was intrigued and asked if he could try it so we said sure, why not. I told him it seemed to be hitting rather high. He lined up on the target about 20 yards down the line and NAILED the steel stanchion of the standard dead on, right on the angled part that welds the top of the horizontal target frame to the suspension post. He bent it. The bullet, having hit this 45 degree metal, scooted up and then arced upwards, angling between two of the ceiling baffles and taking out two light bulbs and tearing some chunks out of the ceiling tiles. I still remember the look on my brother's and the range officer's (and probably my) faces. The RO was frozen with the pistol pointed straight up at the ceiling where it had recoiled, and we were all staring at the mayhem down the range. The target standard was dancing back and forth and up and down like some possessed thing in a horror movie, the middle part of the range was dark, and everything was raining dust, pieces of foam ceiling tile, glass from the bulbs, and that stuff that comes out of dead light tubes. About 4 seconds later there was a clink clink as the ends of the light bulbs fell out of the fixture (which was trashed) and landed on the floor on top of everything else. The RO cleared his throat and said, "interesting gun", put it down and went to get a broom. I think my brother sold that revolver a couple of months later. At that time, there wasn't any internet to look things up, and no local commercial .30 carbine, just this surplus Gecko stuff. Now I know we could have gotten that pistol to be much tamer with different ammo but it was like a bloody flamethrower with that stuff.

Totally off topic. Sorry. Rugers are nice pistols.

Ed

That stuff out of neon tubes avoid like the plague its bad as for ya. I put Pachmyer grips on my Super Redhawk and like Woodsy have gorrilla mits with a very good grip strength in each hand I just found the thing fun to shoot so here is another story.
As we were comp shooting the range had a load power factor of X amount which was stringently observed however some times a few of us well most of us snuck down on days when not in use to try things. Using Ball ammo as well as FMJ's was prohibited at all times but the Police used the range as well for their qualify sessions and to be blunt were a constant thorn for shootng up the range with ball ammo like they were so inaccurate. Anyway I snuck down this day wth the Redhawk with Hornady Factory loads and was having a fat time dusting things always pick up your plastic bottles and take them away of course. So the little devil inside of me decided to see how fast I could knock the plates down with factory so I got back to 15 yards loaded up the cyclinder with Hornady's sighted the first Rt hand plate and let drive. When all had settled I had hit the plate that was designed for lead only projies dead center with a factory FMJ but such was the force exerted on that plate it tore the welds from the reset arm and the plate was some 5 yards away on the deck.....Oooo-er a quick scamble to unload the pistol pack up and flee the scene happened, upon returning to a practice day that weekend a small crowd was down at the plates looking at the carnage I had created an easy reweld but just inconvenient at the time. There were mutterings of those Bl**dy Coppers and ball ammo going around but I stayed deathly silent and just assisted grinding the old welds out and never told a soul until now that was in 1990...............:eek:

LOL Fantastic stories! boltaction and cinders Thank you for telling them..

I had a Super Redhawk in .480 Ruger, rubber Pachmayar grips. That sucker started to sting after 5 rounds, carpal tunnel and arthritis don't go well together with heavy recoil.
I sold it a few years later and gave up thinking of getting a BFR in 45-70. Many of my friends don't even want to shoot my.45 colt BP in my Snakeslayer.

I did manage a few years ago to fire a Desert Eagle 50 AE and Vaquero in 50 cal and a 500 S & W the first two were ok but that 500 S & W sure made the hand tingle and it was an inside range my young son (14) was having a go at a 1911 45ACP one booth away every time I fire the 500 he just about jumped out of his skin LOL the muzzle flash was quite extensive if you get the chance have a crack at a 500 with factory they are certainly grip testers:madsmile:

I bet they are;-D

Back in 1988, my friend and Editor of Guns Illustrated, Harold Murtz asked me to help test two Ruger Redhawk revolvers in 44 magnum. Harold had found a company called Delta Vector Inc that offered a process called Techni-Port where the muzzle was back bored and two oval ports cut under the front sight. Harold sent a new Redhawk with 7 1/2 inch barrel to this company which then back-bored the muzzle and cut two oval ports .490 x .245 inches. We tested the two Redhawks one with the ports and the other standard factory.

In the photos, you can see me firing the standard Redhawk on the left and the ported Redhawk on the right, Harold claimed there was a 30% to 40% reduction.Attachment 105284Attachment 105285Attachment 105286

I had a desert eagle in .44 mag and found it completely shootable with handloads. If I used one grain more powder it was like taking a mini shotgun blast in the face from the extra unburned powder, one less and the action wouldn't lock back. As it was it was enjoyable. I also missed a chance to buy a M 29 S&W four inch with magna port barrel. It had been done so it stayed flat when you shot and there was little muzzle rise on firing. Nice trigger so it could be DA fired easily too... All of those are past now as my arthritis has hold of me as well.