Quiet hammer cocking

I just got my Ruger Rehawk .44 mag and am going to hunt whitetails this fall. Any whitetail in 100 yards is going to hear me cocking the hammer for SA. When I stage the trigger in DA it's almost silent. If I bring the hammer back with my finger on the trigger and ease it off for SA, it's very quiet as well but I don't want to cock it like that at the moment of truth. How do you guys get the hammer back without getting busted?

I cock my hammer when I see the game comming and place thumb between hammer and frame.Where I hunt the game is in most cases much less than a hundred yards when first spotted so I just cock slow.

The deer woods are full of sounds, I have never had a deer bolt from the click of the hammer. They may look around, but unless already on the alert from other details like scent or movement, they just go back to what they were doing. That said, if I have time I may cover the cylinder and frame with my off hand to help muffle the sound a bit. If you see one coming from a distance cock the hammer early and hold the gun in the ready position (with the booger picker off the bang switch).

Nice piece, BTW ;-)

Our deer are relaxed in bow season but by the time gun season rolls around they are on high alert. To get close I hunt deep woods trails and sometimes deer show up like ghosts. After some thought today I might try a wedge of rubber to put between the hammer and the frame and just leave it cocked while on stand.

It's got such a nice DA I may practice with that this summer.

Thanks for the replys

Cock with left hand around the cylinder BEHIND the front of the cylinder very slowly. This takes most of sound away. Do it with your hand in front of the cylinder and an AD will take your finger away.

I hunt some very high strung deer and to date, as s4s4u stated, have never had one spook from cocking. Although, I've had the sound of cocking stop one for a still shot. I typically cock while pulling back on trigger and hold cylinder as stated above.

"I" don't think a wedge on fully cocked gun is a good idey. 😁

I second this. And including elk.

I'm with the other Rod, I have yet to have a blacktail or elk bolt from the hammer cocking. If anything it's had the opposite effect by raising their curiosity.

Alright guys, you're all probably right on. I mostly bow hunt seeing the season is so long here and I have found deer run at the second unnatural sound they hear. The first just stops them. With a 250fps arrow though you don't want them alert and ducking. With a 1400fps bullet that would not be an issue.

Sweet Gun! Single or Double action works for me. about 3/4 of the way through the double action travel the curve flattens out and will feel like single action let off if done slowly. With practice you will notice that your index finger touches the trigger guard at this point in travel. You could choose to cock the hammer at this point and go single action mode. I don't like the idea of fingers on the cylinder when the gun is about to fire and the wedge idea scares me. The Redhawk is one of my favorites so I am obviously prejudice. Not much going to get away from a .44 Redhawk in the right hands. The deer in 100 yd range are in deep doodoo. A versatile rugged easily portable hunting machine!

Several years ago when I was just starting to deer hunt with a revolver I wondered if I would spook a deer by cocking the hammer with the deer too close. I was cocking the hammer just as soon as I saw a deer and placing my thumb between the hammer and the transfer bar like others have talked about.

One morning I shot a doe at about 11 yards. She dropped in her tracks. A few minutes later a five point buck can along trailing her. When he saw her he tried several times to get her up and mount her to no avail. This went on for several minutes with the buck starting to leave and turning around again and starting the process of trying to get her up again. He even took his front huff and struck he in the ribcage trying to get her up.

After watching this for several minutes I thought that this would be a good time to see if the deer would spook if I cocked my Redhawk while he was standing at about 15 yards. When I cocked the revolver he just about turned inside out and ran about 15 yards but then stopped and looked back as if to say what was that. I new then that I could not let a deer get too close before cocking my revolver because a mature buck would not stop before putting more distance between us.

One other tip if the deer is close and you can get the gun up into firing position before cocking the gun so you don't alert the deer with clicks and then try to move. They will hear it if it's quiet but you don't want them to key into your position from the sound. When they spook its because they saw you not because of the sound from my exp.

I can stage the DA silently sitting in my recliner but will have to practice that with live ammo when we climb out of this -20F weather. I guess the bottom line is we don't know how a deer is going to react on a particular day to a metallic click.

The wood grips were a bit brutal to my knuckle so I put these Pachmayr Presentations on as well as a HiViz front sight. It's like a totally different gun in a good way. This grip fills my size 10 1/2" hand perfectly and the sight is like glowing kriptonite. No optics yet but I do have the Ruger rings just in case.

Beautiful Gun.

Using the process mentioned above I can now cock my Redhawk fairly quite. Does the process work with a GP100 and a Blackhawk?

It will work with anything but you have to be careful that you keep your hand and fingers away from the barrel cylinder gap or as stated above, you may seriously injure yourself. There are a few gunwriters out there that are missing some length on their digits. I definitely drop my thumb in to block the hammer until it's fully cocked.

Thanks for the info.

I've hunted and killed whitetails with my Ruger Bisley SH in .44 mag. and not had deer react to the hammer cocking sound. That also goes for deer I've killed within 50 yards with a muzzleloader or a lever action which both also require cocking the hammer back. All make some noise. Just do it slowly and choose the time when the deer is in view and not too close and/or is the least alert. Nice looking gun. Good luck on your hunt!