I have an old Redhawk that does not have the intergral mounts. I found a gunsmith that tells me he can cut factory equavalent mounts in the barrel rail for $90. I would like to hear if anyone else has had this done and I also would like someone that has a factory Redhawk to give me an accurate measurement of the center to center ring spacing on the barrel top. In addition to the spacing, what is the distance from the frame/barrel joint to the center of the first mount.

Having 2 SRH's, I would rather buy Weigland mount and have the frame drilled and tapped than cut rails into the frame. JMHO

Or this:
http://www.jackweigand.com/Ruger-Redhawk-Scope-Mounts-No-Drill.html

Ya buddy, I really like that. But, it isn't my gun it is going on.

I want to be able to leave the iron sights in place and add or remove the scope while on a hunt.

I can tell you from person experience that if you take off your some and put it back on it will change your POI. I took the scope off my SRH with the SRH factory rings and put it back on and it changed the POI. maybe not more than 2in at 100, but it does change.

If you are OK with that than you are good to go. But I just don't want you to be disappointed.

Duane

I understand what you mean about the POI shift. I would probably re zero if I remounted the scope. The Redhawk is my primary belt gun for hunting but I want to be able to use the scope if needed as a backup for my T/C Contender while on a trip. Usually you are limited to 2 guns if you fly. If I was hunting scoped revolver only I would probably carry my scoped S&W 629.

Back to the original post - Can anyone provide the measurements?

Is the rib on the standard Redhawk fat enough for scope rings?

If you have a good smith, "I" would have him center the scope on the gun. In addition, you can simply set the rings up for a standard scope.

If I remember right, Ruger made a Hunter series for the Redhawk. Might be worth your time to call Ruger and ask them a few questions. They might be able to give you specks.

Here is a picture of a Hunter in the SBH

billa, I've got a Redhawk hunter.

I'm no machinist, but I have a set of calipers and can get you close. If close is good enough please let me know and I'll try to help.

The slot spacing is the same for the Redhawk Hunter and the Super Blackhawk Hunter, so if you can find someone with either of these variants....that doesn't presently have a scope installed, you should be able to get the correct measurements.

Personally if I were going to have someone start cutting on the barrel I would probably just have them drill and tap a couple of screw holes for a more conventional mount. IMHO the Redhawk and SBHHs have the scope mounted too far forward and it screws with the balance of the gun. On my SBHH I use one of the Weigand mounts to get my red dot farther back however if I needed to have any smithing done to make that happen, I would just D&T. It will be more secure and easier to get back to zero. If you really do need to pull the scope off, it will be only 3 more screws.

I like the balance better with the scope mounted on the frame. A Leupold dual-dovetail mount is all you need.

Darrell,

Thanks, if you can get me close that would be great. Perhaps the best way to get close with calipers is to mount the rings if you have them, measure the gap from the frame/barrel joint to the rear of the first ring, measure the width of each ring and measure the space between rings. With these numbers and a set of factory Ruger rings I can get very close. Thanks.

I appreciate the input on the various mounting options but the purpose of my post is very specific. I am mounting a scope on my 34 year old Redhawk without moving or removing the iron sights so that I can use it both with and without the scope without the need of a screwdriver, allen wrench or tools of any kind. I will accept the fact that I may need to rezero the scope when I remount it and that it is forward heavy with the barrel mount. I agree that over the cylinder is the best approach for "scope only" permanent mounting. I have several guns set up this way and I would take one of them with me if I could take 2 44 Magnums to Africa. Sadly I am only allowed 2 guns on the plane and the SA government says they must be of different calibers.

I know for a fact that there is 1-7/8" between the rings when set in their mounts. If I were going to have one done custom I would widen them out a bit to have more mounting options. Some red dot sights will not fit within the Ruger factory spacing.

Thanks for the information. I will consider your advice on the ring spacing.

billa, please pm me with your email address or cell phone # and I will send you some pics of the measurement points along with the measurements.

Here is the result of my Redhawk scope mounting project.
Ted Ulmer machined the top rib of my Redhawk to accept Ruger style rings. ($90) Ted does custom guns and likes to use the Ruger rings on quarter ribs etc. (Thanks again to Darrel H for the measurements.) I bought a Weigand Weaver style base instead of the Ruger rings so that I can mount my glass with Weaver quad rings that I already have. Everything mounts up great. It looks and feels very nice. The Weigand rail mount comes back over the frame allowing the scope to be mounted about 1.5" back farther than the Ruger rings. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and ideas. Here is Ted's contact information.

Ulmer's gunsmithing
Spring Mills, PA
814-364-9230
ulmgun@comcast.net

One more piece of advise. Do yourself a favor right now and have the roll pins in the Weigand base replaced with solid steel pins. I know of at least 3 guys on this board alone that have had the roll pins fail and allow the mount to shift under recoil. The failure also resulted in damaging the mount such that it needed to be replaced as well.

I believe that all of the failed mounts came from 44mag revolvers as well.

This is great advice -- I would be one of those who experienced this same failure.

If I had access to a machine shop I think I would prefer to ditch the round pin idea altogether and cut a slot for a woodruf key. The key would provide a larger bearing surface to distribute the load and prevent deformation of the softer aluminum rail.

Anybody have access to a mill and would be willing to try?

Great advice on the weak roll pins. Has anybody informed Jack Weigand about this?

Here is a trick that I have used at work for strengthening roll pins if you cannot get them out. On a 0.125" roll pin like this you can usually press a 0.062" pin into the center of the roll pin effectively doubling it's shear strength.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice and ideas. Looking forward to getting to the range and getting sighted in with my newly scoped Redhawk!

Yes I notified Weigand about this when it happened to mine.

What I got was a "we will replace the mount under warranty this one time only....", yet the new mount showed up with sold steel pins.

I think they know it is a problem, but probably don't get enough returns for it to be "worth their while" to fix the issue.

I really wish they would just extend the mount back to the rear sight and put a recoil lug there like they do on the 454 and 480 SRH mounts. That would solve the problem for sure.