I am looking to hear opinions from those of you that have a 4.25" redhawk 45 colt/ 45acp. I am looking to get rid of my 454 alaskan for a woods bumming gun that can do it all,from light loads to heavy bear stoppers.

dave,

Welcome to HHM. I have one of those Redhawks and have fired 45 Colt and 45 ACP through it. Like the versatility. I have developed loads for my Blackhawk 45 Colt/45 ACP cylinder that shoot to the same point of impact. Therefore, sight adjustment is not necessary when switching ammo. Haven't had a chance to do that for the new Redhawk.

Doc

thanks for the feedback Doc, hoping that the choice to dump the alaskan is the right one- how did the redhawk group?

It grouped approx 2" 5 shots C-C at 25 yards off a sandbag rest with the 45 ACP load, military dupe (230 gr cast RN; HP-38, 5.7 grains, WLP primer, Star- brass) and approx 1.75", 45 Colt (255 Rem lead rn, AA#7, 14.8 grains, WLP primer, Magtech brass). Only issue is that I am cross dominant (left hand, right eye) and had to adjust the windage all the way to the left to zero. Haven't had to adjust that much with any other revolvers or pistols. Not sure if it me or the gun.

Doc

P. S. obviously you're not the Wendy's guy, right?

Doc

no not the wendy's guy- wendy got it all the spoiled little brat!

looked at the reviews and lookslike the colt loads shot much better than the acp. i dont know how much acp stuff i would shoot but have a bunch i could shoot in a pinch, if it grouped. not hunting grade but fine for paper or steel (trigger time)

Maybe the reason the Colt ammo shot better is the fact that most 45 ACP ammo has bullets that are .451 dia and the colt is .452dia. This is nice concept but I bought the Blackhawk and did not have the best luck. Si I handloaded some stuff. Better but not stellar results. I wanted one of the redhawks myself but did not hear or read enough good reviews.

Charles

Like you said about the Alaskan in 454 from light to heavy....
Just download it a little.

I think it's more to do with the significant amount of freebore in the 45 Colt chamber and that unsupported bullet slamming into the edge of the throat on it's way to the forcing cone. Convertible 45 single actions tend to have better accuracy as they have cylinders specifically made for the acp cartridge.

I have the 4 inch Redhawk 45 Colt, from before they offered it in 45 Colt/45 ACP so I cannot speak to the ACP side. I had the cylinder throats opened up to .4525 by the Cylindersmith before he retired. Prior to that it grouped cast bullets into about 3.5-4 inches at 25 yards. After he honed the throats and I fire lapped the barrel, it stacks them in one tight little 1-1.5 inch group out of a Ransom Rest at 25 yards.

The guns are tanks. They'll take some pretty heavy loads. I shoot 300 grain cast about 1100-1150 fps out of mine which all I really need from it.

I just got one of these, combination 62 birthday finished cancer treatment present to myself. Anyway, I love the way it handles and packs into my shoulder rig.

Still ringing out the "how does it shoot" stuff. I've been working on some practice loads, essentially slightly warm 45LC loads, far Trail Boss sucks with 250gr Laser Cast. Will try 10gr of 231 and see. I'd like to get around 1000fps so that there isn't too much POI between the plinking stuff and the serious 265 or 300 hammers.

As far as the 45ACP, well I've become obsessed with building my own shot shells out of 30-06 head stamp rifle brass, same size as 45ACP by the way, got'a love John Browning... I cut the rifle brass down to 1.2 inches, 45LC brass size, 6 gr 231, over card wad cut with 44 case, some #9 shot and over card set with caulk. Now these will fit into the Moon Clips but are FULL size shells, Could mix with some ACP too. I might try loading some ACP with 250gr cast as I am looking for a close range varmint squasher or "finisher" not a hunting or even defense load, have other guns for that sort of thing.

Would I recommend this beauty for a curser, well that's what I got mine for, Montana is bear country, the east has lots of snakes to scare the crap out of you during spring and summer fishing, this could be my "perfect" do it all. Hope springs eternal for a new gun doesn't it?

thanks, well its either a 45colt/45acp or the 44 mag - have to make the decision on which caliber. currently have a scoped srh .44 mag- if i get the redhawk in 44 i only have to carry ammo for one not separate ammo. still think i will stay with redhawk 4.25" bbl

Congratulations! I hope the prognosis is positive.

In your case the 44 might make better sense. I wouldn't put much stock in the "convertability" of the 45 Colt/45 ACP, but the 45 Colt is my favorite revolver chambering and would serve you well. To be honest the critters aren't likely to notice the difference, so the conveniece of ammo compatibility might trump all.

After what you went through Paul you deserve to gift yourself.

My Evil Priincess completed her treatment too. 2yrs. Later so far, so good.
Bought her a lovely SIG 9mm.
My big Boy revolvers are too much for her, as are my .45ACP 1911's
I have loaded some .45's. using" American Select " powder... Very clean , complete burn.
Jerry Miculek uses the same, as many rds. Can be fired , before the extractor star needs a cleaning,
Chambers, & bore , don't get too grimly.

Ok, so I got to the range with my Ruger 45LC/45ACP and shot it a lot. Developed a practice load I'm happy with and a serious load for walking around the woods with. Learned a bit and hopefully I have some insights that might prove useful to others who would purchase this particular firearm.

The Ruger "thing" with the iron sights: I've owned a few Ruger revolvers over the years in both double and single action weapons and have an observation. It appears to me that Ruger put the irons on their handguns according to what they, and in the case of 45LC their lawyers think should go on using only common "factory ammo". The 45/45ACP is a case in point. The front sight, though taller than the one on my 454 SRH, was still too low for anything except anemic "cowboy action" loads, well it does say "NO RELOADS" right? Shorter the barrel the worse the problem, I had a 4 and 5/8" SBH in 44mag that was fine with 240gr any bullet, but put 300 + stuff way too high to even adjust to. I was not impressed with the irons that came with the gun, OK, so I'm 62 and near-sighted, what did I expect?

I had the Ruger up-grade sights on my 454 so tried a switch, hum front sight not as high as original, now everything hits way too high. Now this is not a strictly "hunting rig" for me. It's a curser, walking around, pop a rabbit, maybe, blow the brains out of an aggressive bear, fox, coyote, badger, raccoon or snuff a snake with shot fun gun and defensives tool for the world in general. It's not going to do anything perfectly but will do damn near anything pretty well and 25 yards is going to circumscribe its world, 25yds is the target distance.

As such I really wanted to put an XS Big Dot Tritium sight set on this handgun; I have it on my RCR 357, really nice in the dark. Reason, a bear in camp at night is probably there to kill and eat you, not an option in my book. Talk about too high, 6 o'clock hold and rounds are hitting right at the top of the target!! Kitchen table gunsmith time, some file work, problem solved. (Will detail if anyone is interested) Everything is perfect, now.

So, the loads: As I had mentioned I wanted a load that was good with Laser Cast Silver bullets and fast enough so as not to have any significant difference between practice sight picture and serious hit it now sight picture. After a bit of work I found that 10.2gr of WW231 with and large pistol primer with a 250gr SWC Laser Cast did great. With that out of the way I had some 265gr LBTWFNGC's and some 300gr Hornady XTPs (NON_MAGNUM) to try out. 23gr of H-110, large pistol magnum primer did very well and the POI on both was close enough for my shooting skill. The Laser Cast clocked in at around 1050fps with a low teens SD. Both the 265gr and the 300gr were nice and smooth with 1250fps and the LBTs had a high single digit SD, what more could I ask. Yes, I could get more speed out of the 265gr and the 300gr, but I can actually control these and the Ruger is, for its cartridge "potential", a rather light platform for pushing stuff over 1200 fps.

Did I mention I was messing with making my own shot shells to work in the moon clips with the 45ACP rounds, let's just say it was a "learning experience" and move on to more .useful" information? Buy whatever 45ACP round you like or have on hand, none for me since I'm not an auto pistol guy at all. The POI at 25yds with the 45ACP rounds was well, what did I say about too short front sights, yeah, so the 45 ACP rounds shoot right on at like 5yds, which is probably where I'd actually have some theoretical use for them as finishing shots on something, or maybe if I wanted to carry the Ruger concealed the 45 ACP rounds would be excellent for that application. The regular 45LC shot shells are hell on snakes at snake distance so THAT problem is solved and done.

One last bit. Every Ruger I've ever owned and shot has ended up with after- market grips, Ruger factory grips may look cool but absolutely really, really suck in my hands. Bad, inconsistent grip equals crap accuracy and I have enough to struggle with as it is. TA-DA, factory grips are actually very nice, for me at least, a happy occurrence since the design of the handgun and to a certain extent its whole design purpose seems to indicate a reserved and compact style of grip that integrates into the whole, which it does beautifully in my opinion.

Oh, and yes the cancer prognosis is for 100% recovery, after a lot of work getting back in shape, lost nearly 40 pounds, unfortunately mostly muscle. Damn it is beautiful day today isn't it?

great info thanks so much.

Stay strong Paul.....

Indeed.