I guess I'll share my RedHawk .45 Colt/.45ACP here.
I ordered it in June 2016, and received it in July. I took it with me on a trip to Arizona to visit a very good friend, who also happens to own and love many Ruger handguns. I knew he would appreciate it! The first thing I noticed upon taking the gun out of the box was that the rear sight blade was broken. :-/ It clearly had been broken before it was put in the box, because the broken piece was no where to be found, and the box was undamaged.
Shortly after I arrived in AZ, he suggested I "dry fire the hell out of it", so I did. After a lot of dry firing (I wasn't counting), I started to encounter some problems. First, the trigger was "dragging" on return, eventually it got to the point that I had to push it forward. My friend took it apart and polished some parts, and reassembled. It worked fine for a while, then the problems returned. Lather, rinse, repeat about 4 times. Eventually it got to the point that the gun would "lock up"; the trigger wouldn't go all the way to the rear, nor the cylinder fully rotate. Opening the cylinder would "unlock" it, but the problem persisted. It would lock up after no more than 50 trigger pulls, and sometimes much more quickly. My friend even took some of the parts out of his gun and installed them in mine, but the problems persisted. Mind you it had not yet even been fired.
So I called Ruger and arranged for a return. They emailed me a shipping label and I shipped it back. They sent it back to me a few weeks later. There was no written indication of the work done, but clearly the rear sight blade had been replaced, and I believe they replaced the entire trigger assembly. This one seems to fit the frame better (the line where they meet is much less noticeable than it had been previously).
So I finally got to shoot it! Ouch! Much like Yetiman, the top left corner of the wooden grip just drives into the 2nd joint of my thumb, and it hurts like hell. Mind you, I've shot the same ammo through my BlackHawk .45 Colt/.45 ACP without issue.
Yetiman said:
I have a Kodiak Backpacker with the rounded frame. The back corner at the top of the left panel bites my thumb just below the joint (which is the case with all the Redhawks I have tried with stock wood).
So, I decided to order a Tyler T-Grip. The idea was that the T-Grip would fill the space behind the trigger guard, pushing my hand further down the grip, so the grip wouldn't drive into my thumb. What a bad idea.... It took about two months for the T-Grip to show up. When it finally did, even though they list specifically for a RedHawk, it didn't fit. After about 2 hours with a Dremel, and it finally fits reasonably well. Unfortunately, it doesn't make much of a difference, if any. It still hurt to shoot it. $30 plus shipping wasted.
At this point, I was pretty desperate. I really want to like this gun! I did a lot of looking online for grips that would fit it and reduce/eliminate my problem. I couldn't find any grips that were made for it, and everything I read said that grips for "regular RedHawks" wouldn't fit it. I decided to buy a set & take my chances! I found a used set of Pachmyer Presentation grips on Ebay I was able to buy for about half of what I paid for the T-Grip, so the risk was minimal. I bought them and gave them to myself for a Christmas present.
They installed without a problem, and have pretty much eliminated my problem with the RedHawk. While there is certainly some recoil (I wouldn't say it's equal to or less than a .38 Special), it is MUCH more manageable than it was, and it also certainly doesn't hurt.
You may be asking why the Presentation grip specifically, here is my thinking. First of all, it eliminates the hard wood corner that caused the problem in the first place (duh). Secondly, it completely envelopes the entire grip, so you won't see that the grip frame doesn't meet the grip (leaves an unfilled gap where the grip is rounded). And finally, I had a set of "gripper" type grips on a .357 mag, and while they certainly helped, it was still uncomfortable when the steel grip frame pounded into the palm of my hand. This grip eliminates that as well. The ammo I'm shooting right now is basic .45 Colt and .45 ACP, so that probably wouldn't be an issue right now, but I may want to shoot some more powerful ammo later.
As an aside: I also bought a set of 3 reduced power main springs from Wolf, 12, 13 and 14-lbs. I have tried the 13 and 14-lb versions, and they both produced some failures to fire. So, I reinstalled the factory spring. If anyone wants them at a bargain price, send me a PM!