Restore Ruger Redhawk

[mcinturff]

A friend of mine gave me a frozen up Ruger Redhawk. I bead blasted it and partially disassembled it. The pin holding the lower trigger assembly is frozen so I will leave it in Kroil for at least a week and give it another go. My question is what should I do about the surface pitting?

Options seem to be draw filing and bluing or electroplating with copper followed by nickel to fill the pits. I am unfamiliar with the original stainless finish, was this plated as well?

 

[Rafsob]

What a mess!!! Not sure about the finish, but it was more then likely a bright stainless. Did you call Ruger up to see what they can do for it? good luck and get back with all of us when you get done. With photos of course!!

 

[hittman]

"frozen up"? :shock:

You ain't a kidding! Frozen up or through a fire or laid in saltwater?? Wow ~ think I too might call Ruger.

 

[mcinturff]

It had been laying around in limestone and got eaten up, at least it's salvageable. I'll send pics to ruger and see what they think. Hopefully the bore is good, I haven't had a decent light or time to get a good look at it.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I wouldn't worry about the finish until you get the gun working. It will probably need quite a few parts (little springs and plungers and such) at the very least. The original finish was probably a brushed stainless finish that can be duplicated with a Scotch Bright pad. If you get an FFL to send the gun to Ruger by USPS they will probably offer to replace the gun at a discount, if they have any.

 

[BMW Rider]

Quite the project! It is hard to tell from the first picture, but was that cylinder fully loaded when you first got it? :shock:

 

[mcinturff]

It had 5 empty rounds and the one that is "chambered" was still loaded, though probably not good anymore. Made me a little nervous working it in that condition hahaha. I just contacted Ruger and eagerly await their reply.

 

[Arisin' Wind]

So what is the story? How did it get in such shape?

 

[Lee Martin]

My hats off to you for trying to bring it back to life. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Yeah, do let us know how this all turns out. Always warms my heart to see a great gun returned to action--brought back from the dead! Agree with previous poster--you need to attend to the health of the internals before worrying about the finish. It may turn out you just have a "frame" there!

If the chambers and bore are trashed, could this become a .480?

 

[98Redline]

What is up with the barrel in the second picture? It looks like it is missing the lower part of the muzzle.

 

[rugerguy]

would really have to "see' the condition of the chambers as well as the bore...that gun is pretty close to "fubar", I've redone guns that came out of a river after 4-5 months, that looked better than this one......

 

[mcinturff]

Thanks guys. Ruger won't take any orders until the first of the new year. They can rebarrel it for $130 or so. I'll see if I can borrow my friend's Nikon D5000 for some high quality photos that show the pitting clearly.

Arisin': The gun was found lying in a limestone river bed and given to me by a friend who had no use for it.

Mike: This will be a working shooter long before it is a show gun so no worries there. What is involved with a .480 conversion? I would guess you need a super redhawk cylinder. Would it fit? Also would you fit a super redhawk barrel or bore the redhawk barrel?

rugerguy: Once the lower trigger assembly is out I'll see if I can get pictures of the cylinder and bore for you.

 

[Montelores]

"The gun was found lying in a limestone river bed and given to me by a friend who had no use for it."


Not to be too much of a wet blanket here, but is there any concern about what the previous owner of the gun might have used it for prior to "disposing" of it in the river?

An ambitious project, to be sure, so good luck with it.

Monty

 

[mcinturff]

The guy who gave it to me checked with the local sheriff to make sure there wasn't any cause for concern about the "disposing." He also ran the serial number to be sure as well. I'm not sure what I'll do if the bore or cylinder is eaten up.

 

[Montelores]

Good to hear that. Smart move.

Let us know how the project goes.

Monty

 

[M'BOGO]

I'm not sure what I'll do if the bore or cylinder is eaten up.

Send it to Ruger, if you have a few hundred dollars wrapped up a Redhawk that's not so bad. Unless you have no desire to have that much wrapped up in it.

 

[AJGUNNER]

Were the grips on it when it was found??? Would love to see what they might have looked like???

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Mcinturf, as I understand it, the .454 cylinder could be rechambered and the barrel rebored or replaced. The pressures involved are OK, I think, for a .480 conversion. However, whether a "simple" rechambering would work depends on how deep the pitting is in the chambers; it would have to shallow enough that rechambering would clean it up completely.

I'm not flush enough with $$$ to afford custom shops, but there are clearly guys on here who are (or maybe they are just better savers than I. But I doubt that....). Perhaps some of them will chime in with shops that could/would do this work. But I'd look into getting the parts replaced by Ruger first. GOT to be cheaper.

This handgun could also be customized into an "Alaskan" configuration if you want to pack it around easier and use it for self defense only.

Keep us informed! Fun project no matter what you decide!

 

[mcinturff]

Update: I've been soaking the Redhawk in kroil for a week. I've gotten the cylinder to budge a little, but still having trouble removing the pin that holds the lower trigger assembly in. The fact that one of the rounds is still loaded makes me a little nervous about using a torch to heat up the frame to remove that pin. Thoughts?

AJ: The grips were gone when I got it, maybe they rotted off.

M'BOGO: My budget for this is about $500. Don't want to put much more than that in it, otherwise I could just buy a new one.