Ruger Red Hawk Avalability

[Hugh3006]

The Ruger site has the Red Hawk 44 listed as one of their products. About 5 months ago I decided to purchase the 44 Red Hawk Hunter. The Hunter is the version with the cut outs on top of the barrel and comes with the scope rings as a part of the purchase price. I started looking around and some of the local gun shops and none were to be found. I looked on the various internet sites and found none, except a few used ones. Realizing we are just starting to come off a shortage of ammo and guns that everyone would be playing catch up. I did notice that many of the local shops now have better supplies of guns and ammo. Visiting the various gun forums it is my understanding Ruger was behind a million guns and were in the process of building a new facility. I visited with the person who orders the guns at a large gun shop and he stated he wanted to do some checking for availability. He talked to major wholesale providers and was informed they had not seen a new Ruger Red Hawk since 2011, which is a little over 3 years. I went ahead and put down all of purchase price and thought I would get lucky even though that defies logic. I did not get lucky. Now for the questions.
1. Why list a gun as for sale when it has not been made for over three years?
2. Is there something wrong with the design? Remember when the Super Red Haw was released years ago it was partly due to manufacturing defects with the 44 Red Hawk and the barrels coming off. There are some You tube videos of this event.
3. None of today's issues were going on 3 years ago. I have seen new Super Red Hawks and the Bisley Super Black Hawk Hunters, single action, in stores. But why no Red Hawk or Red Hawk Hunter?
I could speculate on different scenarios but I would rather see some one with a good Ruger back ground chime in for a discussion.

 

[lfpiii]

1. Why list a gun as for sale when it has not been made for over three years?

While Ruger tends to make less popular guns in small batches some have been made in the last couple of years. Since the start of the Great Recession some dealers and distributors have cut back on carrying less popular inventory. Try looking for dealers in popular hunting areas expecially in hog hunting locations. They should be able to get you one.

2. Is there something wrong with the design? Remember when the Super Red Haw was released years ago it was partly due to manufacturing defects with the 44 Red Hawk and the barrels coming off. There are some You tube videos of this event.

The issue with barrels was fixed long long ago. It was just a issue with a lubricant. The guns are 100 percent safe.

3. None of today's issues were going on 3 years ago. I have seen new Super Red Hawks and the Bisley Super Black Hawk Hunters, single action, in stores. But why no Red Hawk or Red Hawk Hunter?

These issues have always been going on but the Great Recession did a lot more damage. Most dealers even big box stores have to pay up front for guns. Distributors may or may not have the guns in stock. If the guns are in stock great the dealer gets them if not the dealer has to wait sometimes up to a year. During that time the dealer has money tied up without making a dime. Super Redhawks and Super Blackhawk are stronger and more popular so a dealer can charge a little more and they will sell faster. Just to show you how some dealers are hurting I know of two local dealers that are just moving guns around in cases because they sold out of all the high demand guns and are left with stale junk and they do not want customers to notice.

Expect problems to grow as many dealers pay the price for gambiling poorly on the mini gun panic. A dealer I know from gun shows is stuck with over 200 Glocks and several thousand magazines because he thought prices would keep going up.

 

[Hugh3006]

Ruger does not sell to local sporting good stores. All of the Ruger products go through 1 of the 4 main distributors in the United States. The distributors partial the guns out on a sales basis. The main sporting good stores that sell more than there share of Rugers will get the first ones available. I obtained this information from a number of local dealers and I have done considerable research. The dealers I conduct business with do not carry junk and they have all been very up front. The large sporting good store chain I dealt with required the entire purchase price, to include taxes, be paid up front. I can not speak to other sporting good stores as I do not know their policies. There exposure was zero on my transaction.
Dealers across the United States DO NOT have any new Red Hawk Hunters in stock. I have checked as many of the big dealers as possible(Arkansas, Texas to name a few). I have been in direct contact with Ruger. They do not share product release information with anyone. The person I did visit with informed me NONE of the distributors have any in stock. They deal with them on a weekly basis. I gave the person my name, address and he stated all four distributors do have my name. I took what the individual said at its face value.
If their is anyone on the internet that knows of a dealer that has a new in the box Red Hawk Hunter I would appreciate their name and phone number and I will call them. I know of no gun dealers in this area, central Iowa, that has a stale inventory. I have visited most of them and guns in this area are selling and I might say rather robustly. The dealer where I purchased the Red Hawk has an excellent selection of ammo(9mm, .556, 44 and even some 22s that are limited in quantity to the purchaser.
Again, if someone knows of any dealer that has a Red Hawk Hunter in stock just send me a private message. Thanks again.

 

[GMan351]

I checked GunBroker and there were 2 used ones there. Armslist had 2 also. One of those looked new, but said it had been fired 100 times.

Ruger does the guns in batches and I'm sure part of it is the number of pre-manufacturing orders they have from distributors. That being said Redhawks are just hard to find and usually bring a premium when found.

 

[98Redline]

I have a 44M 5 1/2" Redhawk and really like it, however if I was going to be picking up a new gun, I would go with the Super Redhawk.

From a strength standpoint, both guns are equal but the redesigned action in the SRH is a superior and much more tuneable action than the single spring design of the RH. Additionally the spike grip configuration of the SRH allows a much larger selection of grips and provides for additional padding between the frame and your palm. The RH full grip frame design puts the recoil of the frame right into the palm of your hand. Lastly is the weight, believe it or not, the SRH is just a bit lighter than the RH.

Based on all of the reasons above, the SRH is outselling the RH by quite a margin, to that end I suspect that Ruger is doing runs of the RH very....very infrequently. They may actually be waiting for orders to get to a certain backlog before doing a run of them.

 

[Srb08]

I had the same problem earlier this year. I was looking for a 5.5" It took five months of scouring Armslist to finally find an almost new specimen at a decent price ($500). Since then I've seen several more, both 5.5" and 7.5", I bought a 7.5", just because the price was right ($450).
If you are set on a new one, you might have a wait. If you can live with a good used gun, watch the online auctions and Armslist, they show up occasionally.
My LGS has had a couple in the last month but neither was set up for rings.