Ruger Redhawk Trigger

[Z-Max]

I've been a long time Ruger fan but one gun in particular brings me here today...

My father bought a Redhawk new in early '83 a few months before I was born and recently handed it down to me. It's been a part of my life since I can remember, shot a boar with it at age 12, have fired it periodically since then. I never put many miles on it in the grand scheme of things (nor did my father) because shooting factory .44 mags gets both expensive and excessive pretty fast.

Fast forward to now-ish, I have a Marlin 1894 I'm restoring to be an all around carbine. Bought dies/components for it and intend to load down to the 1200-1300 FPS range as the twist in this barrel is more 44-40 than .44 magnum. I was thinking maybe using the Redhawk as a companion gun to the Marlin and feeding it with similarly downloaded cartridges. In this case and since I'm reloading it'll be more cost effective and (I imagine) less of an outright hand cannon to shoot at the range.

To this point my primary experience revolver-wise has been with a Smith 686+ I use a lot at the range. My gripe with that revolver is the DA pull; SA on that gun is quite nice out of the box. So when I grabbed the Redhawk for the first time in a while and stroked through the DA I was quite pleased, better than the Smith. Much to my surprise, though, the single action pull on the Redhawk is rather stiff. Not stiff to the point where I couldn't learn to deal with it but stiff enough to be a minor concern.

I'm wondering if there's a relatively easy/cost effective way to lighten the SA pull without really messing with the DA. I'd take it to a smith as I don't want to bother with it (other projects on the table right now) but if it'll cost a lot and/or compromise the reliability I guess I'll leave it as is.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I'm no expert but I have read numerous times that it takes a special gunsmith to do a good trigger job on a Redhawk trigger because of the single coil spring. Most folks leave them as is and break them in as best they can. A lighter spring almost certainly means a light primer hit once in a while. Polishing all the trigger parts is desirable. There is some checking that can be done where the transfer bar hits the firing pin. Taking a little off the hammer stop can get a little more firing pin protrusion but you have to be carefully not to pinch the transfer bar.

 

[contender]

I'd suggest a lot of simple dry firing to smooth it up. You can also add a mild abrasive to the action to work on this & flush it when not working the action.
(Think toothpaste in the action, lots of dry firing while watching TV, then flush w/ brake cleaner. Spray with a good oil.)

 

[andyo5]

I have a Wolff reduced power spring in mine. Trigger pull is much better and the gun is both accurate and reliable.
As I recall, I bought a three spring tuning kit from Wolff, and ended up using the intermediate spring. The lighter one gave unreliable ignition.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

I put the next lighter Wolf spring in mine and had a couple light strikes out of fifty rounds. I was using Winchester WLP primers . I did not want to mess with trying other primers because the WLP`s were the ones listed in Hodgdons Annual manual for the loads I am shooting( Ruger only data) and I didn`t want to start over with the load development. My Redhawk has the factory spring back in it now.
That said, My Super Redhawk came from the factory with a much better trigger than the RH did.

 

[andyo5]

Winchester primer are pretty hard, but CCI are the hardest I know of. I am using Federal primers in my revolvers because all of them have lightened springs, so I use softer primers. Federal are softer.

 

[Z-Max]

Hmm I guess I'll just have to shoot and get accustomed to it. I wouldn't call the single action terrible but probably about double the weight of my factory smith. It's not gritty, fine in smoothness, just heavier than I'm used to for single action. This is a .44 though so I guess they want you to really mean it when you pull the trigger.

 

[BearStopper]

Sounds like mine is identical to yours as far as trigger. I find the SA trigger works fine unless you are putting tons of lead downrange in a single session, where it can get tiring squeezing it off endlessly. I put 100 rounds downrange working up a load and was a little fatigued along with a nice blood blister on the web of my hand. I find it to be the perfect utility gun to have with you just in case in the woods.

 

[andyo5]

Sounds like mine is identical to yours as far as trigger. I find the SA trigger works fine unless you are putting tons of lead downrange in a single session, where it can get tiring squeezing it off endlessly. I put 100 rounds downrange working up a load and was a little fatigued along with a nice blood blister on the web of my hand. I find it to be the perfect utility gun to have with you just in case in the woods.

Damage to the web of your hand is from prolonged shooting of heavy loads, not from a heavy trigger. I have been there and done that.

 

[Pal Val]

I wear a shooting glove when I take the big guns to the range for an extended shoot. 100 rounds of .44 mag definitely calls for that.