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A couple of months ago I picked up a Ruger I’ve wanted for about ten years now: the Redhawk in .44 Magnum with the 5.5″ barrel — blued. The pics finally came back, so I can share! (Click for larger, of course.)
Everybody and their mother with that barrel length seems to have the stainless version — but I finally found a nice minty blued one on Gunbroker. It came with perfectly good standard Ruger wood grips, but I immediately had to replace them with some Pearlites:
I really like the Ruger designs prior to the GP100 and Super Redhawk. Those later versions are interesting, of course, but I think the earlier models just have more panache. They’re still tough-as-a-tank Rugers, of course, but they’re not so blocky and are more elegant to my eyes. Note at left the similarities in the .357 Ruger Security-Six (top) and the .44 Redhawk (bottom):
Of course, there are the obvious differences. Here are six of them:
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So now I have a nice collection of three well-used and loved blued revolvers, all with Pearlite grips. In the pic at the top of the post, the middle one’s my S&W Model 1917 in .45 ACP. You can really see the difference in bulk between the Smith N frame and the Redhawk.