Ruger .45ACP/.45Colt Redhawk

[Dale53]

I believe the revolver community is very lucky to have people like DougGuy who does such fine work, by all reports, at such a reasonable rate. My hat is off to him, for sure!

These Rugers with undersize throats can go from terrible leading and inaccuracy to NRA Bullseye worthy (as far as accuracy is concerned) when treated appropriately with good tooling.

FWIW
Dale53

[Lloyd Smale]

had a 454 Alaskan cut for moon clips. It would shoot 45acps with smith 25 clips and 45colts and 454s with the supplied clips or without them. Accuracy wasn't anything to write home about with the 45acps and point of aim was so far off between acps the 454s that after a while I didn't bother even using acps. Sold the gun to a buddy of mine. Have to say though that it was a real good shooter for a 2.5 inch 454. Many one inch 25 yard groups with the 300 rcbs swcgc and ballistic cast 320lfngc. Shot 45 colts fairly well too but more like 2 inch.

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

I'm curious if this can handle 45 win mag on moon clips, dimensionally it should work, and since it's a redhawk it should be strong enough, thoughts?

[Bigslug]

I'm curious if this can handle 45 win mag on moon clips, dimensionally it should work, and since it's a redhawk it should be strong enough, thoughts?

Unless you are a true masochist, you're likely to quit before the gun does. My approach was to look for a comfortable spot in the gaps in the loading manuals between where the .45 Colt maxes out and the .454 Casull gets started - which, incidentally, is where the .45 Win Mag lives. 10 grains of Unique behind 275 grains yielded about 950fps for me, and it's a touch beyond what I'd want to play with all day, but well below what the gun can handle.

[charlie b]

I had a Blackhawk convertible back in the 80's (new purchase). IIRC, the .45ACP chamber headspaced on the case mouth, like the 1911. I don't remember any mention of moon clips in the manual. Shot OK. I never measured groups with it but it wasn't any worse than my govt model 1911. The .45 Colt cylinder was good enough to hit clay pigeons regularly at 50m. That was good enough for me at the time. Never used it for anything serious.

I liked the trigger on mine.

PS mine was shot many times with the heavy loads listed for the Ruger. The only bad point was the beating my middle finger took from the trigger guard and the heavy recoil.

[CHeatermk3]

I have one of the Redhawk 45C/acp revolvers and in my estimation the onecylinder/2 jobs idea is a non-starter.

My gun came from the factory with several problems:
Bad polish job on RH side of barrel
Over-torqued barrel--hit 5" right @10 feet with rear sight at limit of travel to left
Ejector star would not release acp brass after firing; had to drive off using dowell and mallet
Cylinder would not turn with 6 LC rounds chambered/action locked up.

Sent gun to Ruger the day after I picked it up, a Wednesday got it back with target 8 days later. I fired it for function with both types of ammo and then worked up loads mostly in 45LC. Cyl needs to be evened out as it shows 3 distinct POIs at 15 yds.

No leading or choke at the forcing cone--should be a great shooter after cyl. work...

[jonp]

I'm curious if this can handle 45 win mag on moon clips, dimensionally it should work, and since it's a redhawk it should be strong enough, thoughts?

I ran Linebaugh loads through my 45LC and those are pretty stout, with no problems although I wouldn't do it every day. I doubt 45win mag will bother it and I agree with the other comment that you will stop before the gun will.

[DougGuy]

I'm curious if this can handle 45 win mag on moon clips, dimensionally it should work, and since it's a redhawk it should be strong enough, thoughts?

A SRH can handle the pressure without a doubt. Ruger Only 45 Colt loads top out at 30kpsi, 44 Mag tops out at 36kpsi but they have slightly thicker cylinder walls due to a slightly smaller cartridge, 45 Win Mag tops out at 40kpsi, and 454 Casull goes to 50kpsi, Ruger did not chamber the RH in 454 Casull, they waited on the development of the SRH for this much pressure.

In the old days Ruger USED to offer chambering SBH in 45 Win Mag if you sent the cylinder back to the factory, so it's a toss up whether it will or will not handle the 45 Win Mag, most likely you could shoot full house 45 Win Mag loads in it til the cows came home and be perfectly safe. I would definitely want the throats to not be tight for these loads..

[Grapeshot]

I'm curious if this can handle 45 win mag on moon clips, dimensionally it should work, and since it's a redhawk it should be strong enough, thoughts?

I found that the .45 Win Mag brass will not chamber completely using the Ruger Moon Clips. The extractor groove and chamfer are different from the .45ACP's. The .45 ACP has a steeper slope from the body of the case to the rim. So I don't get the wiggle room I need to chamber them.

[Drifty]

Star Line 45 win mag brass has worked fine in my redhawk. My problem was barrel to cylinder alignment and a forcing cone cut off center.The gun shot huge groups. It went back to Ruger and they recut the forcing cone and and recrowned the barrel. It came home with a test target I hope they weren't proud of. They did nothing about the 'timing', got a new cylinder latch for Gun Parts an am messing with it. It has cut the group size in half but is still not something to brag about. I was very disappointed with their service as everyone has talked up how wonderful the work they do is. Must have got the wrong smith.