Ruger Super Redhawk 13.25" Barrel

[bowfishn]

I have always wanted a Super Redhawk with a barrel 12" or longer.

Well I finally got the time to turn out my new barrel for my Super Redhawk 9.5", bought a 14" Shilen barrel blank from Brownels. Started out at 1.20" od 14" long and ended up at .910" tapering down over 10.75" to .830" .

I also bought a Barrel off Ebay I cut down to 5.5" and installed screw on front sight.

So now I have the options of changing from 5.5" to 9.5" to 13.25"

The 5.5 will be my carry barrel for hiking or what ever, the 13.25 will be put on for fall hunting with my Scope I used with the 9.5 the 9.5 will most likely set in the gun case. I shoot 295 gr Cast HP with gas checks ahead of a stout load of H110 powder. (My MP Mold also casts 310 gr Flat Nose with gas checks )

This load always has shot well out of my 9.5 and I will see how it works out with the other 2 barrels.

All barrels are set to hand tighten with aprox 1/8 turn left that I tighten to my witness mark under barrels and on bottom of receiver. All three are set to .005" cylinder gap.

[Iwsbull]

Nice set up. You should have some scorching velocities out of that long barrel and a lot easier carry with the short. Like you figured the best of both.

[Pressman]

I am in lust, really nice set-up.

[contender1]

Due to some of their laws,, the European market requires longer barrels on some guns. I have seen pics of Ruger built,, European marketed Super Redhawks similar to this.

Looks like you did a nice job on this one.

[MT Gianni]

I would be really interested in seeing the Chrono differences between those two barrels.

[bowfishn]

I have a Magneto Speed I will see what it does when I get around to it.
The One they shipped to Britain I believe is an 18" barrel so it will be classified a Rifle. To bad they didn't sell the barrel cut to 16" so we could customize to any barrel.

[andrew375]

Due to some of their laws,, the European market requires longer barrels on some guns. I have seen pics of Ruger built,, European marketed Super Redhawks similar to this.

Looks like you did a nice job on this one.

Yes, and I bought one! Definitely does not come close to compensatingfor the lossof my M29. The barrel length seems to have been decided by cutting a standard barrel blank in half. Talk about muzzle heavy! Apparently Ruger only made the one batch of 200, 100 in .44 and 100 .357, specifically for the uk market. This was in 1998 or 1999 when the legislation victimising law abiding target shooters was enacted. The only maker of revolvers that cater for law-abiding target shooters is Taurus.

[CoolHandMoss]

Well done. Impressive work.

[megasupermagnum]

Is this a 44 magnum?

[bowfishn]

Yes 44 mag

[Billythepoet]

That's really neat. Good work!

[TCLouis]

Can not wait to see how it performs!

When do you think you will get to range test it?

[murf205]

How did you get the barrel out of the frame? I have been told that Ruger would not change out a barrel because it stood a big chance of warping the frame. The late John Gallahger told me that there was a really good chance that the frame would have to be drilled out and tapped larger to facilitate a barrel change if it did not unscrew. A friend wanted a 9.5" and never found any smith that wanted to tackle the job. Yours is a great looking gun. Please let us know the velocities from that long tube. I know that my favorite load goes 1016 fps from a 4" barrel 629 and 1236 fps from my 9.5" SRH. Your long barrel will get into rifle territory!

[DougGuy]

John Linebaugh won't even take in a SRH because the majority of them are threaded and torqued at the factory in a way that destroys both the frame threads and the barrel threads by the time you get it off. You got VERY lucky! Nice package too!!

[Billythepoet]

From what I've read, it's the .454 and .480 SRH that are really difficult to remove the barrels from. Bowen will replace barrels on the .44s, but not the others. I've seen JRH built SRHs with custom barrels as well, so I know it's done.

[bowfishn]

Ok, I got a chance to test the velocity using the Magneto Speed, the 5.5" barrel with the 295gr Cast HPGC average Velocity was 1398 fps.
The 13.25" barrel with same bullet and load gave an average of 1594 fps.
Will not get to check out how it groups until we have better weather, the load was a good shooter in the 9.5" barrel so I am hoping for good results in these barrels as well.

[bowfishn]

The barrel was not extremely tight when I pulled it, I was expecting it to be a bear. What I did notice is as I was spinning off the barrel at about 4 or 5 turns it picked up metal like stainless does. Had to let set with Kroil, wiggle back and forth until it freed up turn a bit adding Kroil, let set for a while, then turn it one revolution, use more Kroil let set wiggle back and forth then turn one more revolution and keep up the process until it came apart.

[Lloyd Smale]

how would you even carry that thing. Sorry but no fan of long barreled handguns here. Longest id even consider is 7.5 and prefer 6 and under. Heck if i wanted something that big id grab my 94 winchester or marlin. Gets to the point that you cant really even call it handgun hunting. but to each his own.

[root]

Nice project.
Came out real well.

Had a SBH 10.5 that was used when i got it.
After about 400 more rounds of hot unique and 256 hard cast the chambers were sticky even with factory loads.

Longest barreled handgun i ever owned. Traded it to a smith cowr a NIB 223 axis for the wife with full disclosure.
Picked up another SBH in 44 a week later in my favorite barrel length on the SBH of 5.5 inches.

One thing I'll say is with that long sight radius is was easy to make 135 yard shots with open sights with just a touch of hold over on the gong.

Yup fod each their own I prefer my large frame revolvers 6 and under with a preference of 5.5

But have 44's from 2 to 6 inch.
My all time favorite revolver round.

Really not to many problems a large frame revolver can't fix.

[Lloyd Smale]

I agree on you with the 44s. Its what the 41s and 45s want to be. Make mine a da 4inch or a single action 4 5/8s though. I dont shoot deer past a 100 yards and rarely past 50. Id much rather a holster gun that can be presented fast then a long barreled thing in a shoulder holster with scope that slows it down more. I call the wheelbarrow guns. Ive killed 1000 lb bison at a 100 yards with a 4 inch vaquero. There hand rifles. I dont even consider it handgun hunting when a barrel is over 8 inches. Shooting a 10 in barreled scoped handgun off a rest (only way you can shoot them) takes no more skill then shooting a 44 marlin with a scope at the same range. I started handgun hunting with a scoped tc. Quickly found it took no skill so went to a 7.5 in super blackhawk with a 2x leupold. Found at a 100 yards it took no more skill then the tc. So pulled the scope off and finally it too a bit of work to aquire the skill to use it. Wasnt long and i got bored that too and started hunting with 4-6 inch guns. Nice thing about them is you can holster them, walk in the woods about forgetting you have one on and when the time comes can be presented in a second. Found too off a bench shooting groups at 50 yards the short barrels gave up nothing to the long ones. Maybe now with old eyes at a 100 the long barrels would give me a small advantage but with my old eyes i dont even bother handgun hunting anymore. I proved long ago im more then skilled enough to do it. Dont have to prove a thing. Dont get me wrong. Theres nothing wrong with handgun hunting. I didnt pick up a rifle for over 20 years. But like i said my eyes are getting to the point where at 50-100 i would no longer be a 100 percent confident and am sure not going to risk wounding an animal to prove something and im not pushing a wheelbarrow through the woods.

[bowfishn]

276196
Here it is with the 5.5" barrel I made from shortening a barrel off ebay, It will stay this way till I can get some time at the range. I will just sight in with the open sights and use.
I really like the feel of it with this Barrel but will set it up with scope on the 13.25" for deer season.

[root]

Any way you do it it looks pretty good Bowfishn

I like em short but have had a long SBH

Now would you be able to mount the scope righ the the barrel and turn the barrel on and off while the scope is on and maintain a good zero?

[bowfishn]

No, I still have to put the barrel in a barrel vice although I can use the 1 1/2 x 2 oak board through the frame to turn it loose. Also I am not using the scope with the shorter barrel, the short one is for easy carry. I would also doubt the slight difference would allow for the same point of impact with the scope. I will find out how it works removing scope and reinstalling it when spring comes and I check out how accuracy is at the Range. If the 13.25" is like the 9.5" it should smash clay pigeons at 200 yards about every time off a rest.

[bowfishn]

291585
Ok I had the 5.5" barrel on it all summer, I really liked being able to carry it on my hip in the woods. It was a fun shooter. I was going to just leave the 5.5" on it but my Grandson bought a S&W 500 Performance Center 7.5" and we got some loads set up for it 440 gr Matts RF-GC bullets big charge of H110 LR Primers and Starline brass. About 1500 fps. and yeah it does hammer compared to the 44 mag. It shot 1.75" CTC 6 shoot groups at 25 yards with a Burris Fastfire 3 on it. My grandsons groups were double at 3.5"
It did however inspire me to put the 13.25" barrel back on my SRH and set it up with my scope I used on the 9.5" factory barrel. Using my Cast 295 GCHP bullets doing 1594 fps it grouped 6 in a .625 CTC or a 1" ragged hole @ 25 yards. Did not print it on paper @ 100 but did have fun spinning a 6" gong with a cylinder full at 105 yards. So it is good to go at 100 for Deer hunting.
I did weigh it with the scope and rings on it it was 5.2 lbs. so with my load it produces 20.5 ft lbs of recoil at a gun velocity of 16 fps. Comparing it to my grandsons S&W 500 set up with the 440 bullets at 46 ft lbs and 25.6 fps gun velocity, it is like shooting a 22 rimfire.
For carrying it I altered my Mikes 13 sidekick Bandoleer by adding an extra snap 1.5" higher and raising the velcro side about the same.
I will probably look for another used SRH and set it up with the short barrel so I don't have to switch it out come hunting season.

[Three44s]

I missed this before. I had a SRH in 44 Mag with a 9.5” barrel. It really shined when I installed a One Ragged Hole (peep sight) and a Ruger front gold bead sight.

I bought it for a barrel chop plan but traded it for a SRH in .480 Ruger with a 7.5” barrel. In the meantime I fell in love with the longer sight radius.

Three44s

[Messy bear]

Nice work!
I have a gun that has been fitted with 3 barrels for expirementation.