Misfiring Redhawk

[Mk42gunner]

I did some horse trading and ended up with a used Ruger Redhawk, stainless, 5½" barrel from a pawnshop for a birthday present. Today I took it to the range for the first time.

I think I found out why it was in the pawnshop. Three misfires out of seven rounds tried double action. Two went the second time, but one I had to go to single action for it to fire.

The firing pin seems to be protruding enough (I haven't measured it yet), so I think somebody either clipped a coil or installed a weaker mainspring hoping for a "good trigger" without the work. The internals have never seen any files, sandpaper, or crocus cloth, and it is way to "smooth-ish" for a stock Ruger.

I will be looking for a stock weight spring, much as I didn't want to take the spring off the strut.

After seeing what it does with a known stock weight spring, I will decide on action work.

Seem reasonable?

I did have a reasonable group at 25 yards for being the first time I shot a .44 Magnum in about thirty years.

Robert

[atfsux]

Your deduction sounds reasonable. I owned one just like that, and yes, the stock trigger on all Rugers are trash.

[Winger Ed.]

Fresh spring, a good cleaning, and be sure there isn't any burrs where the hammer travels should do it.

[Mk42gunner]

A new spring and strut are both on order. I figured the strut may not be needed, but it is better to have more good parts on hand than to have to wait if it is. Plus it was cheap.

I'll update after the new parts get here and are installed.

Robert

[Tatume]

Ruger double-action revolver triggers are usually excellent right out of the box, but can be improved. The easiest and least expensive upgrade is to install shims on both sides of the hammer. Put a thin smear of RIG grease on the hammer first; I think the grease is as important as the shims. There are other areas that can be shimmed, but I believe the hammer is the most important. Hammer shims will cost $6, including shipping.

https://www.triggershims.com/ruger_double_action.php#S1

[contender1]

You appear to be on the right track in fixing the problem.

I've seen too many "home gunsmiths" work that caused guns to NOT be reliable. Ruger stock springs are NOT crap. They are just heavy enough to be reliable. And too many "Bubba's" clip coils, replace springs, or do other shortcuts trying to "improve" the feel of an action.

NOTHING,, and I mean NOTHING beats a quality action job by a person who knows how to do one.

Oh,, to swap out the spring on the hammer strut. I bought a heavy but odd fork at Goodwill long ago for .25 cents. I cut off the 2 outer tines,, smoothed up those edges. Then I shortened the middle 2 tines a little ,, to where I have a nice tool for compressing the hammer springs on a Ruger strut easily. I clamp the end of the strut in a padded vise,, then using the "tool" I can remove or install springs easily. I do it to polish the struts on Rugers as part of an action job.

Also,, Tatume has an excellent idea on the shims. The grease,, AND the shims reduce actual drag.

[fenderman57]

Switching to Federal primers fixed mine.

[waksupi]

I agree the standard spring is needed. I tried the Wolf springs in mine years ago, none were reliable, so I went back to the factory spring.

[405grain]

Replacing with the factory springs is always a good idea; it should restore the gun back to factory specs. On those occasions where I want to replace springs in a firearm with ones that have either a heavier or lighter compression weight I use springs from Wolff. They make excellent gun springs. I mostly use their springs in Mauser rifles, but I also have a Superblackhawk that I have installed slightly lighter springs for the trigger and hammer. Also, if there are score marks on the side of the hammer it means that it is dragging against the frame. I lightly stoned the sides of the hammer and it corrected the problem, but using hammer shims would also be beneficial. A revolver that has a smooth action is a joy to shoot, and is more accurate. The main thing is that it has to be 100% reliable, so use what works the best for you.

[deltaenterprizes]

If my memory serves me correctly I remember that the hammer and trigger return spring are the same and that causes doing a trigger job by just changing a spring to be problematic!
An original spring should make the pistol reliable.

[Mk42gunner]

Yes, it is the one spring does both the trigger return and mainspring duty model.

There are no drag marks anywhere on the hammer or the trigger, so I don't think I need shims.

I did not notice if the mainspring had been clipped or not when I first had it apart; but with no other signs of monkeying inside, I wasn't expecting misfires either.

And yes, it did fire single action (ruled out bad ammo); but if I had wanted a single action 44 Mag, I would have bought a Super Blackhawk.

The misfiring in DA relegates this revolver to the awaiting parts side of the safe, at least for now.

Robert