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

[pietro]

.

I would respectfully suggest first try inserting a shim/washer on the strut behind the spring - which might prove correct if the mis-fires went away.

.

[Gray Fox]

It is interesting that when Ruger marketed the .357 and 10mm Match Champion revolvers they stated that as part of tuning the action they installed the shims. If they acknowledge it is a problem, why not spend the extra $1.00 or so for shims and ship the guns that way? Ruger has always done strange things like that, like selling the Mini-14 with mags so odd that no after-market company will even offer one. GF

[redhawk0]

I purchased a Redhawk 5.5" back in 1992. It is a 1985 model. I had misfires as well. I contacted Ruger and sent it in to be checked out. They replaced all the springs and sent it back to me free of charge. I've never had a misfire since. It might be worth contacting Ruger.

[EDIT]....Ooops...just saw you ordered springs. That should take care of the issue.

redhawk

[Harter66]

I had a note over my bench for a very long time KISS and the S's frequently traded places . Below the;
Keep
It
Stupid
Simple

When in doubt wash it out"

The reason was that after a grips off clean and lube a 1917 Colts OM refused to rotate into full lock without a firm deliberate thumb or fast DA . It turns out there was about a teaspoon of dust , fouling, and other not solvents soluble crud inside of it hidden away in all of the nooks, crannies, corners and hidden gaps otherwise not visible even with the side plate off . An overnight soak in GI MilSpec CLP and vigorous DA cycling immersed in the CLP followed by 2 more soaks and cycles did the trick . Another discovery made was that there was infact a gap between the barrel and top strap that had been filled completely with dirt , lead , and powder fouling throughout it's at that time 90 years of service. It was kept in a GI as issued flap holster which makes the amount of crap inside even harder to believe.

Since that adventure in 2007-8 I've started all misfire and timing trouble shooting with a deep cleaning bath .

[John Wayne]

It's possibly set up for Cowboy 4 Gun competition so you would only use Federal Primers.
JW

[Lance Boyle]

It's possibly set up for Cowboy 4 Gun competition so you would only use Federal Primers.
JW

Redhawks are DA. Unless I am mistaken it’s not eligible for CAS.

I have only done one Ruger pistol, my new Sp101 .327 4”. I did shim it as the hammer did scrape on the frame. I cleaned the metal chips out that were left inside and polished the trigger return spring tunnel, deburred the hammer spring strut.

I used a lighter Wolff hammer spring and a lighter Wolff trigger return spring. There were three trigger return springs in the pack and I started with the middle one. I had misfires on Winchester primers. I swapped in the heavier Wolff trigger return spring that was still 2 pounds lighter than OEM.

I did not eliminate the not setting off the Winchester primer issue but did greatly reduce it. No issues with Federal primers. The gun is hardly broke in though. I should shoot it a few hundred more times and then retest the Winchester primers. It’s no carry gun but I still don’t like a window of misopportunity!

[PopcornSutton]

The first handgun I bought was a S&W 19, 357. I had been handloading for couple rifles, so I got dies for it. I backed off the main spring screw to lighten the pull, and found out I could only use one brand of primer like that. Lesson learned.

[Mk42gunner]

I'm not really a bullseye competition shooter where alibis are almost expected, with a free do over, even if I mostly shoot targets these days. I also do not believe in tuning a gun to only work with one brand of primers, Federal seem to be the softest and most easily ignited ones, at least as far as handguns go.

I come from a duty gun/ hunting background; where the gun needs to go bang when directed, the first time. Second time too.

It is very dis-heartening to have a gun go click when you really expected a bang. I have had it happen with a rifle that I had wanted for decades, a Winchester Model 100. That particular rifle got sold to a collector and has probably not even been test fired since. It was a real shame, that rifle fit me like a good quail gun should fit a person.

This revolver will be fixed, but I will put a couple hundred rounds through it before I begin to trust it.

Robert

[405grain]

Mk42gunner; You make a good point about making a gun right before you can fully trust it. I've had revolvers that worked great and didn't need any attention, and other ones that had potential but needed some help. An early model Smith and Wesson 629 with a 4" barrel comes to mind. It had two problems; the rear sight was set up for magnum cartridges, and was way too low for cast bullet loads. And, in double action the cylinder catch wouldn't always engage, and the cylinder notch would skip past the catch.

The rear sight was easy. They make rear sight blade kits for the 29/629 in three heights. You have to break a screw to get the old sight off, but a new screw comes in the kit. As for the cylinder catch, the problem was being caused by a weak factory spring. I can't remember for sure, but I think that it was Wolff that supplied an extra strength cylinder catch spring. With the new spring installed that revolver is now 100% reliable, even in rapid fire with full magnum loads (ouch!)

If you get a revolver that's perfect right from the factory (like most are), that's great. If you have a revolver that has an issue, if you go to the effort to correct it, then that gun will be better than perfect.