replacement sights for redhawk

[jaybird]

I have been practicing for months with my 4" redhawk trying to get consistent enough to hunt with it. I cannot seem to get any better groupings than 6 or 7 inches at 40 yards. I was wondering if their were any good options for replacement sights that might help tighten my groups. It seems that the front sight is very wide, and it is rather difficult to use at longer ranges. Is there any hope of tightening my groups with different sights, or is this the best I can expect with a 4" revolver? As it is, I have put the revolver away until after deer season, as I do not want to chance wounding a deer with it.

[DAG460]

Jaybird

You might want to look at oneraggedhole.com web site for their Ruger replacement peep sights.  They replace the factory rear sight blade with a peep sight blade.  The size of the front blade should not give you a problem with a peep.  I have not tried one yet but plan to soon as these old eyes are starting to give me problems with standard sights.

DAG

[Graybeard]

I think the only sight that might help is the one on the front of a longer barrel. Most of us as we age lose our close up vision and many also lose distant vision as well. If you need reading glasses then you need that front sight out much further for good shooting. I find 7.5" about as short as I can shoot with reasonable accuracy but when I move to a 9.5" to 10" barrel that front sight really clears up and allows me to shoot good groups.

With a 4" barrel I can't do as well as you are complaining about these days. I need about 6" of barrel to do as well.

[Lloyd Smale]

how well does it group off the bench at 25 yards. Are you sure its not the load that causing the problem. Trigger pull is another thing. Its about impossible to shoot good offhand groups at 25 yards let alone 40 with a stock ruger trigger pull. Another thing that kind of is forgotten is how you lower your trigger pull.  If you reliy on spring kits alone to do it what you actually done is increased your lock time because the hammer is falling slower and that will effect your off hand shooting along with reliablility. Especially in a redhawk. You might be fooled into thinking your sights are the trouble. But for  sights, the best sight picture i can get is with a front post sight thinned to .10 and a bowen target rear. You can buy the bowen sight right from him and clements could set you up with a good post sight. Im not a fan of peep sights on a revlover. There just not precise enough for me and are tough to use at long range.

I have been practicing for months with my 4" redhawk trying to get consistent enough to hunt with it. I cannot seem to get any better groupings than 6 or 7 inches at 40 yards. I was wondering if their were any good options for replacement sights that might help tighten my groups. It seems that the front sight is very wide, and it is rather difficult to use at longer ranges. Is there any hope of tightening my groups with different sights, or is this the best I can expect with a 4" revolver? As it is, I have put the revolver away until after deer season, as I do not want to chance wounding a deer with it.

[Olav]

 Loyd wrote: If you reliy on spring kits alone to do it what you actually done is increased your lock time because the hammer is falling slower and that will effect your off hand shooting along with reliablility. Especially in a redhawk. You might be fooled into thinking your sights are the trouble.

I agree with Loyd in this matter, locktime  is important!
In autoloaders we often replaces the hammer with a "warp speed" to get the locktime as fast as possible, but when we "tunes" a revolver we installs light springs, and the revolver sounds like a cheap toy gun! And accuracy suffers .

[jaybird]

Thanks for the input guys.

I have changed out the springs, but have done nothing else to improve the trigger. That could be part of the problem. If I keep the pistol, I may have to send it in for a trigger job. I really like the idea of hunting with an easy to carry, short barreled revolver. However, I have been wondering about the same thing GB mentioned-I need a longer barrel. I might just have to face the music and get myself a SBH Hunter for next year.

[pigguy]

I put a set of williams fire sights on my superredhawk and love em!Though this gun is no tack driver,the fiber optics make for fast target acqusition and plenty realistic handgun hunting accureacy.I have been thinking of replaceing the triggersprings,but after what has been said,I think i would get a trigger job done instead,THANKS GUYS!

[OLDHandgunner]

I had the same problem with my Old Redhawk in 7 1/2" barrel years ago. Rather then send it back to Ruger I slugged the barrel and found it to be .429+. So I switched to Hornady bullets that are usually .430 and this solved the problem. It still doesn't shoot my cast bullets the best but it's OK for hunting. The 4" barrel will make a little bit of difference but try some other bullets first.

  GOOD  LUCK

[41 mag]

One thing which might help you as it did me is to order the target sights from Ruger. IF you go to your owners manual or to the Ruger site and look under the Product Service tab you will find the manuals in PDF form. Open the Redhawk one and then scroll down to Front Sight with Gold Bead, it comes with the front sight and the rear V notch blade.

I installed them on my 41 several years ago and my groups tightned up significantly as it allows you to draw a finer hold on your target. The downside is that I use it for hog hunting and on running shots through the brush it is hard to find sometimes. However the ranges are generally such it is more point and shoot anyway and misses are pretty much non existant. They have allowed me to make shots out to 100yds on the hogs as well with 100% connectivity, and from the bench I have shot several 3" groups at this range as well. I do however have the 7" barrel but they still will give you a better hold.

For around 15 bucks it is worth a try if they still have them in stock.

[jaybird]

I have been thinking about trying the gold bead front with the v-notch rear that ruger offers on their website. However, I noticed that my 4" redhawk has the front sight held in with a rolled pin, and it appears the longer redhawks have a different system for holding in the front sight. Will ruger's gold bead front sight fit the 4" version, or will it only work with the 5.5" and 7.5" versions?

[Lloyd Smale]

if your looking for accuarcy bead fronts arent the way to go. There good in the brush when you need a fast sight picture but youll never see someone shooting a precision pistol match with a bead front sight. Same goes for peep sight on handguns. I detest them. A peep sight is for a rifle that has some sight radius gained by a longer barrel. There not precise enough on a short barreled handgun to really wring one out on the bench. What you want to get the most out of a bench with a sixgun is a thin flat front post sight that will reduce glare and give a good sharp sight picture. No colared inserts as they may helps some people in some light situations but will wash out in others. its hard to beat a rear sight that has a nice flat verticle surface to it with seration to break up light and a good thin front post. Look again at what is the prefered sight on handguns shot in competion for accuracy and thats what youll find. Ive set quite a few of my sixguns up with bowen target rears and clements front posts and ive yet to have anyone pick one up and claim anything but that it was the best sight picture theyve tried. Its sold quite a few sets for bowen and clements. I like the clements post front so much that im having him put it on a couple custom lever guns hes working on for me right now. If you have one of the rugers that the front sight blade is pinned in you in luck as he sells just the blades that are an easy swap for about 40 bucks. Its about the best upgrade you can make to a ruger to help it in accuracy. Even if you dont opt for the $ to buy a bowen rear. Just make sure when you order one that you have dave make it a .10 as i think his stad sight is .120 and its a tad on the fat side for me. Another nice benifit to this system is low light shooting. Ive tried about everyting. Gold beads, colared inserts of every colar and even fiber optic blades (which i detest becuase there so fragile) and they all wash out in low light. the best help for low light is to allow light between the sides of the rear blade and the front post and a thinner sight will allow for this.

[Old Griz]

Personally, I love the gold bead front sight system for the Redhawk. I put them on mine and shot much tighter groups. I sold the Redhawk and got another Bisley. I had Gary Reeder put a gold bead front, V notch rear on it. For me, it's the way to go.

[huntersmurf]

One thing which might help you as it did me is to order the target sights from Ruger. IF you go to your owners manual or to the Ruger site and look under the Product Service tab you will find the manuals in PDF form. Open the Redhawk one and then scroll down to Front Sight with Gold Bead, it comes with the front sight and the rear V notch blade.

The Express sights worked well for me on a 7.5"bbl. There is the link: http://ruger.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10051&storeId=10051&categoryId=13673&productId=40651&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=13668&lastCatId=13668

But eventualy I added a Leopold 2x EER scope with a B Square mount.

[daddyof4]

Jaybird,
 I have a 4" Redhawk and I love it. I ordered the gold bead sight set from Ruger and they don't work with the 4" barrel. The base of the sight is rounded with the pin hole in the middle. I talked to the Ruger people and they aren't going to make one for it ....YET. Williams said it was on their list of to do guns but not anytime soon.....

[countryrebel]

I also have the 4" redhawk 44mag and was hoping the gold bead sight would work but I guess I will have to wait until they come out with it for that model.Why dont they say these sights will work for all redhawks except for the 4" model on the web site?Wouldnt that be much easier?Sometimes I just do not understand ruger.

[jaybird]

Countryrebel,

Ruger just changed their website within the last couple of days. It now specifically says that the gold bead will not fit the 4" Redhawk.

Jaybird

[jaybird]

After digging my redhawk back out of the safe tonight, I noticed something rather disturbing. It appears as if the barrel has rotated a little. I was so frustrated after my last range trip in November that I didn't notice. The sight picture is out of whack, and you can definitely see that the barrel has turned some. New questions: Could this have been responsible for some of my accuracy problems? And more importantly, will Ruger fix it?

Jaybird

[blhof]

The answer is a definite yes to both, any barrel movement will change bullet impact as well as sight picture.  Ruger has one of the best customer service dept.s around and a loose barrel sounds like a factory problem, unless there are wrench marks on the barrel.

[countryrebel]

That figures,Sorry to hear about your barrel turning,I will have to keep an eye on mine.I have not shot mine for grouping yet but I did notice the crown on the barrel looks like it was not cut straight.Maybe its a problem, maybe not,but it still bugs me.