.44 Magnum Ruger Redhawk questions.

[Mabs2]

EDIT:  I think I got the name wrong.  It's a double action revolver not a single action. 

Old friend of my dad's goes shooting with us today and mentions that he has a Ruger Redhawk giving him troubles.
He buys it from a gun shop with the story that a guy came in, bought it new, took it home and his wife let him keep it about 15 minutes and had to bring it back.
Now that he's got it, it's firing quite a long distance to the left (I believe he said more than a foot).  The rear sight is adjustable, and is already as far to the right as possible.  Now, we haven't benched it and fired it on paper yet, but my question is:  What could cause this?  I looked it over and everything looks great to me.  The crown is fine, all the chambers are fine, etc.  Only thing I see is the front sight has some marks on the left side, like someone tried adjusting it...which could be the cause of the problem but to me it doesn't look like it's moved at all.
We looked up the serial number on the Ruger website to maybe find out about warranty info...it was manufactured in 1981.  So it's not new, apparently.  Second question:  Is there anything we should know about such an old revolver (Seriously, the thing is immaculate with very very VERY little signs of anything other than a couple rounds going through it.)?  He was talking about trading it for a Browning Buckmark or a .22LR Revolver and I think it might be worth more than that.

[mtnbkr]

Crooked barrel that needs to be turned a tad to the left.  If it has marks on the left, maybe someone turned the barrel to the right.  That would make it shoot left.  Or maybe just shooter error.  I tend to shoot to the left as well, though adjustable sights have more than enough movement to get me on the bullseye.

Value is hard to gauge.  There are so many of them, you can still find them for low prices.  I still sometimes see good used versions in the mid to high 300s, though that is becoming more rare.

Send it to Ruger.  They will make it right.

Chris

[Mabs2]

Crooked barrel that needs to be turned a tad to the left.  If it has marks on the left, maybe someone turned the barrel to the right.  That would make it shoot left.  Or maybe just shooter error.  I tend to shoot to the left as well, though adjustable sights have more than enough movement to get me on the bullseye.

Value is hard to gauge.  There are so many of them, you can still find them for low prices.  I still sometimes see good used versions in the mid to high 300s, though that is becoming more rare.

Send it to Ruger.  They will make it right.

Chris

So Ruger will take care of the problem (if any...my uncle or I haven't fired it personally)?  Not familiar at all with Ruger's customer service.

And as for the marks, they're definitely indicative of someone trying to do something to the front sight...not sure if it knocked the barrel around or not. 
Thanks, though, I'll pass it along.

[Inor]

Not familiar at all with Ruger's customer service.

My one experience with Ruger's customer service was awesome.  About 10 years ago I took my wife to the range on her birthday and let her pick out the pistol she wanted as a birthday present.  She picked a Ruger single-action .22 mag (we are both into single action pistols - like the Blackhawk.)  Anyway, after we paid for it and went down to the range to shoot, we found that it only fired about one out of three rounds.  It turned out the firing pin was blunted, no doubt from other customers at the range dry firing it before we bought it.  Ruger not only fixed the problem no questions asked, but also sent us a couple hundred rounds for the trouble and got it sent to our house.  (Our state does not allow firearms to be shipped to anybody that does not have a dealer's license, but they managed it somehow.)

[bedlamite]

First, someone else needs to shoot it. It mat be a turned barrel, or it may be the shooter:

right hand target
left hand target

If more than one person has the same problem, call Ruger customer service. Understand that any work like trigger jobs or spring kits will be gone when you get it back. You said it was made in 1981, so it's no problem. There is no way I would send back an older 3 screw model, they convert them to transfer bar and no longer return the original parts.

[Mabs2]

My one experience with Ruger's customer service was awesome.  About 10 years ago I took my wife to the range on her birthday and let her pick out the pistol she wanted as a birthday present.  She picked a Ruger single-action .22 mag (we are both into single action pistols - like the Blackhawk.)  Anyway, after we paid for it and went down to the range to shoot, we found that it only fired about one out of three rounds.  It turned out the firing pin was blunted, no doubt from other customers at the range dry firing it before we bought it.  Ruger not only fixed the problem no questions asked, but also sent us a couple hundred rounds for the trouble and got it sent to our house.  (Our state does not allow firearms to be shipped to anybody that does not have a dealer's license, but they managed it somehow.)

Are the Blackhawks the single actions?  This must be a Redhawk.  It's double action with single action capable.

First, someone else needs to shoot it. It mat be a turned barrel, or it may be the shooter:

http://www.hsoi.com/resources/correction_chart-lefthanded.gif

If more than one person has the same problem, call Ruger customer service. Understand that any work like trigger jobs or spring kits will be gone when you get it back. You said it was made in 1981, so it's no problem. There is no way I would send back an older 3 screw model, they convert them to transfer bar and no longer return the original parts.

From what the guy said, it was shooting so far to the left that it either had to be the gun, or him extremely doin it rong.  I'll keep that in mind though, thanks.  Also, is this a left handed target?  (@ URL)  And yea, I got the name wrong.  My bad...it's a REDHAWK (I guess).  And yea, If it was a 3-screw single action I'd probably buy it off of him any way possible.

[mtnbkr]

Are the Blackhawks the single actions?  This must be a Redhawk.  It's double action with single action capable.
From what the guy said, it was shooting so far to the left that it either had to be the gun, or him extremely doin it rong.  I'll keep that in mind though, thanks.  Also, is this a left handed target?  (@ URL)  And yea, I got the name wrong.  My bad...it's a REDHAWK (I guess).  And yea, If it was a 3-screw single action I'd probably buy it off of him any way possible.

Ok, I would say barrel turning is now less likely.  That's a common way to fix a SA that isn't shooting to POA, but not typically used on a DA like the Redhawk.  Send it to Ruger.  They will make it right.  That said, bench test it first.  It may be shooter error, though I doubt it at the extreme you're talking about.  Like Bed said, if more than one person has that problem, send it in.

Great gun though, I have one as well.  If you handload, this month's Handloader has an article about Redhawk specific loads. 

Chris

[Mabs2]

Ok, I would say barrel turning is now less likely.  That's a common way to fix a SA that isn't shooting to POA, but not typically used on a DA like the Redhawk.  Send it to Ruger.  They will make it right.  That said, bench test it first.  It may be shooter error, though I doubt it at the extreme you're talking about.  Like Bed said, if more than one person has that problem, send it in.

Great gun though, I have one as well.  If you handload, this month's Handloader has an article about Redhawk specific loads. 

Chris

Indeed, it's a very sweet gun.  I can't wait to try it out.  I'd enjoy having it.
That's pretty much the plan, shoot it and see what happens and then send it off if it's borked.  Mainly just wanted to see how Ruger was about this sort of stuff and if maybe it was something easily fixable that we missed.

[mtnbkr]

Don't worry about Ruger.  They will fix it, even if it was due to abuse.

Chris

[Doggy Daddy]

@Bedlamite:

You got the right handed version of that target handy?  (so, is Bill The Cat a southpaw??)

DD

[bedlamite]

Fixed, it was in my stack of bookmarks and I didn't look at it close enough.

[Mabs2]

Word.  Well, we shot it today and discovered that while we suck at shooting revolvers, there's nothing wrong with this one in particular.
Seems to be fine.  I just don't think the guy realizes how much it's worth, as he mentioned trading it for a single Browning Buckmark. 
We'll see what happens.

[AZRedhawk44]

The heavier-recoiling a revolver, the more likely a shooter new to that revolver is to mess up the shot.

When I first started shooting the .44, I was hitting about 18" to the right at 50 yards.  I'm a southpaw, so my right shots would correlate to your left shots.

It wasn't the sights, it wasn't the barrel being crooked.  It was me not knowing how to hold the gun so that the recoil wouldn't off-center it in the web of my hand before the bullet left the barrel.  Improper hold with a handgun can result in the bullet going the completely wrong way even though the sights are on target... not unlike failure to acquire "Natural Point of Aim" with a rifle can result in a shot going wildly askew.

You cannot light-grip a Redhawk, and expect to hit your target.

You have to wrap your mitt around it and straddle the exposed metal backstrap with the meat of your palm, and give the grip a firm handshake with your bottom three fingers.  Not so much that you induce tremble from muscle tension, but enough that your pinky is securing the bottom edge of the metal backstrap against your palm.  Your thumb wraps around the grip and pushes to the "outside" with the same amount of force that your hand naturally causes to come to the "inside".

The Redhawk grip isn't for everyone... you gotta have some BIG hands to shoot a Redhawk comfortably and properly.  If you can't manage the grip, then consider a Super Redhawk (smaller GP-style grip stud) or a Smith 629 instead.

[Mabs2]

After adjusting the sights, both of our shots started landing lower than point of aim...
I have pretty small hands but my uncle doesn't, he was eventually able to get consistent, and for the most part I was hitting what I wanted, every cylinder I'd have a shot or two land low again.
I like it.  It's a sweet gun.  The grip is pretty large for me but it's fun to shoot, but I might just not have the hands for such a big gun.

[mtnbkr]

Few do.  The factory wood grips are small, but too small for me and hot loads.

Chris