I bought a Ruger Redhawk in 44 magnum with a 7.5" barrel. Grips looked and felt good, didn't think it was too far off my Bisley. At the range I didn't find the grip angle on the Redhawk very good in practice however. I think they made it easy for me to pull left, a problem I don't normally have. Also, late in a shooting session when fatigue starts setting in and technique starts to slip, I discovered that not having a good grip on the gun made for a painful reminder when the trigger guard smacks the knuckle on the second finger.
I saw a really good deal on a set of Hogue Pau Ferro grips and picked them up. A friend of mine from work gave me a 12 lb Wolff spring that he had bought for a Redhawk that he found already had a reduced pull spring in it when he took delivery of the gun. I was happy to get that too, because I like the Redhawk but the DA trigger is no S&W.
So this morning I took it all apart, installed the new spring, and reassembled. Everything went together right, but I was getting a bind-y kind of feel out of the trigger, and about every 6th pull it would bind solid, then free up again. So, when I ran into that I ended up pulling the hammer and spring and trigger assembly and then carefully reassembling it a couple times, because I didn't want to put the grips on til I was sure it was right. One of these times the trigger guard detent/spring fell out of the frame and off the table, and I had to get down on the carpet and look for the spring. While I was down there I found it, but I also saw while I was looking around a little stud/detent looking thing with a spring on it.
Went to a parts diagram, and sure enough, it was the pawl spring and plunger. The first time I took the trigger assembly out, the pawl fell out of its hole in the trigger casting, and the plunger and spring must have zoomed over my shoulder unnoticed by me when it happened.
Reassembled the pistol and everything was hunky dory. In fact I had reassembled it correctly the first time, but the action couldn't work properly without the pawl plunger and spring. I think it's an amazing stroke of good luck that the trigger guard latch retaining ring came off the latch, allowing the latch and spring to fall to the floor, or I never would have found the pawl plunger and spring that I had unknowingly lost when I first took the trigger assembly out of the gun.
My thoughts on the 12 lb spring: it's a good improvement. Hopefully I get no light primer strikes, because it now feels much closer to a S&W DA pull than a stock Redhawk DA pull, which is pretty long and hard.
My thoughts on the Hogue grips: they have a nice palm swell and definitely fill the hand better. They also lower your second finger knuckle so that it isn't directly behind the trigger guard. Should be more forgiving if you pull the trigger without having a death grip on the revolver late in the day.
I had to order a large S&W pistol case to store the Redhawk, because the Hogue grips won't fit in the Ruger case. Felt a little conflicted about storing my Ruger in a S&W box, but it will fit and it was less than $20 shipped. Apologies to the late Bill Ruger.
I saw a really good deal on a set of Hogue Pau Ferro grips and picked them up. A friend of mine from work gave me a 12 lb Wolff spring that he had bought for a Redhawk that he found already had a reduced pull spring in it when he took delivery of the gun. I was happy to get that too, because I like the Redhawk but the DA trigger is no S&W.
So this morning I took it all apart, installed the new spring, and reassembled. Everything went together right, but I was getting a bind-y kind of feel out of the trigger, and about every 6th pull it would bind solid, then free up again. So, when I ran into that I ended up pulling the hammer and spring and trigger assembly and then carefully reassembling it a couple times, because I didn't want to put the grips on til I was sure it was right. One of these times the trigger guard detent/spring fell out of the frame and off the table, and I had to get down on the carpet and look for the spring. While I was down there I found it, but I also saw while I was looking around a little stud/detent looking thing with a spring on it.
Went to a parts diagram, and sure enough, it was the pawl spring and plunger. The first time I took the trigger assembly out, the pawl fell out of its hole in the trigger casting, and the plunger and spring must have zoomed over my shoulder unnoticed by me when it happened.
Reassembled the pistol and everything was hunky dory. In fact I had reassembled it correctly the first time, but the action couldn't work properly without the pawl plunger and spring. I think it's an amazing stroke of good luck that the trigger guard latch retaining ring came off the latch, allowing the latch and spring to fall to the floor, or I never would have found the pawl plunger and spring that I had unknowingly lost when I first took the trigger assembly out of the gun.
My thoughts on the 12 lb spring: it's a good improvement. Hopefully I get no light primer strikes, because it now feels much closer to a S&W DA pull than a stock Redhawk DA pull, which is pretty long and hard.
My thoughts on the Hogue grips: they have a nice palm swell and definitely fill the hand better. They also lower your second finger knuckle so that it isn't directly behind the trigger guard. Should be more forgiving if you pull the trigger without having a death grip on the revolver late in the day.
I had to order a large S&W pistol case to store the Redhawk, because the Hogue grips won't fit in the Ruger case. Felt a little conflicted about storing my Ruger in a S&W box, but it will fit and it was less than $20 shipped. Apologies to the late Bill Ruger.
