Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Ruger Redhawk...44 or 45?

Looking at picking up a Ruger Redhawk and I am trying to figure out which caliber to go with. Any reason to choose the 44 over the 45 or vice versa?

I know the 44rem vs 45colt discussion has gone on for a while but would love to know if the platform is more conducive to one cartridge over the other.

I am looking at the 4" model right now and if the 44 is chose, may consider the 5" version.

Are you going to handload, or are you using factory fodder? If factory fodder, which caliber has a better selection locally?

Both are good choices, and performance will be similar when loaded to the guns potential. Personally I'm partial to the larger bores, so would lean towards the 45, but I jumped from the 44 to the 480 and have never owned a 45.

If yo uplan on handloading the 45 will give you a tad more power and heavier bullets when loaded full bore. But if you are buying factory the 44 is much easier to find and usually cheaper.

I love my 44 Redhawk.
Full power loads are fun
And handloads of 240 gr JFP's over 9 gr of Unique are fun to shoot all day long.

+1

I hand load for my Blackhawk and love the 45Colt... But would not want to buy Factory Ammo.

To answer the reloading question, I will plan on reloading as I do with most of my firearms but honestly, it will probably be give a diet of 50/50 factory and handloads.

44 mag. You can go ANYWHERE is the USA and you'll find on the shelves of Mom And Pop stores in Nowhereville-30-06.308 Win.22 LR 357 mag,38 spl. 44Mag,12 gauge. Run short of ammo?? Fergit it by accident?? Go buy 44 ANYWHERE

IME Ruger .44 revolvers have all ranged from accurate to extremely accurate, and that covers several SBH�s, about 3 or 4 Redhawks and one SRH. Ruger .45 Colt revolvers have been spotty, some accurate and some not so, even after tweaking. But my .45 experience only covers about 5 or 6 Blackhawks (including a couple of stainless Bisley models) and one New Vaquero so maybe their Redhawks are different.

Agree with others about handloading vs factory and availability in general.

Another thing to consider is that, and maybe this is just a personal thing, but I think the .45 simply belongs in SA revolvers. Many, or even most, might not think that a big deal but aesthetically I very much associate the Colt with SA's.

I've got a .44 Redhawk myself and like it. (it's the 7.5" though) Obviously at some point I'm ALSO going to need a .45. Maybe a nice Bisley Vaquero.

my experience as well
My SBH is super accurate. ( much more so than the nut behind the sites )
If I could shoot it faster, I'd use it for bowling pins!

Not sure if this is still an issue, but I remember a few years ago Ruger 45s were notorious for having small throats, resulting in poor accuracy, it may have just been a blackhawk/single action issue. Not a big deal if you are capable of reaming them out to the right size though.

That's true, and you can either ream them by hand (gunsmiths would crucify me if I told how I did it) or send the cylinder out to get the throats opened - there are at least two folks I know about who do a good job with this and the one I used was excellent. Many if not most of the Ruger .45 throats I've checked in the last few years have run about .450-.451" with bores right at .452".

OTOH, Ruger .44 throats are generally spot on, running .430 to .431".

The other thing that hampers the .45's is the constriction at the frame junction. When they screw that barrel in tight, it constricts the bore about a thousandth, sometimes a hair more. The .45's are worse than the .44's simply due to the fact that the .45's have less metal around them. So even with proper throats you get a bullet sized to .451 and then left to bounce around the rest of the .452" barrel. Okay, "bounce around" is an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

That is also fixable with firelapping but you have to be careful lest you ruin a good revolver by overdoing it. (Don't ask me how I know that, either! )

However, I wouldn't put too much worry into these dimensional musings. They are of interest more to revolver loonies than to people who just want to hit a proper sized target.

I now own no .44 Magnum Rugers, my Blackhawk Bisley is a .45 Colt and is entirely adequate while my only .44 is a .44 Special Flattop (two of them). But to reiterate, have only measured the latest Bisley .44 Flattop but it is dimensionally perfect - .431 throats and a .429" bore with almost zero frame constriction - while the .45 did start off with tight throats.

I asked the same question a few months ago and had the same plan as you. I went with the 44 in a SBH and love it.

Tons of good information in this post. It all squares with my experiences.

War Eagle, what are you going to do with this revolver?


Okie John

get the 44mag and don't look back
..

.44 Rem Mag.

No flies on the .45 and if you handload you can equal (or maybe slightly surpass) the .44, BUT if you ever need to buy factory ammo it is another story.

I traded my Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 Mag 'cause the recoil aggrevated a C-6 problem in my old neck. (I kept my Dan Wesson 44 Mag for sentimental reasons.)

But I still have Rugers and other handguns as well in the venerable ol' 45 Colt Caliber ... (One of my Favorite Cal's.)

The 45 Colt gets my vote!


(Hmm ... But "Factory" 45 Colt ammo HAS been big a problem as of late.)

Let me throw this in, I've got a .44 and a .41 Redhawk. The .44 is very accurate but I hunt with the .41 more.

This topic is always good for a little arguing, truth is, you can't go wrong with either. Just buy or better yet, load the correct ammo for the task & you can handle about anything.
I've never really bought into the argument of finding ammo in all the backwoods stores, my goodness, if you're going hunting wouldn't you be sure to take enough ammo?
I've taken a lot of game with both & really haven't seen much difference in killing ability, again it goes back to correct loads, eith make them or buy them & start shooting.
Lynn Thompson killed a "ton" of game in Australia using a Redhawk 44 maggie & 300 gr XTP factory ammo, everything from big old nasty buffalo to huge wild boar, no problems. Personally I would have preferred the 45 with heavy cast slugs but his video has some dramatic kills with that 44!

Dick

Agreed. The bit of extra power you could potentially gain with the .45 by handloading is negated by the .44's ease of procurement.