Buying a .44M, S&W 629 or Ruger Redhawk?

[SkyPup]

I've had a scoped Thompson Center with a 12 inch barrel and a 1.5X TC scope in .44Mag for >25 years and every deer and hog within 100 yards has dropped with one shot.

 

[Sigarms]

SkyPup

Captain Kirk with a light saber (ok, I'm not geeky enough to know for sure how to spell "saber") HAVE YOU GONE MADD!!!!!!

 

[BillyP]

I'm buying a new deer gun and have narrowed the choice down to these 2 guns. Anyone care to help me get it down to 1? Pro's/con's? Experience?

I had the Ruger Redhawk (not Super) and didn't like it. It just didn't fit.

Later on and way after the Redhawk, I bought a S&W 629 Classic (not to be confused with a 629). I find it well balance and a pleasure to shoot.

I think your best bet would be to, if at all possible, try both guns out.

What one person will cuss, another will praise...

 

[fishman]

I've shot a lot of S&W guns and a lot of Ruger guns and they've all been good. Smith and Wesson revolvers will likely have a smoother trigger pull and be a little "classier" and perhaps better fitted than Rugers, but you will pay a bit extra for it. I own the Ruger Super Redhawk in 44 mag and think that the scope mounting system is far superior to the S&W, and it's included in the price. So if you were mounting a scope, I think the Ruger has a definite edge. It is generally accepted that the Ruger will stand up to heavier loads better than the Smith, although I've yet to shoot one loose yet.

Bottom line, shoot them both, if possible, and chose the one with the best combination of features and price that you like.

 

[BillyP]

I'll add more thing to this thread, Warranty. Not that you'll ever have any problems with warranty issues, none will beat Ruger.

 

[RobertN]

Smith and Wesson revolvers will likely have a smoother trigger pull and be a little "classier" and perhaps better fitted than Rugers, but you will pay a bit extra for it.

This was my thought too, mentioned above. A S&W might have cost more, but by the time I had my Ruger tuned, it cost more in the end. It had to be tuned to get it up to what S&W has done out of the box, much less exceed that.

Once it had a little tuning though, the Ruger shot rather nicely. I have since sold it. My wife has the same Blackhawk, a bicentennial version. It is very smooth. It has been well taken care of, and has no modification/tuning. The one I had way was mid 80's vintage. Others I have expierience with were 80's and 90's vintage.

I'm the only one to chime in to this thread about the Desert Eagles; the ones I have shot were pretty smooth right out of the box. Mine was really sweet after some work, but out of the box it was still really nice.

 

[cp1969]

I have both except my Smith is a 4" M29.

Most of the guns described in the previous posts are not what I would call sidearms. Long barrels, scopes, various sights, etc, are all mechanisms to try to make a pistol competitive with a rifle for hunting. A little carbine would be easier for me to carry than some of these huge hand cannons.

Elmer Keith, who took many, many head of big game with his sixguns, never (to my knowledge) hunted with a pistol.

As far as Redhawk vs. 629 goes, you can't go wrong with either one. I have shot my Redhawk a lot more but I've owned it a lot longer. My Smith, with it's 4" barrel, compared to the 5 1/2" of the Redhawk, is every bit as accurate. Either, with my junk reloads using home-made wheel weight bullets, will shoot minute-of-washing-machine groups at at least 200 yards from a plain old standing position. We have shot and hit things at distances that astonish many people. 55 gallon drums across a diagonal 20 acre field can be plunked more often than not with a little practice; this is not particularly hard to do even with open sights. Fit and finish-wise, the Ruger seems almost crude in direct comparison but as far as function goes, it's a toss up with durability "probably" going to the Ruger, mainly because of it's locking system. But very, very few people are going to wear out a Smith.

Most people want to turn these things into cannons, but if you load to about the 1200 fps level, they are very comfortable to shoot, even the 4" barrels. 1200 fps is more than enough to take big game up to 150 yards or so and more velocity only serves to flatten the trajectory slightly--it doesn't materially increase the killing power and the muzzle blast and recoil is much worse.

 

[RobertN]

The 44Mag has a propensity for accuracy. From the reloading books I've read, and Ken Waters "PetLoads" articles, the round is pretty impressive.

From my expierience with my Desert Eagle, and those of friends, as well as the 8" 629 the accuracy has been excellent. Shooting chicken silhoettes at 100m is pretty good proof.

Another plus when handloading is loads for 44mag and 44spl. My buddy with the 629 has a basic load that is very accurate at 100 yards. Once that was worked out, he loaded a lead Kieth bullet in 44spl. He worked that load till he had good accuracy at 50 yards. Both were right on, without sight adjustment.

All shooting we did/do with pistol is open site.

 

[Slamfire]

If it was me, I'd have a Super Blackhawk with a 5 hole cylinder chambered for .45 LC. You can safely exceed the .454 with judicious handloads in a gun like that! Your choice would leave me with the Redhawk, I still haven't forgiven S&W for the original sin, a few years back.

 

[RonMar]

I have shot both and I own a Ruger Redhawk. That is the standard model Redhawk with the scope mounts. I have hunted with it for years with a 2X Leopold stainless scope. Very durable gun, excellent accuracy with handloads. I added a lighter weight mainspring kit and polished the trigger, hammer and well. This added maybe $40-$50 to the overall cost for kit, well stone and emery cloth, and a couple evenings time in front of the TV as it is very easy to do. It is so accurate, my favorite round for deer was a 180GR silouette bullet. This load shoots extremely flat out to 100 yards and I relied on being able to punch a hole through the vitals and not bullet expansion to get the job done. Very little meat damage this way and that is why I hunt. I did a lot with this gun, Hunt, 200 meter Silouette, Combat courses, Bowling pin matches, ect. Probably the most versatile handgun I own as it can be loaded up such as the 315GR cast rondnose bullets(with gascheck) that I would run at max velocity(bear loads for AK. Or loaded down to light load 44 specials depending on the task. My wife likes it better than the 9MM as it is more stable to shoot and the recoil is not so abrupt when loaded with 44SPC. As mentioned, if you can, fire both. I was more impressed with the robust build of the Redhawk and nearly 20 years of using it has not changed that impression.