Contemplating DA .45Colt?

A

AndABeer

New member
For some reason an urge for a DA in .45 Colt has taken hold. Top considerations are 5.5" Redhawk or a 625 (preferably with a hammer mounted firing pin and not a mountain gun). I would be handloading it from light to heavy loads. I am open to other suggestions too.
 
Ruger Redhawk stainless in 5.5inch

Redhawks have ample strength to handle the lower pressure 45Colt, since it was made for the 44Mag which operate at higher pressures.
 
If you want it for heavy loads and double action you're going to be limited to the Redhawk, Taurus Raging Bull or Anaconda (if you can find one). The Smith is a nice gun but not up to heavy 45 Colts.

I'd go with the 5.5" Redhawk as Frohickey suggests. Strongest, cheapest and most readily available.
 
I have a Ruger Redhawk .45 Colt - it will handle those heavy .45 Colt loads, BUT you might want to try a set of Pachmayr Decelerator grips. I discovered I needed them to tame the recoil when I was shooting with those little wood factory grips! NG Bruce
 
It might not be stout enough for real heavy 45LC loads but I have a S&W 25-3 that is an ever loving SHOOTER! Thing is a joy to shoot because it's just downright accurate. I love N-frames but of the 4 N-frames I own my 45LC is the most satisfying one that I own, just so proud of the thing and pleased with it that it's rediculous.


My recommendation would be for you the S&W gun in 45LC, just one heck of a gun
 
If you go the Redhawk route, be advised that it is now not uncommon at all for Ruger to ship guns with undersized cylinder throats. I wouldn't bother telling you this, but the last 3 .45 Colt Rugers I've purchased have all had this malady. I've found it next to impossible to get good accuracy when the cylinder swages your .451 bullets down to .449 or so.

Last time I checked it was getting 3"-4" groups at 25 yards, iron sights or scoped.

Hopefully you can find someone with a Brownells chamber reamer who'll fix it for you for $20. If not, you're stuck buying $100 worth of tools to fix it yourself. You could try sending it back to Ruger, but some have said they had no success doing this.

I solved the problem with my Redhawk by saying the hell with it and putting it up for sale in the hopes of buying an older .44 mag. or .45 Colt Smith and Wesson. Extreme? Yes. But personally, I don't feel like it ought to be my job to fix what they screwed up, since I gave nearly $500 for my gun. I will no longer be buying any Rugers of any kind until the myriad QC issues are dealt with. Judging by the last 5 Ruger handguns I've purchased since 2001, I don't think I'll be missing much.
 
I have 2 25-5 smiths and 3 rugers in 45 colt, if you want to shoot moderate loads accurately and with smooth single and double action I would have to say I enjoy my 25's the most, if I want hot then I will pack the 41 or 44. :)
 
REDHAWK, OF COURSE

I mounted Decelerators and a Millett orange-ramp front sight blade.
For IPSC use M29 HKS speedloaders and Sparks HSR (had to wait a while for that one -- no 'mule').
Gun currently running a Ruger gold-bead front sight, but I think I'm a bit blind for it.

My chambers were fine.

Easy-shooting 300g XTP-HP @ 1309fps, but still recoils :eek:

More or less is available, unlike some others................
 
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