This year marks the 20th anniversary of Ruger's Super Redhawk. The story of how this popular hunting handgun came to be is an interesting one. Back in 1986 Bill Ruger considered redesigning the standard Redhawk by incorporating a grip and trigger mechanism based on the GP100 design. The GP100 .357 Magnum was selling well and was clearly superior to the older Ruger double-action design.

The author's Super Redhawk was customized by Ken Kelly of Magnaport. Enhanced handling characteristics and improved sights, including a set of Crimson Trace LaserGrips, make it a useful trail or camp gun.

The GP100 uses separate coil springs for the hammer and trigger rather than one spring for both functions as was and still is used in the standard Redhawk. This dual-spring design makes for a better trigger pull. The grip-frame design of the GP100 also allows for a wide variety of grip shapes and sizes, although Ruger has not fully taken advantage of this feature and offers limited grip styles.

If there had not been a rare but worrisome problem with the Redhawk barrel mounting, the Redhawk would have received a redesign of the GP100 grip and action and the Super Redhawk likely would not have come to be. With rough usage and high-volume firing, the barrel shank of the Redhawk would sometimes break due to stress corrosion cracking. This is why the frame on the Super Redhawk was extended to the end of the ejector-rod housing. It provided for longer threads on the barrel shank and a more solid barrel-to-frame mount. The extended frame, incidentally, made it easy to incorporate a solid scope mount in the frame. Thus the Super Redhawk was born.

Ruger intended to drop the standard Redhawk once production of the Super Redhawk began, but in the interim the problem with the barrel shank on the Redhawk was found to be an easy one to remedy. It turned out to be the lubricant used to mount the barrel. Once that was corrected there were no further problems with the original Redhawk design, and it remains in production today.

This is the author's Super Redhawk in its original factory form with a 7 1/2-inch barrel. It served him well and took a variety of game, but sometimes firearms enthusiasts yearn for something a little different.

Pretty is as pretty doesSome shooters are turned off by the looks of the Super Redhawk and the hefty weight due to the massive extended frame and heavy bull barrel. But these features make the gun a pleasure to shoot and practically indestructible. Even the potent .454 Casull chambering is manageable in this handgun, and the shooter need not worry about beating the gun into an early demise with extensive use of hot loads.

Super Redhawks also tend to be very accurate, and the integral scope mount allows the shooter to take full advantage of that accuracy. The solid mounting of the massive steel rings to the steel receiver allows the scope to be removed and replaced easily without changing the point of impact. Some shooters have problems with the mounting screws loosening under recoil, but this is easily remedied with a larger screwdriver. You have to clamp down those big screws firmly.