This is just an average group with the Super Redhawk: five shots into just a hair under two inches at 50 yards. The load is Cor-Bon's 225-grain DPX.

Once a shooter owns a Super Redhawk for a while it starts to look a lot prettier. The superb accuracy, controllable recoil and solid-as-a-tank feel inspire confidence. And when you drop six rounds into the massive cylinder and it swings shut and locks up like a bank-vault door, you know you are carrying a gun you can count on.

LIMITED VARIATIONS
Ruger has offered the Super Redhawk in limited variations. Originally, you could have any finish you wanted--as long as it was matte stainless. Now some models are available with what Ruger calls a Target Gray finish. Barrel lengths are likewise limited. You can choose a 7 1/2- or 9 1/2-inch hunting barrel or the snubnose Alaskan with 21?2-inch barrel. That leaves a lot of useful barrel lengths that are not available from the factory.

I have long felt that a five-inch barrel is just about ideal for a general-use bigbore double action, but barrels of this length are scarce in most revolver makes. I don't know why the manufacturers have shied away from this barrel length, but the few I have encountered were well balanced and a joy to shoot. The rarely encountered five-inch Model 29 Smith & Wesson is a good example.

I have what was a 7 1/2-inch Super Redhawk that I took a lot of game with over the past 14 years. But recently I found I reached for it less and less. Lately, I found I preferred to carry a Thompson/Center single-shot for most of my big-game hunting. The single-shot is not much heavier or more cumbersome in practical terms than the long-barreled scoped revolver and is available in calibers with more reach. For the past few years I have been mulling over what I could do to make the Super Redhawk more useful for my needs.

A CUSTOM SOLUTION
When I ran into Ken Kelly of Magnaport (www.magnaport.com) at the SHOT Show, I found the answer to my Super Redhawk dilemma. Kelly was named 2007 Pistolsmith of the Year by the American Pistolsmiths Guild for a reason, and an example of that reason was in the Magnaport SHOT Show booth. It was love at first sight when I picked up a Super Redhawk that had received what Ken calls his Advantage Custom Conversion.

At first I thought Ken had somehow reduced the dimensions of the frame, as the gun seemed so much lighter and more petite than my stock Super Redhawk.

But this was an illusion caused by the better balance and handling characteristics of the 4.8-inch barrel. The standard Advantage package includes cutting,recrowning and Magnaporting the barrel and reattaching the factory front sight. The Ruger warning label is removed from the barrel and replaced with the Advantage logo. Also, the action is tuned and the gun is given an attractive vapor-honed finish accented with jewelling on the hammer and trigger.

I decided on the spot that I wanted Ken to work his magic on my gun, and the Advantage package was a good starting point. It was very close to what I wanted my Super Redhawk to be, but not quite. I chose to forego the jewelling on the hammer and trigger and instead opted for a nice matte finish on these parts--I am a simple man with simple tastes.