A pair of Hawks

[cphilip]

Looks like I bought a pair of Stainless Steel Redhawks today. The selling shop made me a deal if I took them both so I guess I did alright and probably will take the pick of the litter and then let a buddy have the other. They are both .44 Magnums.

They both are pretty much identical but with different scopes on them. A Leupold on one and a Weaver on the other. A little bit of pitting on one of them but will be fairly easy to bead blast finish that one out and get it all gone. Its very light. They both are tight and shoot well according to the selling shop who has fired them. These are not the Hunters so they have the block type mounts that fit the rear sight screw attachment. Which is actually a better placement most users find. They are both 7.5 inch barrels.

I paid $450 each for them shipped, delivered and since he was in state Sales tax too. I would have liked to done a bit better but with scopes and all thats not too bad from what I have seen.

Number one (with Leupold scope and mount):



Number two (with Weaver scope and unknown mount)



by they way... I have seen a lot of SS finish Redhawks with a few little rash type pits in them here and there. Very shallow pitting. What is the cause of this as it seems fairly common?

Hopefully one of them will fill my big caliber revolver niche'.

Here are a couple shots the seller has sent me. I expect to have them in hand in a few days.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[retsupt99]

You mean $450 each, right?

[cphilip]

hahahahaha.... yea.... sorry I scared you like that. I WISH it was for the pair. I'll go back and edit to clarify. I figured it is about like paying a decent price for them and getting the scopes and mounts free? Something along that lines.

[kpw]

Nice deal on both! $450 for a Redhawk with a Leupie mounted is a fantastic deal. As for the pitting, stainless steel isn't completely stainless unless it's 300 series and that's not used for firearms. Seems minor so that's no big deal.

[cphilip]

Yea. I must have seen some on at least half the ones I looked at. here and there. I think though that if I take that one apart and Glass Bead blast it then it will look really super with that finish on it. I love a bead blasted finish in SS and this gives me the excuse to do it really so...

[cphilip]

Let me see if this one shows up the piting on the one gun.... it was taken to do so, by a lot of flash at an angle to show it up (even exaggerate some). You see the sort of haze of it on the barrel? Very shallow too so should easily disappear when with a glass bead and look cool too.



Would end up like this bead blasted SS 1911 in finish

[retsupt99]

hahahahaha.... yea.... sorry I scared you like that. I WISH it was for the pair. I'll go back and edit to clarify. I figured it is about like paying a decent price for them and getting the scopes and mounts free? Something along that lines.

Still, a very good deal.

[Stevew]

Send me the one with the Leupold.

[mprp]

Wow, that pitting is something new to me! I have a Super Redhawk and my uncle has a Redhawk and neither of us has had that happen. Maybe the original owner spilled solvent or something on them or stored them together and whatever got on them sat on the gun for a long period of time? Not sure and I'm not a metals specialist but it sure would be nice to know what happened so as to not to damage any other part of the gun. The inside of the barrel in particular!

[kpw]

From the pic it looks like someone might have cleaned it up a bit with scotchbright. As long as the bore, chamber and internals are good, no problem. I think that bead blast finish would look great. Please post some pics when you get it done.

[cphilip]

They were not owned by the same person as a pair. I found them in a gun shop who happened to have the pair of them. Other than that the one is mint and the other one is completely mint but has a slightly lesser scope on it. I wasn't too concerned because I knew a bead blasting would take care of it and give me the excuse to do it. Plus they are easy to take apart. He was concerned so he had marked the pitted one down about 50 bucks less than the other. He seemed to want to move them but we had to overcome the in state sales tax thing and the fact he was 4 hours away too so I had to pay a transfer fee rather than go get them (or chose too anyway)

The only other one I found around here to look at had pitting, the very same looking as that but in three round areas about the size of the head of a pencil and just around the top of the grip.

[shooterX]

Awesome deal, congrats!

[cphilip]

Some others have suggested that the pitting is from a previous rust event. And reportedly often found on these under the grip frames where water can get trapped and go undiscovered. In this ones case I would imagine it may have been left in a wet holster after a hunt. Then the owner cleaned it off with scotchbrite but the pitting remains. This sounds plausible to me.

One thing is fairly common on these guns is they may be carried a lot but they are not shot that much due to the cost of ammo. Many of them have less than 500-1000 rounds down the pipe in their life spans.

[HotGuns]

The only thing I have seen pit a gun like that is blood. Blood on stainless or blue that is left for any amount of time will do that. I saw pitting much like that when a friend of mine shot a good buck and he took pictures of it with his rifle laying on it. After got done with everything, he stuck the rifle back in the case and left it behind the seat of his truck.

A few months later when he pullled it out,the bottom of the barrel that layed up against the buck was pitted pretty badly. The blood and I guess sweat, from that deer ate it up. It was amazing really. He tryed to clean it up with scotchbrite but it never did remove it. It is still there and will always be to remind him that he should have wiped his gun off.

Congrats on the purchase. I love the Ruger Redhawks. One of their better guns I think.

[cphilip]

Well they will rust. We do know that. So anything slightly caustic left in contact for a period is certainly suspect.

They are tanks. Overbuilt really.