Tag Archives: ruger

Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan

pistols, Product review, Shooting hardware, , , ,

Powerful revolvers carry more than just a cylinder full of cartridges, they also carry some mystique. The hero of every old western film always had a big iron to deal justice, while that may not be our purpose here today it’s nice to keep it in mind. Today we are taking a closer look at the Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan.

Alaskan?
The Super Redhawk line of pistols from Ruger has a long history of performance, but what does the Alaskan do you might say? I suppose the Alaskan model was purpose built thinking of those who might spend time up north, and prefer not to be without six doses of bear medicine. The Super Redhawk Alaskan is a stainless steel double-action revolver, a hammer forged 2.5 inch barrel, and comes with a Hogue Tamer grip to keep a good hold of the gun. You’ll need a good grip because the Alaskan’s robust cylinder has holes bored for six cartridges in only three calibers; .44 Remington mag, 454 Casull, and .480 Ruger. These powerful choices in chambering are nothing to shake a stick at as my father would say, and certainly enough to make even a brown bear reconsider you as a snack.

Loading 300 grain .454 Casull rounds

Considerate size
Despite the large chamberings for the Redhawk, the pistol isn’t so big as to be cumbersome. The short barrel makes it a reasonable gun to carry in a holster, even if you are engaged in other activities. The Alaskan would be a great choice for fisherman who anticipate potential close encounters with awnry eight hundred pound salmon fishermen, or just someone who is out in rough country.
The Alaskan is big enough to stand up to the tasks of bear country, and yet small enough to bring along on a fly fishing trip. And even if you aren’t in the cold white north, it alway gives some solace to have a good strong pistol close. I’ve spent enough time in the incredibly dark and remote forests of northern Montana and Idaho to appreciate the comfort of that heavy steel piece riding on the hip. The extra 2.75 pounds is worth having to me.

A pair of Super Redhawks, note fluted cylinder of .44 Mag model

Shooting time
Shooting the Super Redhawk Alaskan was going to be expensive in today’s market. Especially since I had both the .44 Magnum model, and the 454 Casull to feed. Both pistols are dual chambered to allow for shooting lighter loads with .44 Special and .45 Colt cartridges. But I didn’t have any of those, so it was full house power loads from Hornady to test these guns.

I have shot plenty of .44 Magnum over the years, so shooting the Redhawk wasn’t significantly new. I did immediately notice the comfortable grip, which allowed excellent purchase to control the pistol. The 454 Casull pistol had a bit more power behind it, and you could feel it. Recoil and muzzle blast from the two are fairly comparable, with the Casull showing a bit more unsurprisingly. I was shooting 225 grain Horandy FTX ammunition in the .44 Magnum model, and in the .454 I was shooting Hornady’s 300 grain flat point.

Considering the purpose I initially mentioned for these pistols they shoot quite well, a dangerous game defensive pistol like this certainly needs to hit what your aiming at. I found both pistols to be easy enough to control despite the significant recoil from the heavy loads. Obviously that would change if an angry sow was charging at me, but I’d like to think I could shoot them well enough to hit a moving target at danger close distances.

The impressive power of the Super Redhawks wasn’t the only thing that stood out when shooting them. Both models felt fantastic in the hand, the soft rubber Hogue grips made them very comfortable to shoot. The quality of the operation also struck me, smooth controls and very clean breaking triggers added to the superior feeling of these pistols. The adjustable sights of the Alaskan aren’t exactly huge, they come across as pretty simple and no nonsense. That said I found them to be more than adequate for the purposes of relatively close shooting, that is to say anything inside of fifty-yards or so that rivaled the size of a paper plate was bound to be perforated with a big hole.

Ammunition for this article was supplied by Gun Mag Warehouse

Pros and Cons
I have always been a fan of Ruger’s revolvers, so it should come as no surprise that I found a great many things I like about the Super Redhawk Alaskan. First of all, it’s just a plain handsome design. It has all the classic and sexy features of the hero’s gun from the old westerns we watched as kids, and yet it has just enough modern flair to make it appealing as a modern firearm as well.
The simplicity of the Alaskan’s design also makes it very quick to put into service, the double-action design makes it ideal for a gun that needs to be jerked from the holster and immediately fired at inbound danger. The reliable operating system rolls the next chamber full of wrath right into position to deal one blow after another of heavy hitting power.
The quality finish of the pistol also makes it built to last, the Alaskan is built from stainless steel to protect it from the rough weather you’d be sure to encounter up north. The clean breaking trigger, triple locked cylinder, and modern transfer bar allow the gun to serve its power with finesse, precision and safety.

I had a really hard time coming up with cons for this pistol, it has a fairly specific purpose and it serves that purpose extremely well in my opinion. It wouldn’t be ideal for day to day carrying in places where dangerous predators over five-hundred pounds aren’t expected, it would be a bit heavy for a purpose like that. Though I won’t deny having conceal carried one of the Redhawks on multiple occasions, it’s not ideal for that purpose.
There is the obvious downside of having to feed these large and expensive cartridges to such a large pistol, but if you truly need a pistol like this I’d wager you are willing to pay quite a randsome to ensure it has plenty of ammo. Continue reading here

Ruger American 6.5 Creedmoor

Product review, Shooting hardware, , ,

I have had quite a few Ruger firearms over the years, and for the most part my experience with the company has been a good one. My first real rifle was a Ruger, and both family and friends have also used a bunch of different Ruger models over the years. I have always thought Ruger produced a good firearm for the price, today we will be taking my first look at the Ruger American line of rifles. I’m curious to see if they match up to my decades of experience with Ruger.

Go Wild
There are many different Ruger American models, but the one I will be looking at today is the Go Wild model. This model comes with custom Cerakote and camouflage, and its chambered in the very popular 6.5 Creedmoor. As I opened the box I thought it had a handsome look to it, but looks don’t go very far in these mountains so I wanted to see how it performed more than anything.
I lifted the gun from the box, and the first thing I though was it seemed lighter than it looked, if that makes sense. It was noticeably lighter than I expected it to be, and other comparable rifles nearby. This is obviously a good thing in my estimation, as I had planned on having my wife use the rifle during our hunting season. She is quite petite, so smaller and lighter is better.

With the gun shouldered, I ran the bolt a few times which felt better than I expected. The three-lug bolt of the American needs less lift to unlock from the breech, sixty-degrees of lift instead of the standard ninety-degrees. The smooth raceway had the bolt sliding very clean, and with the short lift it made it quick to reload.
The synthetic stock got my attention next, it came as no surprise that the stock felt a bit cheap. Its unfortunate that many gun manufacturers are using these very flexible polymer stocks, but it is also very predictable. And to be fair, if the gun shoots well I probably wont be complaining about the flexible stock too much. The barreled action has a nice Burnt Bronze Cerakote color, that goes well with the camo pattern on the stock. The muzzle of the twenty-two inch barrel is threaded 5/8-24 and comes with a radially ported brake to aid in recoil reduction. The barrel twist is a pretty standard one in eight.
The rifle is fed through a detachable box magazine compatible with AICS type magazines, this came as a pleasant surprise as I have an assortment of magazines I’d like to try in the rifle.
The tang mounted safety was easy to reach and manipulate, as was the bolt release on the left rear side of the action. The simple design was easily understood and in no time I was ready to outfit it. The gun came with a scope rail already mounted which made mounting a scope much easier. I mounted one of my scopes in a pair of Warne low rings, the US Optics TS25X fit perfectly on top of the rifle. Though I think I will also add a stock-pack to get a better cheekweld.

Range time
After getting the rifle setup with a scope, bipod and some ammo, it was time to get it hot. I arrived at one of my shooting spots with an assortment of ammunition, some Hornady Match 120 grain, as well as some Federal 130 grain Gold Medal ammunition. I had also brought some handloads of my favorite hunting load, which consisted of Cayuga solid copper bullets. I’ve used them several times in the past on both deer and elk, and if my better half was to use this rifle for hunting I wanted to see how it shot these bullets.
With a target set up at one hundred yards, I laid on my shooting mat to zero the little Ruger. Using the Hornady ammunition I zeroed the rifle, and fired a quick three-shot group.

I corrected the point of impact to correlate with my point of aim, and then it was time to have some fun. I tested my other ammo selections, and all of them shot very comparable which is always nice. I then turned my attention to the hill beyond my target, surely there was an opportunity to test this rifle at some longer ranges. With my binoculars I picked out a couple targets that were about ten inches in diameter. One of them I ranged at four-hundred and sixty yards, not too far but definitely something realistic for a deer in these mountains. After zeroing the turrets on my scope, I adjusted 2.1 MRAD of elevation to correct for the distance. The wind was dead calm, so I held center on the target, and pressed the trigger.

I hadn’t mentioned the trigger yet, but it was better than I expected it to be. I’m not a big fan of blade safeties on bolt action rifles, but this certainly hasn’t prevented a clean and easy break on this rifle. The trigger had no discernable friction, the only movement I noticed was when it broke.
I watched the bullet impact my target a little high of center, I need to chronograph these bullets from this rifle, as I think they are flying a little faster than I expected. I fired another shot to confirm, and then began a search for another even further target. I found one that measured eight-hundred yards away according to my rangefinder, this was a shot I was confident the little Ruger and I could make. I dialed 5.2 MRAD into the riflescope, and leveled up the rifle on my rear bag. Adjusting the parallax on my scope made a clear image of the target, all that was left was a clean release.
I could do this all day. The Ruger American was just a hoot to shoot, I was impressed with how much I liked it. I made this and several other shots at similar distances, until I was quite sure that the rifle would be suitable for a spot on our hunting team. The fun factor doubled when I installed my Yankee Hill Machine Nitro N20, the titanium suppressor added mere ounces to the rifle, and took away the need for hearing protection in this wide open country. Watching and hearing bullets impact at these great distances was very satisfying. Continue Reading Here…


Ruger EC9 9mm pistol

pistols, Product review, Shooting hardware, , , ,

Though I have been lucky to handle untold quantities of pistols over the years, I’d never consider myself an expert on the subject. I am a gun nut though, and that is the only qualification I can claim expertise in. I love a good pistol the same as the next guy, and today I’d like to present another new-to-me pistol: The Ruger EC9.

The EC9 with 7 round magazine and extended 10 round magazine

The EC9
I owned a Ruger pistol once, back in the nineties, the P89 was the first pistol I ever owned. It worked great for what I needed at the time, and it met my skill level which was none. Ruger has changed quite a bit since then, as have pistols in general. Entry level pistols akin to my old P89 are everywhere and many of them nowadays are polymer framed, as are many CCW pistols. The EC9 is one of those, a striker-fired compact CCW type pistol that uses a single-stack magazine to keep it thin and easy to conceal. It utilizes a slender steel slide with rounded edges to avoid snagging on clothing. It features both a manual safety and a trigger safety, the blade type that deactivates the trigger safety when the trigger is properly pressed. The gun uses a seven round magazine, but Ruger also offers a ten round extended magazine with additional grip area added to the bottom as well.

Un-boxing
Upon receiving the EC9, I promptly opened the box eager to see what lay inside. There I found the Cobalt slate blue framed EC9, with a magazine, chamber-flag, a standard throwaway lock, and a strange orange magazine that appeared to be for training or something. More on that later.
Straight into the palm of my hand went the little pistol, to see how it felt. My initial concern about the gun was it’s size; would it fit in my hand properly? It did feel a bit small, which was no surprise, but it was certainly serviceable. I gave the pistol a vigorous course of draw and point exercises, which quickly began to give me the feel for this gun. Drawing the slide back I familiarized myself with the controls of the EC9. I found it to be a pretty stiff little pistol, the recoil spring is quite stout in my opinion. The slide release is located in the typical location for the thumb to operate, and behind that there is a safety. Initial inspection of the gun made it quite apparent that Ruger was aiming for the CCW crowd with this model, the trim control surfaces were very subtle to avoid snags. The magazine release sits at the front edge of the left grip area, and again it is fairly diminutive to avoid inadvertent release of the magazine. The sights are machined into the slide, making them both robust and un-adjustable. I purchased the extra ten round magazine to utilize in this pistol review, mainly because I figured it would help me hold onto it better. Continue Reading Here…

Pistol controls, front to back: disassembly opening, slide release, and two position safety at the rear.
The extended 10 round magazine gives more purchase for those with larger hands.

The Ruger RPR 6.5 Creedmoor

Product review, Shooting hardware, , , , , ,

The RPR took the precision rifle world for quite a ride when it first came out. Ruger made an excellent move by introducing an affordable rifle into an arena that was dominated by expensive custom built rifles and actual sniper rifles. And in another stroke of genius they managed to make a rifle that appealed to the AR 15 crowd at the same time, which brought even more customers into their fold.

The RPR
The Ruger Precision Rifle utilizes a bolt action receiver that is built into a chassis. It is fed by SR-25 pattern 308 sized P-mags for the 308, 6mm, and 6.5 chambered rifles. The rifle seems to almost clone the aesthetics of the extremely popular AR 15, using the same pistol grip, and similar operation for the safety. The model I have also includes a folding butt stock for shortening the footprint of the rifle when transporting. The twenty-four inch hammer forged barrel uses 5R rifling which if you ask the internet is the only good kind of rifling. The one in eight twist barrel is ideal for launching the heavy for caliber bullets that many long range shooters prefer. The ten and a half pound rifle is about forty-five inches long unless you fold it, in which case it is thirty-five inches long.

Try It

Having been one of those in the community with a preference for the custom built rifle, it took me some time to actually give the Ruger a try. To be honest I did look down at it a bit, perhaps like many others I was angry that it shot just as good as rifles that cost twice as much or more.
But it didn’t take long for the RPR to prove its worth to those in the community, and now a days its common to see them shooting at top PRS events. I shot in the Hornady Precision Rifle Challenge this past summer and saw several RPR’s including Doug Koenig who did extremely well shooting with significantly more expensive competitors, taking home the top Production Rifle trophy.

I figured it was time for me to open up to the Ruger, so I took the opportunity when it came. I opened up the box, to find the all black rifle complete with a magazine, bipod and a few other items. I took a few minutes to familiarize myself with the rifle, and get a feel for the controls and such. For me there are couple things that stand out when first handling a rifle, the first one is throwing the bolt. I shouldered the rifle and ran the bolt a few times, you can tell a lot about a rifle by the feel of the bolt-throw. The Ruger was smooth and had a positive lockup feel when closed into battery, you could also feel a metal on plastic sensation a little bit which I assumed to be the piece at the rear of the bolt. Not that there was anything negative about it, as plastic on metal frequently gives a low-friction feeling which I do like. The bolt lift was not bad, but did take a little bit of getting used to. Not bad, obviously not as good as some of the other rifle actions frequently used today.
The next feature that seals the deal for me is the trigger pull. I don’t consider myself a trigger snob but I do enjoy a perfect trigger whenever I can. The trigger on the RPR was a good one, clean and without the abrasive skipping often felt on triggers of lower tiered firearms. I’ve never been a big fan of blade safeties, when they first came out many years ago, the first thing I did was figure out how to remove them. That being said I wasn’t so hateful of this one to look for a way to remove it.
The main safety was in the same place your traditional AR style rifle safety goes, which made it very convenient and familiar to use. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they put it on both sides like AR’s often do, but certainly not a deal breaker. The RPR runs on 308 sized P-Mags, and it came with a ten-round magazine. I would later try the twenty-round ones as well, just in case you ever needed to do some long strings of fire.
The folding buttstock of the rifle made it much shorter for transportation, and doubled as a quick way to remove the bolt for inspection, lube, or cleaning. Up front we had the hammer-forged twenty-four inch barrel inside a free-floated handguard. The muzzle of the barrel is threaded 5/8-24, which was great because I planned on mounting some stuff there.
The handguard on my particular rifle uses KeyMod for accessory attachment, but they are also available in the more modern and useful M-Lok. I secured the Atlas bipod to the pic rail underneath, and then I was ready to mount up a riflescope. Continue Reading Here…

A good rifle deserves an even better scope

rifle details; notice QD sling cup behind the grip, and locking mechanism for folding stock just above it

Ruger 22LR Precision Rifle

Product review, Shooting hardware, , ,

Sometimes we get the cart before the horse, and I’ll admit that I’ve done a few things out of order over the years. One instance where I think I started at the wrong end was a few years back, when I first put my hands on a Ruger Precision Rifle (RPR). Normally I like to start with a light recoiling rifle, get comfortable and proficient with its function, and then step up to the next bigger platform.
The first RPR I ever shot was the big one, in 338 Lapua Magnum. I later was able to shoot one chambered in 308 Winchester, which was obviously a little softer. And finally today, I have reached the small end of the RPR family, chambered in .22 Long Rifle.

A Natural Evolution
I remember when the first RPR hit the market, it started gaining fans immediately due to its many features and benefits. Ruger’s design quickly caught on to several large groups of rifle shooters, and in the process helped open new shooting activities to those shooters. The RPR at a glance could be mistaken for a Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) or an AR type rifle, it’s simple yet handsome aesthetics appeal to the Black Rifle crowd just as much as it does to the precision rifle shooting crowd. Ruger was clever in the way the gun was made and marketed, the price-point of the RPR brought affordability to a shooting class that before then had been reserved to expensive custom rifles, or actual sniper rifles.
As the popularity and success of the RPR soared, additional models and calibers were introduced using the same basic idea, and it was only proper to have a rimfire version.

The Ruger Precision Rifle .22LR
The RPR .22LR is a bolt action magazine fed rifle, built in a chassis with fully adjustable comb and recoil pad. The rifle uses an eighteen-inch hammer forged steel barrel which is threaded 1/2-28 at the muzzle to install your favorite muzzle furnishings. The chassis utilizes a free-floating handguard with M-Lok slots for adding accessories, and also uses standard AR type pistol grips so you can install whatever model you desire. The rifle has a built in optics mounting rail atop the receiver and in a brilliant stroke of genius, it was designed to use the incredibly popular Ruger 10/22 magazines, with fifteen and twenty-five round magazines shown in this article. All these intuitive features come with an MSRP of $579.00.

Getting Started
I’m currently on a rimfire kick, so this rifle couldn’t have fallen into a better lap. Upon receiving the rifle, I promptly started the process of fiddling and figuring it out. The rifle came to me with a Vortex scope already mounted in a one-piece scope mount, and a few extra magazines. All I needed was a bipod and my Yankee Hill Machine Phantom 22 suppressor to make this rifle complete.

Luckily for me, I had several great options for ammunition testing. Plenty of the cheap bulk-packed ammo from manufacturers like Federal and Winchester, as well as match grade ammo from companies like Aguila and CCI. I was excited to see how it all came together in the little RPR. Once I had rifle, ammo, and everything else I needed, I headed to my shooting line to get it warmed up.

Once there, I bore-sighted the scope and started loading magazines. I started with some of the Winchester bulk packed ammo, just to get a close zero. At one-hundred yards it was not particularly impressive, with shots dodging between two and four inches across a five-shot spread.
Running the bolt on the RPR was just a tiny bit glitchy, which I believe is simply getting used to it, and breaking in the action. One thing that I’ve noticed on most bolt action rimfires is that the shorter bolt is more susceptible to binding in the short action, I believe this is due to distribution of force being focused on just a few small surfaces. I have run the bolt on other RPR’s and found the bolts to be perfectly smooth, so it could simply be that this gun is new and needs some working.
I usually don’t use safeties much, I prefer to simply keep it empty until ready to fire. But when talking about 22’s, there will almost invariably be children around. In fact I used the RPR 22 for one of my kids hunter safety course, as it was a perfect fit for him. The safety on the RPR was a little stiffer than I would have liked, the kids actually thought there was something wrong with it. But this again could just be needed to be broken in, not a deal breaker for me. Continue Reading Here…

The Ruger MPR in 350 Legend

Product review, Shooting hardware, ,

Ruger joined the AR 15 market some time ago, and I’d been meaning to see how well they had done on their initial offerings. But life being what it is, I only just recently got the opportunity. Always a glutton for shooting, I jumped in with both feet.

The Legend

No not the Will Smith movie where he takes poorly aimed shots at post apocalyptic deer of some kind as they run through the city with his M4 variant. Im referring to the 350 Legend, and Will Smith would have probably done a little better against deer sized game had he been shooting 180 grain Federal blue box 350 Legend. But hey, zombie apocalypse makes for strange hunting practices.

Continue reading here