Ruger Forum

mose jefferson · June 19th, 2012, 02:16 PM

Does anyone know where instructions can be found for attaching a new sight base to the shortened barrel of a Super Redhawk? Either method, silver soldering or drilling and tapping, would be fine, so long as they are reasonably DIY.
I'd also appreciate suggestions on a good aftermarket front sight for this application, if any are superior to the stock one.
This is the last bit of know-how I need to finish an IBOK'd and shortened Super Redhawk in .480. I'd like to avoid sending it off to a gunsmith, if possible.

mose jefferson · June 19th, 2012, 08:31 PM

While showering I realized that I had been phrasing the question too narrowly to the spirits of the interwebs. A quick jot on google found this.

Sounds just like soldering electronics, only hotter. Now to devise a jig to clamp it...

BTW, my "I'd like to avoid sending it off to a gunsmith" comment was not meant to disparage gunsmiths. Quite the opposite. I want to learn to be like them. John Linebaugh, especially...hence the packable .480.

Smithy · July 1st, 2012, 10:23 PM

I just encountered the very same issue with my 44 mag SRH. It started life from the factory as a 9.5" gun that I sent to Mag-Na-Brake for brake installation, however I didn't have them shorten the barrel. Bad mistake! That gun was verging on too long in the first place, but now with an 11.5" barrel it got ridiculous. I tried to sell it, but no one wanted such a long barrel either, so I finally grinned and bared it and grabbed my trusty hack saw and cut it just a little over 5.5" so it'd clean up at 5.5". I used a 1" diameter facer to face the barrel then a .75" facer to create a recessed muzzle and finally an tapered muzzle dressing tool to protect the rifling at the end of the barrel. Brownells tools worked like a champ. Now Mag-Na-Port had removed my sight and just sent it back to me so it was up to me to put it back on. I talked with Brownells tech team and they suggested their "High Force 44" solder and its required copper flux to do the job also stating that a propane torch would be enough heat to do it properly. One big thing to keep in mind however, is that Ruger does not just silver solder the base on. They have a pin that goes half way into the base and half way into the barrel and then it's silver soldered. That way under recoil, the pin holds back any horizontal movement and keeps the silver solder from shearing off during firing. Now if you have a means of drilling an appropriate sized hole into the barrel at top dead center and can produce a pin of appropriate diameter, then you should be in business. I realized that I'd be shooting it mainly with the scope on so I chickened out on the sight base replacement. Yes I have seen screw on replacements for the Ruger sight, but I can't for the life of me remember who makes them. But with that you'd have two properly spaced top dead center holes to drill. Again, a bit beyond my capabilities right at the moment. Also, since Ruger does not sell the base as an assembly, you wouldn't be able to pick up the Ruger approved pin that I was talking about and I wouldn't solder the base on without that pin in place. Obviously Ruger felt a need for it. Best of luck to you and please post which way you decided to go. Smithy.