Bright Polished Redhawk.

[savit260]

When I first spotted this one in my local shops case, I thought it was pretty cool to see a polished out Redhawk. Figured someone must have done it themselves, or had someone polish it for them. Looking at it in hand... it sure looked to be well done. Actually too well done to be a homebrew job.

This was just in the case as a regular old 5 1/2" Redhawk.

Did a little research and found that Ruger did indeed make a run of these in the mid 90's.

Dug a little deeper and found that factory polished ones have a GKRH in the model number, and that they didn't make a whole lot of them. This one had the factory plastic box, lock and papers with it. Figured I'd see if there was a GKRH on the box. No such luck. No model number at all on the grey plastic box.

Fondled it some more. Really nice action for a Double Action Ruger.

Some time goes by, and the price drops.... and some more time goes by and it drops some more.

I failed to notice one thing in the display case... but I'll get to that in a minute.

Here's some pics of it just as it came out of the shop uncleaned.






... but what sealed the deal for me was this...The factory shipping carton with the GKRH-445 and matching serial number.



There will be no need to get a letter for this one. ;D

Figure it should clean up well.

I've always been a sucker for shiney revolvers, and this is my first double action Ruger( I'm a Colt guy), and first D/A Big Bore.

[dmize]

Witnessed a pretty ugly exchange in a gunshop once over one of those.

[savit260]

The price was pretty decent for around these part. While I was researching it, I saw a couple that had been advertised on line, and the prices asked were more than I paid, and a set of Houge rubbers, and a full box of 44 Specials came with it.

Sitting here rubbing it down with some Remoil and a soft cloth. She's cleaning and shining up real nice.

[savit260]

... and the ones I saw on line had none of the goodies....Box , padlock (unopened) Ruger papers, and shipping carton.

[maxcactus]

Do we mean to understand that you found and purchased that tool in Taxachusetts? Either way, very nice snag!! I wonder if they ever made them in .45 Colt?

[savit260]

Yup, snagged it right here in Mass. Lucked into a real nice 3 screw 1968 vintage Single Six recently too. Traded away some dead weight in the safe for them. No money out of pocket for either.

From what I found on line, it looks like the polished ones only came in 44 mag, and produced around 1996.

[savit260]

Here she is after a little cleaning. I've heard people call RH's ugly, but this one sure looks purdy to me.

[Mountaineer]

Jan 20, 2013 15:53:13 GMT -5 dmize said:

Witnessed a pretty ugly exchange in a gunshop once over one of those.

Don't leave us hanging like that, dmize! Do tell, what happened...

[dmize]

Shop owner said it was factory,know it all customer said someone had to have polished it because Ruger never offered one in bright polished.
Escalated to point of,are you calling me a liar? And customer needing to be told 3 times to leave the shop.

[Ken O'Neill]

They made bright polished Single Sixes, Blackhawks in .357 and .45 Colt, and Redhawks in .44 Mag. The Redhawks were made in 51/2, 7 1/2. and 7 1/2 Ringed. Curiously, the rings were not polished on the ringed version. A goofy omission, IMO.
I owned a 6 1/2" S.S., a 6 1/2" .357 and a 7 1/2" .45 over the years, but all are gone now. They probably made a bright SBH too, but I've never seen one.
A weird side note that I noticed, is that the bright polished stainless guns get much hotter when shot repeatedly. Go ahead, doubters ... prove it to yourself.

[robl]

first rule about knowing a LOT about any subject; ya can't ever know it ALL.

[savit260]

I didn't think they offered RH's polished either, until I did some research on the web. Even then, I didn't find a lot of info, and only a few pictures.

Shop owners don't always know there stuff though. The dealer I bought my Virginian Dragoon INSISTED that it was a Hammerli made gun.

Not worth arguing though, as I got a nice deal on it.

[Mountaineer]

I'll admit, I'd have been skeptical myself of the existence of a factory polished Redhawk. This has been an informative thread...

[savit260]

Rob... I'll be ordering up a holster for this one in the near future.... and I PROMISE that this one won't be Black!! lol

[robl]

Darn nice looking gun, BTW!