I recently got an impulse to put an optic on my Ruger Super Redhawk[1]. Why? Why the hell not. I can pretend to have rational reasons[2], but once the idea entered my head, it just sat there … like a toad. Not to be ignored. And it seemed like it shouldn’t be too hard.

To minimize expense, I wanted a way to mount an optic that didn’t require machining. Optics mounted on semi-automatic pistols frequently require a recess to be milled in the rear of the slide. I didn’t want to pay for machine work, and I didn’t want to permanently alter the gun, in case this scheme went south.

The SRH comes from the factory with mounts for scope rings milled into the top strap of the frame. The mounts are two pairs of opposing, angled semi-circular recesses[3]. Note also the two round-bottom recesses on the top of the frame.

Ring mounts are the cuts on the side. Recoil lug recesses are cuts on the top.

 

Those recesses are meant to receive the recoil lugs on the bottom of the rings.

The angled “hook” that grabs the top strap is fixed on one side. The other side pulls up with a screw.

 

It seemed like the best way to mount a current generation optic would be to mount some Picatinny rail system, and then put the optic on the rail. Happily, Weigand Machine sells a number of rails designed for various Ruger revolvers. While most of them require removing the front and/or rear sights, I can use just the ring mounts to install the rail for the SRH[4].

It comes with a free Torx head bit, that you can put in your collection of identical Torx bits, metric hex keys, and stamped-sheet-metal wrenches.

 

This is not a super complicated piece of engineering. Instead of duplicating the recoil lugs that appear on the factory rings, this rail just has two short roll pins that stick down into the recoil lug recesses. Also, instead of providing screws that duplicate the angled surfaces of the factory rings, this rail uses plain screws that go into the rail at an angle to engage the angled surfaces of the ring mounts.

Roll pins. Disappointing.

 

Note how close the screw hole is to the top surface of the rail at the thin end. That will be a problem later. I test fit the rail, just laying it onto the top strap.

Dry fit.

 

See how the rail doesn’t sit down flush along the whole length? The roll pins are not in exactly the right spots to fit into the recoil lug recesses, so they bind up just a bit. Also, it looks like the bit that fits into the scallop on the top strap might be interfering.

The instructions specified that all parts should be cleaned with brake cleaner and dried with compressed air. I used canned air, bought for blowing dust out of computers, because I don’t have a water separator on my little air compressor. The instructions also specified blue Loc-Tite, and said I should run the screws down tight, shoot the gun a couple times, then check the screws and re-tighten as needed. It seems to me like they should really have specified a torque value, particularly since we’re tightening steel screws into aluminum.

The top surface of the rail ends up pretty high above the plane of the iron sights, but short of machining a custom base for the optic that uses the integral ring mounts directly, this is probably the best I could hope for.

The rear screws stick out in the worst way.

 

Installed.

 

Now we come to mounting the optic, and here is where the rear screws really, uh, screw me. They sit high enough, and stick out far enough, that they protrude past the angled edge of the rail. That makes the rear third of the rail pretty much useless, so the optic has to sit further forward than I’d really like it.

For an optic, I bought a Veridian RFX25, in part because I wanted a green dot, in part because I didn’t want to spend a bundle on an optic that, honestly, will probably not get much use. Veridian customer service assured me[5] that the RFX25 would stand up to the abuse of a .44 Mag.

Optic sitting way up there.

 

I loaded up some .44s[6] for test firing, and took it out to the side yard. The first couple shots came in pretty far high and right, and here I discovered two things: 1) I’m an idiot, and 2) the people at Veridian hate me. Second point first, the windage and elevation screws on the RFX25 require a hex key that is some obscure size. Worse, the screws don’t have positive stops, so it’s difficult to control how far you’re turning them. And the cherry on top the GFY sundae is the screws aren’t even marked, so you can’t tell how far and what direction they’ve been turned previously.

As for my idiocy, while I was hunting through the pile of loose hex keys to find the right one, I ruminated on why the gun should be shooting so far to the right. It dawned on me that I had assumed the screws securing the rail would pull the rail into alignment with the top strap. A visual inspection proved this to be incorrect, the rail was clearly on crooked. So I took it off, ran the screws on one side all the way down, then re-installed it, snugging up the screws on the other side. Again, visual inspection showed that while the rail seemed to be sitting straight, it was offset to one side. I backed the screws on the “tight” side off one half turn, and re-tightened the other screws. This looked better, so I took it out again. Now it shot pretty much right on, left to right. I fiddled with the elevation until I was happy[7].

Afterwards, it occurred to me that the rail may actually be flexing at the point where it crosses the scallop in the top strap, and that could explain why the gun was initially shooting high. A man that was actively hunting for trouble would take the optic off, put a straight edge on the rail and check for a gap at one end. As it turns out, I’m surprisingly equanimous with leaving well enough alone[8].

I’m not entirely sure I’d recommend the Weigand rail. It’s okay for the price, I guess ($50 + shipping). As for the Veridian optic, again, it’s okay. It was cheap ($180 on Amazon) and it did not auto-disassemble under recoil. The windage and elevation screws leave a lot to be desired, but they did function properly, albeit in a trial-and-error sort of way.

25 yards off a rest.

 

1 The Ruger Super Redhawk is a big, heavy frame revolver for large bore cartridges. Mine is chambered for .44 Remington Magnum, colloquially “.44 Mag”. It is also available in .454 Casull and .480 Ruger.

2 There actually is one good reason: .44 Mag is legal for deer in Ohio, and an optic will improve the utility of the gun for hunting. Fun fact, Ohio’s hunting laws are written such that a something as large as a .45-70 is legal for deer … as long as it’s in a handgun. You have to pay for your own orthopedics.

3 I believe this mounting system is proprietary to Ruger. It also used on Ruger 77 rifles. On the SRH, the mounts are not in the same plane, so the rear ring is shorter than the front ring.

4 The model of the rail for the SRH in .454 Casull does require removing the rear sight.

5 Pinky swear.

6 Fred-brand 240gr jacketed hollow point over 23gr of Win 296 powder. The book says this should generate about 1270fps, which is pretty middle-of-the road.

7 Until I ran out of ammunition. I only loaded 12 to start with.

8 Not going to lie, the prospect of continuing to mess with the shitty adjustments on the optic significantly increased my indifference.