The New Super Redhawk Alaskan Packs a Wallop![/align]



[/align]
[/align][/align]




Ruger’s newest offering in its heavy-duty double-action revolver line is the Alaskan, a 2 1/2-inch version of the Super Redhawk chambered for the powerful .454 Casull cartridge. It’s designed to be an authoritative companion arm for hunters of dangerous game and outdoorsmen who hike or fish in their habitat. And because any .454 Casull firearm will also readily chamber and fire .45 Colt ammunition, this snubnosed gun will also have appeal to those who prefer big-bore revolvers for personal or household protection.
The original 7 1/2-inch .454 Casull version of the Ruger Super Redhawk revolver was introduced in 1999, which was Ruger’s 50th Anniversary year. It was only the second double-action revolver with swing-out cylinder that had been chambered for the high-intensity .454 cartridge and was offered from the outset with a six-shot cylinder. (Its only competitor had a five-shot cylinder.) A 9 1/2-inch model soon followed. Both versions featured unfluted cylinders and stainless-steel construction, finished with the same hard, slick Ruger Target Grey surface treatment applied to the company’s varmint version Model 77 bolt-action rifles. The long-barreled Super Redhawk .454 also came equipped with Ruger’s frame-integral scope-mount dovetails and patented one-inch stainless-steel scope rings, also in the Target Grey finish.
The Super Redhawk design was initially introduced as a .44 Magnum in 1986, and it still remains available in 7 1/2- and 9 1/2-inch .44-caliber versions with natural brushed-satin stainless-steel finish and fluted cylinders. A Super Redhawk .480 Ruger version in Target Grey was introduced in 2001. The Ruger catalog lists the same weight for the 7 1/2-inch .44 Magnum and .454 Casull iterations (53.5 ounces), but due to the bigger diameter chambers and bore, the actual measured weight of a .454 Super Redhawk is nearly an ounce less. The 7 1/2-inch .480 Ruger version weighs 52 ounces. Other than those distinctions—and the fact that the .454 and .480 Ruger versions wear black laminated grip panels instead of the brown-colored Goncalo Alves wood panels used on the .44s—there have been no dimensional or configuration differences among Super Redhawk editions. That is until the introduction of the brand-new short Alaskan .454 Casull (weight is 41.25 ounces). Ruger has not yet announced whether the Alaskan format will also be offered in the other Super Redhawk chamberings.