It took 7 months to get it all ready, but I finally finished the work on Helga – my 44 Rem Mag.
I picked her up back in Mid Feb of this year with plans to modify her for use during Elk Season. Many times I find myself hunting in thick stuff where any shot I take would be 30-40 yards max. Carrying a long gun is cumbersome so I figured a 44 or 454 with an 8 to 10 inch barrel would be a nice solution.
I found a stainless Ruger Redhawk in 44 RM with an eight inch barrel for sale at a good price so I started with that. I replaced the pachymar grips with a light colored tulip wood from Houge that seemed to compliment the stainless frame well. It is molded with finger grips and fits my hand quite well so I am pleased with how that came out. They (of course!) had to custom make them and that took nearly 3 months.
While waiting for the grips to arrive, I started on the scope part of the project. I picked up a Leupold 2.5-8 x 32 handgun scope (also on backordered at Cabelas!). But since this is the Redhawk, not the super Redhawk there were no base mounts included. To keep the profile looking nice, I decided I wanted to have bases that screwed directly into the frame. I engaged my buddy to drill and tap Helga for bases. That turned out to be a bit of an ordeal. My buddy is quite particular and it took us 4 hours to drill and tap the 3 holes needed to mount the base. But they are centered and level to within 1/6 of the width of a human hair! We also had to shave a bit off of the base to get it to sit level on the frame.
I took it out to shoot and was pleased to see that I hit the bullseye at 50 yards on the first try with just a preliminary boresight done! My friends and I shot it about 20 or 25 times and I noticed the accuracy was starting to drop and upon inspection noted that the scope was wobbly – moving where the base met the frame. I removed the scope backed out the screws attaching the bases and saw that they were starting to shear! After a mere 25 rounds, the shafts of all three stainless steel screws connecting the base to the frame had become offset by as much as 30%! That recoil is impressive. When we went to Tacoma screw to get a better set of screws, the lady behind the counter said “those stainless screws shear every time on large caliber handguns”. Who knew? (probably everyone on this board, but it was a learning experience for me). She gave us better screws and after putting a good 2-3 boxes of 44 RM and a couple more boxes of 44 Specials through her, no more issues have been encountered.
With all that work done on the gun, I now had the problem of how to carry it in the woods. This is not a trivial sized handgun, and the odd shape of the scope made finding a nice holster difficult. I found a couple holsters that looked like they would work for Helga, but being a woman, she just did not like the way holsters fit. “This one makes me look fat”, “That one makes my grip look big”, “There is no way I’ll be caught in the woods wearing THAT monstrosity!” On and on she went. Finally I fell back to my friends here on HuntWa for advice and started this thread:
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,46974.msg570052.html#msg570052My initial thought was to see if I could have some of the backskins I have sitting in the garage tanned up and made into a holster. Thought that would be a nice personal touch. After contacting a few leathermen on the matter that proved to be impractical. Member “Uncoolperson” turned me onto Lever gun Leatherworks LLC over in Idaho.
http://www.levergunleather.comI corresponded with him for a few days. He agreed that using my own hides would not be practical, but said that he could take some of the pre-tanned hide from my zebra and make a patch out of it to put on the holster. I asked him if he could make it in the shape of Namibia (the country where I shot the zebra- which is conveniently shaped like a holster!). He agreed and so I sent in the payment for the following:
1) Shoulder rig for Ruger Redhawk in 44 Remington Magnum Leupold 2.5-8x32 scope mounted on medium leupold rings
2) Right handed draw
3) Holster will cover the scope (will not be utilizing a button flap)
4) Plain no border stamping. (I prefer as little tooling as possible on the leather)
5) Oxblood in color.
6) Zebra patch on the barrel of holster (I will provide the zebra skin)
He is a popular leatherworker and this was a custom order so while I placed the order in April, It took until mid-August for it to arrive. The wait was well worth it though! I am quite pleased with the outcome. Helga is happy in her new set up as well.
So all in all, I am quite pleased with my new toy. I just need to work up a load for those Barnes XPB bullets so I am ready for Elk this season and I’ll be good to go!
Insights to pass on to others:
-Be patient, custom work takes a long time
-Never use stainless screws to mount bases to a gun
-Hunt Wa continues to be a great resource
-Leverguns does great work – highly recommend
