Ruger Super Redhawk .44 - ArniesAirsoft

Author

ChrisNorthInGer

The screams, they sound like music.

Registered: October 2006
Location: The outskirts of Reality.
Posts: 2,017

Review Date: 26/6/07

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �85.00 | Rating: 9

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Powerful, looks good, hefty and durable feeling, full trades
Cons:	Maybe too powerful, a little bulky, inconsistent shots some times, expensive

A brief introduction:

I had wanted a revolver of some sort (besides my cheapo UHC springer) a while after getting into high end airsoft purchases. I was looking at a few of Tanaka�s, mostly compact ones, and also at Marushin�s Super Black Hawk. Although I had liked the look of the Ruger RedHawk, buying it was mostly because I decided to compromise rather than wait for something else Tanaka made to come in stock (I was able to get the last one! :D ). Plus, I knew that it would also be able to handle Green Gas better than the Western Arms Hardballer that was coming out, which was something I also was looking at getting. If I were to be able to get any revolver I wanted, I would probably go for a 7.5 inch Super RedHawk .44 in a stainless finish, but I�m still very happy with the way this one looks and feels.

What�s included:

The Tanaka Super Redhawk came in a some what light and thin box compared to other boxes I have opened in the past. The Styrofoam base feels a lot less dense, and the lid is a bit thin and flimsy, a lot like a cheap Chinese springer. None of this really matters that much, because Redwolf had shipped it in a standard corrugated cardboard shipping box and packed it full of foam shipping �noodles� as usual.

The Redhawk comes with a manual, a small sheet of paper (I would guess that it shows how to adjust the hop), an odd loading tool, a small hex wrench, an orange barrel plug, a small rubber O-ring, an adapter for filling the gas, and a small bag of BBs.

Everything except the where it says a company name is in Japanese. The manual is well illustrated however, so it�s not too difficult to be able to figure out what and what not to do.

The loading tool is a little odd, and a bit hard to use. It�s a lot like the Tokyo Marui AEG tube and rod style loading tool, but instead of a rod you get a cylindrical tube with a rod inside of it. Because there is nothing keeping the BBs and the other end of the loading tool from falling out of the back, and because the loader is a little �fiddly,� I prefer to use a Marui magazine style loading tool.

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The brass adapter is very important for filling the cylinder with gas, so take care not to lose it. Without it, you the can of gas will be too wide to allow its nozzle to be straight enough to fill the cylinder. I�m not sure what the small rubber ring included is for, but I�ve stretched it over the nozzle of my propane adapter so that when I put the brass nozzle extension over it, the ring sits right beneath, to help with the gas that spurts out.

In case you couldn�t guess, the orange barrel plug can be pushed into the end on the barrel to (although it can very easily be shot out), the hex wrench can be used to adjust the hop, and the small bag of BBs seem to be good enough to use.

Build quality:

The Tanaka Redhawk is pretty heavy, although no where near as heavy as the real thing (which weighs over 16 pounds!). Redwolf says that the Tanaka weighs 960 grams(2.12 lbs.), but without anything besides a bathroom scale I can�t say for sure if it�s true. I think that it feels a bit heavier, but I�m not the best judge of weight.

The trigger, hammer, trigger guard, front sight, rear sight, the cylinder�s �swing arm,� the cylinder, cylinder release, and the safety at the bottom of the grip are all of the external metal parts. The metal parts are distinguishable from the matte plastic parts because they have a more metallic color to them (big surprise there). The metal�s paint doesn�t scratch easily, but I haven�t had or used the Redhawk that long and parts are beginning to show wear.

The barrel and frame are plastic, but feel and look very durable. They have a matte black look to them, which looks good although I would prefer a stainless finish. Unfortunately there is a line running from the tip to the frame on both the top and bottom of the barrel, which stands out quite a bit. The small seam line on the bottom of the frame is hard to see unless you look at it closely under light.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/Tanaka%20Super%20Redhawk/Picture072.jpg

The grips look like the real Redhawk�s, being plastic with a wood-like center to break up the solid black of the rest of the gun. The black part of the grips are made of some sort of rubber, and the �wood� part of the grips don�t look really like wood, and seem a bit different than the pics of real Redhawks I�ve found using Google. They don�t look bad however, but they do seem to be able to be scratched easily. They are held in with one silver colored screw. The grips move up and down a bit, and tightening the screw hasn�t corrected it. They require a bit of force to move (fake recoiling moves them) though, so it�s not too much of a problem. I'm going to see about shimming them with electrical tape.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/Tanaka%20Super%20Redhawk/Picture074.jpg

The rear sight is adjustable for both windage and elevation using screws that click into place every half turn. The front sight looks like it can be replaced with a real steel sight, but I haven�t tried. The real Ruger�s scope rings should be able to fit on the mount, but because I wasn�t able to find a set for under $60 (plus the cost of a scope), and the Tanaka Redhawk isn�t accurate enough to use a scope, I haven�t tried to buy a set to see.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/Tanaka%20Super%20Redhawk/Picture061.jpg

The Redhawk has a lot of trade marks, and none were covered up despite ordering from RedWolf from the States. On the barrel on the right side there is �BEFORE USING GUN-READ WARNINGS IN INSTRUCTION MANUAL AVAILABLE FREE FROM STURM, RUGER & CO., INC. SOUTHPORT CONN, U.S.A.� And then on the frame on the same side is �RUGER� and on the other side is �SUPER REDHAWK.� Below that is �.44 MAGNUM CAL.� Then there is the ASGK mark and �MFG. TANAKAWORKS� below that, right above the trigger on the right side. On the end of the cylinder there are realistic looking shells that have �44 REM MAG R - P� on them.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g7/ChrisNorthInGer/Tanaka%20Super%20Redhawk/Picture070.jpg

Performance:

I don�t have a chronograph so I can�t give an accurate muzzle velocity figure. I do however know that the Tanaka Super Redhawk is the most powerful airsoft gun I own (the KWC CO2 Sigma Silencer version comes in second for comparison). It can easily penetrate the top of a Coke can, and leaves a substantial dent on the bottom side. I believe it to fire in the lower 500s with green gas/propane, making it far too powerful for skirmishing. I don�t have any 134a right now, so I can�t say for certain, but I don�t believe using it will bring down the Tanaka�s muzzle velocity to acceptable skirmishing limits in most places.

Although the Super Redhawk has adjustable hop up, it seems to greatly affect accuracy and long range flight consistency. It�s also a bit meticulous, one half of a turn of the adjustment screw could be the difference between over-hopping to very little hop effect. With it at its best setting, .28g BBs fly out to 135 feet, but they will usually arc in a bunch of different directions. With it at it�s lowest setting BBs can reach 110 feet easily, and with much better consistency. Maybe heavier BBs would help with the inconsistency and hop up�s effect, but the heaviest I have to try is .28g.

I�ve been able to squeeze 13 BBs into the Redhawk, although if you don�t use the extra loading space you can keep it to a realistic 6 shots. I find the Tanaka a bit harder to load than a GBB�s magazine, but I�ve been getting better at it, and the Marui loading tool has made loading the Redhawk a bit easier. Using propane, I�ve been able to get 60 consistent and powerful shots on one fill, and then over the next three shots power decreases until the 64th, where there is just enough gas to throw the BB out of the barrel for a few feet. Not bad, considering both the some what small gas tank and power that�s produced.

Troubles:

So far the only problem I�ve had with the Tanaka Super Redhawk is that when it was new everything was a bit �sticky.� The cylinder was hard to get out, the hammer was hard to cock and the trigger was a bit harder to pull. Now, I can get the cylinder out with one hand, the hammer is not as rough to cock, and the trigger has a much smoother pull.

Conclusion:

At first, I wasn�t sure that I liked the Redhawk. After about a week of shooting and playing with it, I began to really enjoy it. Although its power is impractically, maybe even dangerously high for skirmishing, it does make the Redhawk really fun for plinking. Accuracy and range aren�t the greatest, but they�re far from the worst. If you are looking for a revolver, I have no reason not to recommend the Tanaka Super Redhawk.

Is the Redhawk good for skirmishing? In my opinion no. Even if you ignore the extreme muzzle velocity, you still have to worry about the sometimes inconsistent shots and less than great accuracy, and then there�s always the BB capacity, which will almost always be below a semi-auto pistol. Reloads will take longer, especially if you consider that GBBs (or NBBs) only need a mag replacement where the revolver will need to be loaded by hand right there. Lastly, there�s a revolver�s double action trigger pull which is going to take a lot more practice to overcome and be able to shoot quickly and accurately compared to a GBB. I�ve actually been able to fire NBBs faster than I�ve been able to fire the revolver. Does any of this mean that you can�t use the Redhawk for skirmishing? Well yes, the extreme FPS sort of does, but Tanaka revolvers in general can and have been used.

What would have made it better:

Realistically speaking, I would have liked the hop up to be better, not so inconsistent or interfere with accuracy as much. I also wish the Tanaka was a bit cheaper, so as to be a bit more accessible and a bit easier to buy, however I do think the price is understandable considering the quality and number of parts put into it, and also the design itself. I still feel that if real wood were used in the grips it would have been nice, or at least have the fake wood look a bit more realistic. Alternatively it would have been nice to include scope rings like the Marushin Redhawk, because getting a hold of real Redhawk rings looks to be expensive. Affordable aftermarket metal kits for revolvers would probably be appreciated by a lot of people, me included.

Question or comment about this review or gun? PM my Arnies Airsoft user account and I�ll see what I can do.

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