I recently bought a couple Super Redhawks, one in 10mm and one in .44 magnum.  Haven't had a chance to take them to the range yet.  Been really busy and had to travel to Canada for work twice in the past month.

I love my redhawk.  However, after initially being certain this 45 ACP/45 Colt version was what I wanted I ended up selecting a 44 mag due to the ignition issues and accuracy complaints I kept reading about with the 45 dual caliber.

I would love for you to get one and find out that all the issues are resolved.

The .45 ACP Redhawk uses a moon clip system to hold the cartridges in place in the cylinder.  The .45 ACP is a rimless design so it has to have something to index the cartridge heads properly when firing as the cylinder will not reliably do so by indexing on the case mouth.  The moon clip is a piece of sheet metal with appropriately sized holes in it for loading and indexing.  Unfortunately, in Ruger's proprietary design the clip can actually flex  a little under the impact of the firing pin on the cartridge head.  If it flexes enough it can cause misfires.  Also, because the clip flexes and the cartridge doesn't index on the case mouth there can be a slight misalignment at the moment of firing.  No more than a couple of thousandths of an inch - nothing that causes a safety problem but it can affect the accuracy.  Also, Ruger cylinder throats have historically been a little undersized and occasionally prone to some variance.  Not sure if that's what is going on here but a careful bit of chamber reaming usually improves the performance - particularly with the .45 Colt revolvers.  I wouldn't call them ammo sensitive but a cartridge with a hard primer might be more prone to acting up than one with a soft primer and there is likely to be a difference in how accurate the gun is with various types of bullets - you have to find what they like and then feed it to them in my experience.

In my own case, I have a S&W model 625 that also uses the moon clip system.  I have not experienced any misfires with mine but it has historically been a more accurate shooter with .45 Auto Rim cartridges than it has with the .45 ACP in the moon clips.  Not a big difference, but noticeable all the same so it is likely my revolver suffers a bit of the same problem that the some of the Redhawks have had. 

That said, Ruger customer service is and has always been first rate in my experience.  If you have problems with one of their products they seem to be inclined to do what is necessary to make it right.

Understood.  I AM a revolver guy and have been for years.  My S&W model 625( 4" ) became my go-to revolver for camping and other forays into the outback because its a bit easier to pack around than my Redhawk with the 7.5" barrel.  I have never found the .45 ACP lacking in stopping power for things that commonly walk around Arizona and the moon clip system is arguably the fastest revolver reload you can run.

The revolver is not ammo sensitive in this caliber and will run any sort of bullet nose profile you can stuff into it so if you have a favorite anti-personnel round its not going to be a problem.

As I said before, you also have the option of running the .45 Auto Rim cartridge which is simply a .45 cartridge case with a rim thickness sufficient to function in a revolver set up for moon clips.  I have run some pretty stiff loads out of mine over the years with no ill effects.  A 200-230 grain, hard cast lead,flat nosed slug at 1000 fps is nothing to sneeze at. Plenty of smackdown for those times you need it and to get that out of a semi-auto pistol you're in .45 Super territory.  Just make sure you have a firm crimp on the bullets to avoid the possibility of one backing out of a case under recoil and potentially tying up the revolver.  Its not likely to happen at that power level but something to keep in mind if you end up going with this type of revolver. 

Proficiency with the revolver is much like any other gun in that you have to practice with them.  There are some really good tutorials posted here in the archives as well as commentary from some of our many wheel gun fans over the years so feel free to browse around and get edgicated - sort of.   

Good to know.  Maybe the Ruger isn't the best choice after all.  Thanks for sharing.

Understood.  I AM a revolver guy and have been for years.  My S&W model 625( 4" ) became my go-to revolver for camping and other forays into the outback because its a bit easier to pack around than my Redhawk with the 7.5" barrel.  I have never found the .45 ACP lacking in stopping power for things that commonly walk around Arizona and the moon clip system is arguably the fastest revolver reload you can run.

The revolver is not ammo sensitive in this caliber and will run any sort of bullet nose profile you can stuff into it so if you have a favorite anti-personnel round its not going to be a problem

My S&W 625 will chew the center out of a target with the same S&B ammo.

Smiths are fine weapons, and their DA triggers are second to none, but until they move production out of the gun-hating blue state of Massachusetts, I refuse to stimulate the economy or tax base by buying a S&W.  Same with Beretta, I refused to own any until they opened their new plant In Tennessee.

True.  The 625's are fairly plentiful and many of them don't suffer the indignity of the trigger lock like the current production guns.