Nice Alaskan. I would like to snag a 4 inch Redhawk in .44 Magnum or .45 Colt. Not a cheap prospect these days.

It's not an Alaskan. Those are built on the Super Redhawk frame. Great for heavy hitter calibers, 454 Casull and 480 Ruger, with the heavy extended frame surrounding the barrel.
The Kodiak Backbacker is a discontinued Talo model built on the standard Redhawk frame.

Iam so jealous! One of those is on my short list.

Very nice.
I carried a Ruger Alaskan in .44 mag while fishing in grizz country.
It was heavy, but comforting.
I sold it to someone who had to have it and now carry a .44 mag S&W M29-4 with 3 inch barrel.

PC

Nice. All of them!

In the famous words of Wind In His Hair…

“Good Trade.”

Here is a quick update on the Ruger Kodiak Backpacker in .44 Magnum.
I carried that revolver a lot this past summer at the recreational property.
Blueberry bushes and black bears are a combination I am personally quite cautious about.
We have hundreds of Blueberry bushes and we do see an occasional black bear.
Especially when out walking without the warning to a bear from a motorized vehicle.

It seems during the summer/early fall I sweat on the revolver.
The pictured Hogue one piece/slip on grips (first post in this thread) are great for recoil mitigation, but are quite difficult to remove without damage.
I do wipe off a carry handgun with a silicone cloth or oily rag before they go back into the safe, but it isn't possible to get under the slip on rubber grips without removal.

When doing some after hunting season gun cleaning this winter, I noticed the beginnings of some slight corrosion under the top edge of the Hogue one piece slip on rubber grips.
I cut a small wooden wedge and attempted removing them, and promptly tore the rubber, ruining them.
Hogue supplies nice instructions for installing the one piece slip on rubber grips, and covers nothing for any potential removal.

I installed the factory wood grips that came with the revolver, but that left the grip frame backstrap uncovered. The recoil would sting with real .44 Magnum ammo.

Someone on another Forum sent me a Karma, and supplied two of the Hogue slip on rubber grips, and two Pachmayr sets of two piece rubber grips, one with finger grooves, and one without.
Pachmayr doesn't list fitment for the round butt Ruger Redhawk, only for the square butt models with longer barrels.
The plastic button/lower grip frame locator Ruger supplies with the factory wood grips locates the Pachmayr two piece grips very nicely.
I tried both sets of Pachmayr two piece rubber grips, both fit great but the set without finger grooves are somewhat shorter so that's what stayed installed.
Now i have a rubber covered backstrap again, and removing a screw removes the grips for maintenance/rust prevention.

My Hogue Bantams came with a little plastic two-sided wedge tool that spans the backstrap so you can pop them off. I had to do it a bunch of times when I was working on fitting them to my 69 (I sanded a bunch of stuff, including the finger grooves, off of them), and it actually worked pretty good. But mine has an exposed backstrap, so I'm not sure if the same design would work for yours.

Pachmayrs are nice if you can get ones that fit. They make options that aren't obtrusively large but still fill the hand and help you hold on under recoil. I'd love to see pics of yours on your gun.

I'm having a heck of a time finding grips for my 329. There just aren't a lot of good options for an N frame out there. The factory Altmonts are crap, and would likely draw blood...I didn't even try. I got some Pachmayr Diamond Pros and cut them down some. They work but I'm still not completely happy. I really want something that doesn't extend beyond the bottom of the grip frame, or at least very minimally. I ordered some "Bantam" wood grips from Thailand off of eBay, because they looked like the closest thing to what I want, and I won't feel bad customizing them to my liking. Unfortunately, they won't be here till next month.

IMG_20240127_190502103_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20240127_190540830_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

Pachmayr no finger grooves mounted on the revolver. These are allegedly for square butt grip frames but they do fit the round butt grip frame very nicely.
Bottom row from the left.
Hogue slip on one piece. (round butt only)
Factory Ruger wood round butt. Altamont? Exposed metal on the back of the grip frame.
Pachmayr with finger grooves. This also is allegedly for square butt grip frames but they do fit the round butt grip frame very nicely. More bottom protrusion than the set mounted. (longer, top to bottom)
Hogue slip on one piece. (round butt only)
All three models of the rubber grips have no exposed grip frame metal anywhere.

I would still recommend that you try the S & W "X" frame factory rubber grips on your 329.
From what I remember, they will have a 3/32" gap up behind the hammer, but will fit nicely other than as mentioned.

Edit: Swapped out an out of focus photo.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cee_Kamp,

Those look like Pachmayr Presentations, and IMO they compliment your revolver very nicely! I've never had a Redhawk, but based on those grips I assume that the grip frame is contoured kind of like an S&W, unlike the "stud" style grip on the GP100 and SP101? It's nice that you can make square butt grips work on the round butt frame...that opens up a lot of options!

quote:

I would still recommend that you try the S & W "X" frame factory rubber grips on your 329.
From what I remember, they will have a 3/32" gap up behind the hammer, but will fit nicely other than as mentioned.

The problem with the X-Frame grips is that they are huge, and I need something smaller (and particularly shorter) to fit into my carry system. I know I'll be giving up some shootability and increasing the recoil pain, but the whole point of this gun in my lineup is to fit in my kit bag for hiking, and I can't do that with oversized grips. I can just get it in there with my cut down Pachmayrs, but the zipper won't close all the way, and the hammer is pressed up tight enough to the zipper to potentially interfere. If I can get the bottom of the grips flush to the base of the frame, it'll fit nicely. Wood isn't going to cushion anything, but if it's properly blended to the frame at least it'll spread the force out evenly and hopefully not tear up my hand. Or maybe it'll just crush my metacarpals as a unit. We're going to find out one way or another!

This thing belt carries really nicely, though. I put it on tonight to walk the dog just to try it out, and partway through the walk I had to check my holster to make sure the gun hadn't fallen out!

Absolutely correct about the grip frame on the Ruger Redhawk round butt being shaped/contoured like your S & W 329 grip frame, or my X frame.
The Super Redhawk has the "stud" style like the GP100/SP101. Along with the HUGE bulked up frame surrounding the barrel.
If Ruger re-engineered the Redhawk to use the stud style, vs the grip frame style, it would be a very nice improvement.
Many more grip options using the stud style.
That however, would "tank" Super Redhawk sales.

quote:

That however, would "tank" Super Redhawk sales.

You're probably right about that. The Super Redhawk has always seemed a bit much. Nice if you're trying to push .454 or .480 through it, but I'd much rather have the Redhawk for "normal" calibers like .44 Mag or .45 Colt.

Cool. I almost bought an Alakan once. Curious, did you ever have issues with steel cased ammo in the mini-30? I'd say that was a "good trade".

I never tried steel cased in the Mini 30.
For me, it was a foul weather deer hunting rifle.
I traded it after I realized I already owned better options.

Pachmayr is part of the Lyman Group now.
All of the Pachmayr fitment information for Ruger Redhawk rubber grips either specifies in text, or with photos of long barrel/square butt grip frame photos, that Pachmayr rubber grips don't fit round butt Ruger Redhawks. I sent them an email today stating that I would have never bought their Pachmayr rubber grips for my round butt Redhawk due to their website fitment descriptions/photos.

However, the "Karma" Pachmayr rubber grips I received fit perfectly on the Ruger Redhawk round butt grip frame using the Factory Ruger plastic grip locator button.

There is an "as cast" round hole in the lower part of the grip frame.
The plastic grip locator button drops into the "as cast" hole in the grip frame.
The Factory Ruger grip locator button supplied with the gun has protrusions on each side that locate the lower portion of the grips.

Now that Pachmayr knows their grips fit square and round butt models, and if they update their website to reflect that information, that might even result in more Pachmayr grip sales.

Cool! Looked at one at an LGS a few. months ago and passed. Wished I'd known what it was at the time or it would've come home.