Heritage .22lr/.22mag revolver?

R

rugerdude

New member
I was at my local academy today and I saw a heritage .22 single action for 139.95 and I got just a wee bit excited. I thought I would never really want a .22 handgun but it's just so neat. Are they worth the money or not? I am not a picky guy, I've heard that they have some (gasp) plastic parts but as long a they put metal where it counts I am a happy guy. As far as accuracy goes I am wanting about minute of pop can at 25 yards, am I hoping for too much? Any information or suggestions are appreciated.

rugerdude
 
I tend to disagree. I have one, paid about 125 for it, NIB. 6" bbl, blued, with both cylinders. Very nice little gun. Mine was made before the change to the MIM hammer and trigger, and the optional steel frame. The gun is incredibly accurate with LR, and adequately accurate with Mags.

IMO, it will do everything the Single Six will do that is required of a .22 revolver, and for less than half the price. I cannot express how much I like these guns.
 
i like mine

and as an extremely poor student, the price matters, i mean yeah it's not a single six it will only last me what 5 years as opposed to a life time, but when it packs in i'll by the six because hopefully i'll have a little more money. :D
 
I looked one over at one time with the thought of buying. I later saw a used one for sale. I looked that one over as well. I'm glad I did not buy.

FWIW, I have no experience with the gun, so take this with a grain of salt. The used one I saw looked to have a mild round count through it, and was out of time. Because of the price of .22LR, even plinkers tend to shoot .22 pistols a lot. Chances are you will put a lot of rounds through a .22 pistol. Buy one that has a history of being durable. I have found used MKII and MKI pistols for $150. If you buy privately, you can likely do even better. This is one I'd pass on.
 
Ive got well over 5000 rounds of LR through mine , with about 1000 magnums. Still locks up and shoots great. I will agree its not a Single Six, but it serves the same job, and is just as good for my purposes, not to mention the fact that I simply dont like the Single Six.

I will agree that you can find a plethora of good .22 autoloaders for roughly the same price, but those dont serve the purpose the revolver does for me. I shoot a lot of CB caps and Shorts through mines, as well as rat shot, not to mention the Magnums.
 
The only experience that I have is in selling the gun in question. I work part time for a local gun shop and we sell these guns from time to time. Over the 8 years I have been working in there, we have yet to have one of these returned for problems. And believe me, our customers bring back guns they bought from the gun shop two hours away to try to get us to fix them, so I am sure we would have seen these guns back if there had been issues. The gun does not have the fit or even feel of a Single Six, but it is half the price.. Well take this as you want, especially since I have never shot one.
 
I have one. So far, so good. Seems to be reasonably accurate with .22lrs - I'd say minute of pop can at 15 yards, but not at 25. Minute of 20 oz pop bottle at 25 yards. BUT, get the version with adjustable sights - it's $199, not the fixed sight one for $139. I had to adjust the sights a LOT to get on POA with mine (windage), so you'd be pretty much SOL with the fixed sight one. Plus, it's got a fiber optic insert in the front sight, and nice laminated grips. I think the 'no returns' fact in that gun shop that 44mag mentions speaks volumes about it, though the finish does appear pretty junky, and there are several plastic parts that I wish were aluminum or steel. The gun is also kinda neat in that it's a revolver with a manual safety - this is cool for dry firing since actually dry firing rimfires is no bueno. I am not sorry I bought mine at all. It is LOUD though.

Xavier, did you *guess* that it was out of time, or did you *know* that it was out of time?
 
I took a WAG that it would have timing issues because of the alignment of the barrel and chambers using Jim March's Revolver Checkout. I did not shoot the gun.

Maybe I was wrong about the gun, but heck, I would have bought a M&P for that money! It's always bad when you speak out about a gun that you have not shot, makes you look like a gun snob. In a lot of ways, I was just turned off by the fit and finish I guess.
 
The fact is, I base my opinion on three that I bought. The problems are ridiculous that I had. The barrel fell off of one, the barrel shroud fell off of a second one, the so-called "safety" broke and fell out of all three, springs broke in all three, timing was off in one, the bolt broke in one and one simply locked up tight/froze while loaded. I found out that the resale on them was about $40.00. I got all three replaced and traded them NIB at a gunshow for a S&W WWII Victory M&P in 38 S&W.
 
Well, Sir William, I hereby curse you to hell, for not giving those details previously. You said in a prior thread that they were junk, but you elaborated ZILCH on why you had that opinion at that time. Well, as you know, you can't rely on opinions on the errornet unless they're backed up with facts, and you had no facts, just opinion, that for all I knew could have been hearsay on hearsay on conjecture on hearsay on conjecture. I'm very angry with you right now for being a lazy 'poster' *before* I bought mine. :( :)
 
Sir William: The bolt broke? What bolt are you talking about on a revolver? I'm also a little curious about a barrel shroud. If they were so awful then why did you buy three of them?

I have one of the old ones and have had it for years. I have no idea how many thousands of rounds I have through it. Lots of LR and shorts through it and a handfull of magnums. It's not an exquisite gun but it's a fun plinker and plenty accurate with the cheap ammo I feed it. The biggest beef I have with mine is that it has fixed sights which were a little off when I bought it. I took a pair of pliers and bent the front sight slightly (something I would never think about doing with a more expensive gun) and now it's dead on.
When I take new shooters to the range I often start them on the Heritage loaded with .22 Shorts or CBs. With the single action they have to consciously cock it and it has an easy single action trigger.
If you're not dead set on a revolver you can get a Ruger MkII or a Beretta Neos for pretty cheap with a little looking.
Good luck.
 
Okay, I've been over my owner's manual and none of the parts listed on it are referred to as a "bolt". Certainly nothing reciprocates like the bolt on a Ruger Mk II or the slide on nearly any other semi-auto. As for a barrel shroud, I can't imagine why anyone would want to put one on a revolver. Just for giggles I went to the Heritage website and checked out their new models on the off chance that they'd invented a "gangsta Cowboy" model with a shroud in a bling-bling gold tone or something. None to be found.
I think someone has this gun confused with a Tec-9. Here's a Heritage Rough Rider revolver
 

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All revolvers usually have a bolt that locks into a notch which is cut into the cylinder. A few older double action Colts used a double hand arrangement that latched onto the star of the ejector on lock up. This bolt in the notch is what maintains the alignment of the chamer/bore. If they are out of time, the condition of firing out of battery can occur. In a single action revolver, you can remove the cylinder and cock the revolver, you will see the bolt pop up from a small window in the frame. AFAIK, ALL Rough Riders use a steel barrel encased in a alloy barrel shroud. All the models I have seen or owned were so constructed. I bought three as I needed three. I had one in the John Deere toolbox, one in the fishing kit and one other for the Honda 4 wheeler I rode fence with.
 
Ah, cylinder bolt! Now I gotcha!
How in God's name did the outside of the barrel fall off?!? When you had these guns in your vehicles were they in a box/case/padding or rattling around loose? I imagine tossing one in a toolbox and shaking vigorously by driving down a dirt road might explain why they didn't survive long.
I was hoping for a metallic gold model with mother of pearl grips. :(
 
They were bought to be working toolbox beaters. I replaced all three with Hawes 22s from a gunshow. The Hawes aren't made anymore but, they were fine toolbox 22s. If you take really good care of a Rough Rider and shoot CBs through it, I expect they would last for years.
 
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