Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Heritage Arms Rough Rider 22

I know they aren't anything fancy, but does anyone have any experience with them? Palmetto has them on sale for $109, so I picked up two for my boys for Christmas. Figured at that price, I didn't have much to lose.

Probably 75 too much, but what the heck.

Accurate, dependable. For the price, a guy can't bitch much.

If that's what's affordable for you they are a functional gun. I did a fund raiser for DU years ago and on Military night I had several of them to give away and never got any complaints. Each year for 3 years we could give away a dozen or so, spread through out, where the less expensive raffle tickets were, so everyone got a chance to win a gun, regardless of what they could afford to spend. Not to mention hard to beat for that price.

A friend bought one. It was functional. But he was a very happy man when he sold it and bought a Single Six.

I own four Ruger Single-Six's:
Birds Head, 32 H&R Mag -- 22 LR/22 Mag -- Stainless 17 HMR -- Bisley Stainless 22LR.

They're all in pristine condition and prized possessions. But I also want a Rough Rider 22
and I plan to use it as a handgun was intended to be used - Some wear and tear.

What I have seen from a few others (one person) - You can't knock the Rough Rider! And I want one.

~~ https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2...review-heritage-rough-rider-22-revolver/ ~~

^ ^ THE TRUTH ABOUT GUNS --- ROUGH RIDER 22 REVIEW ^ ^

Sounds like Christmas morning is going to be GREAT for two young men!

I don't think they would hang with a Ruger.
If you want a decent 22 to shoot a once in a while, one would be
ok. If you want to buy a gun that you shoot a lot, carry it until
the blueing is wore off, then give it to a grand kid, wrong gun.


Of course, you could buy 3 of them, wear 2 out, and give the grandkid a new gun.
And you would still have not spent what one Ruger Single Six costs.



Who would have ever thought that people would make guns that are so
cheap, that Ruger would be a measuring stick for good quality.

Showing my age here.

Thanks for the replies everyone. It was just a "heck, for that price here's something to have fun with" kinda thing. For pistols, they've already got tricked out Ruger MKIII steel challenge guns, They've each got a Ruger Vaquero in 45 colt and they've got their USPSA production and Carry Optic guns. Just thought these would be fun to go with their lever action 22's.

Obviously not intended to be an heirloom gun, just a fun gun and it sounds like it will serve that role well from what I've now heard about them. Just mainly wanted to make sure they weren't such total turds that they'd even be a waste of a Benjamin.

I have one. Buddy didn't want it and sold it for $50. I've got both the 22 LR/22 Mag cylinders. It's fine as a plinker. I put bright red paint on the back of the blade front sight of mine, which helped.

I'll say that mine has quite a gap w/ the 22LR cylinder and it'll spit out the sides so make sure folks are standing a little behind the shooter or they may get surprised.

Boys will love them.

I have to agree

I've had several---nice shooting revolvers

It's been several years since I've played with one of those, but they used to come with a card, that if you want to add the 22 mag cylinder it was just a minimal amount of money, send the gun in and the $25 or whatever it is and you also get the Mag Cylinder. What a deal!!

Mine came with the mag cyl. I have never shot it though. It is fun to plink with.

Don't listen to gear snobs who have likely never handled one. Just sounds like the .460 Weatherby experts all over. If they were right then the Ruger American would never hand taken off.

The are great little inexpensive handguns that are well finished with deep even bluing and handle and shoot very well.

I have played with a couple of them, one with the 4 inch barrel and the other with the 6 inch barrel, both with the .22 Magnum cylinder which is additional for something like $28. Because I had a paid of them, I decided to chronograph them with the same ammo to determine variance in velocity with the 2 inch variance in barrels and with both cylinders.

The ammo I had on hand consisted of the Remington Thunderbolt .22LR Hi Speed load and the Winchester .22 Magnum Super X load rated at 1910fps in a rifle of some sort. I began with the 4" barrel and then the 6" version with the following results with the Oehler 35P set up about 12 feet away as I was also chronographing rifles that day. The following is a full cylinder of 6 rounds for each load and gun.

4 Inch @ .22LR = 756fps
6 Inch @ .22LR = 796fps for 20fps per inch difference

4 Inch @ .22Mag = 1238fps
6 Inch @ .22Mag = 1077fps a loss of 80fps per inch

In hindsight, I would like to have swapped out the cylinders for each and chronographed again because any variation in the cylinders and forcing cones and barrels could record different results again. It would also show if there is any variation in the mass produced cylinders per gun or at least in these 2 samples.

I saw something similar once before when I owned a Ruger GP100 with 6 inch barrel and found a mate had the same gun with 4 inch barrel. In that case, using my handloads in each, there was only 20fps difference favoring the longer barrel and at that time, I felt the longer barrel wasn't earning its keep for only 10fps per inch.

Im going to tell you the truth because I hope that's what you want to hear. I would imagine with the quality of their other guns, they will be sorely disappointed. Of course, they will never tell you that because I'm sure they are good kids! With the other guns you have bought them, I'm really surprised you even considered one of these. My little brother had one and if you were standing in the same county, it would spit lead on you. Should have jumped on the single six bisleys for $3xx.

By now I am sure you have bought them and I don't want to piss on them
But my experience is negative

I bought one used and found it had issues
Ok now here is the bad part no local smith's would touch it
So I figured no biggie I will send it to the manufacture I call them they Ran the service number said it's over 3 years old we will not service it

I guess I figure all guns should last and be dependable hell a 250 Taurus has a life time warranty

That being said if yours work it's a bargin

So I had a negative experiance/ review
Hank

Hank - what issues was it having?

So far, the vast majority of responses and what I have read is positive. Yep, I've already ordered them. I think a couple of teenage boys will have fun with them regardless, even if some "Kentucky windage" needs to be applied as indicated by ol' Hickok45 above.

Thanks again everyone.