Heritage .22?

[killbuck]

A female friend of mine wants a .22 revolver just to plink with and doesn't want to spend a big buck for it. She said she was looking at a Heritage SA .22 at a fairly new gun shop that just opened and the price was in her range. She asked me about them but I have no idea about their handguns at all.

Anyone have any comments on them?

Thanks in advance.

[Lotsdragon]

They are ok I got one for cheap and as far as a plinker goes its ok. Love the fiber optic site on it.Not as well made as my ruger single six but I didnt pay near as much either. Would do it again if I wanted a decent plinker.

[Double D]

Killbuck, I have never shot one but I had a customer tell me good things about them so I ordered 2 of them to sell here in the shop. They are the 22lr / 22mag convertable. No the quality is not like ruger but I am selling them for 212.00. Good revolver for the money I would say.

[pinecone70]

Not sure about Heritage, but have heard good things about them. I bought my revolver used and cheap at a gun show, it's some weird German brand I never heard of, a .22/.22 Magnum. Great little gun! Magnums add extra fun and noise.

[killbuck]

Originally Posted by Double D

Killbuck, I have never shot one but I had a customer tell me good things about them so I ordered 2 of them to sell here in the shop. They are the 22lr / 22mag convertable. No the quality is not like ruger but I am selling them for 212.00. Good revolver for the money I would say.

That sounds about right in cost. His was 210 I think she said. She didn't say anything about 22mag tho. I'll find later today 3when she stops by. Guess I'll tell her to go for it.

Thanks everyone.

[johnmpeters]

My friend has one with the two different cylinders for lr or mag. Very fun shooting. They seem to be good quality because we've shot his for years. He came over to visit last week and brought it along. I was suprised he still had it. Always a fun shooter

[fleetwood1976]

My wife bought the case color model and loves it. I shoots wolf match extra the best. Brick of ammo is almost as much as the gun.

[JUNKKING]

Does it have to be a revolver? Ruger MKIII standard should be in the ball park of 220 or near there, It would be a blast for her to shoot.

[killbuck]

Originally Posted by JUNKKING

Does it have to be a revolver? Ruger MKIII standard should be in the ball park of 220 or near there, It would be a blast for her to shoot.

She already has the MKIII and loves it. I wouldn't want her shooting at me with either. She just wants a revolver SA to play around with I guess. I don't mind tho, I'll get to shoot it too. We go to the range a lot together.

killbuck

[6x6pinz]

I picked up a case colored one for the kids to shoot. The wife liked it better than my Ruger single six as is has a manual safety. So far no issues, have yet to shoot 22 mag through it but it does not look as if that would be any difference other than cost.

[old dude]

One of my friends in another state has a Heritage and likes his. In fact, he's in the process right now of buying mount and rings for a scope. I haven't shot it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

[jrg]

For plinking, should be okay. I purchased the little 3 1/2" bird handled gun, its one slick little guy. Here compared with a Ruger Bearcat.



Not a lightweight gun though, I was surprised about that. Its at least 3/4 of a pound heavier than that Bearcat.

[TeMaK]

Hi Killbuck
Watch out when you try the 22wmr cylinder! They become very addictive very quickly. . Really a neat little revolver. I found that both cylinders shot close to the same POA.
jrg: If you will take a magnet and check your revolver you may find that you have the steel frame rather than the alloy frame. Heritage makes both versions.
TaKe CaRe
Ted

[johnbrown22]

Just my 2 cents......

Got this gun recently (Heritage Rough Rider .22 Combo). Price was right (170 at Academy) compared to the much nicer Ruger equivalent Single Six (500+).

IMHO this gun is inherently dangerous. It does not have a transfer bar and if you take it off safety with the hammer in the lowest position, the firing pin WILL enter the cylinder area. Heritage instructions say to take off the safety (hammer block) only with the hammer cocked first, and carry with empty chamber under the hammer. That certainly will keep it safe, but only if you follow the instructions.

This gun is not for the casual user or someone who is not fully cognizant of this relatively unsafe feature.

Other than that, it looks like a lot of fun for the money! And a lot cheaper to shoot than my .38 carry snubby.

Hope this has been helpful.

Respectfully

JB

[CampingJosh]

Originally Posted by johnbrown22

IMHO this gun is inherently dangerous. It does not have a transfer bar and if you take it off safety with the hammer in the lowest position, the firing pin WILL enter the cylinder area. Heritage instructions say to take off the safety (hammer block) only with the hammer cocked first, and carry with empty chamber under the hammer. That certainly will keep it safe, but only if you follow the instructions.

Single action revolvers were like this for nearly a century. I don't think of it as a big deal.

[killbuck]

Wow! Thank you all for the great replys. She still hasn't bought it yet but plans on getting one the first week in Feb.

Funds such as County Property Taxes and getting her new loom (she's a weaver too) ate up her Jan. money. Altho I did take her along to a gun shop with me Thursday to get some gun oil and she wound up getting a nice deal on a Mossberg 321K single shot .22 rifle. Excellent condition and for $80 she couldn't say no. Hope the rain holds off tomorrow so we can go shoot it. LOL

As for the Heritage, she says she wants the steel one and not the alloy model. I told her about the magnet deal and testing it and she smiled and said no problem.

Thanks again and enjoy the day.

killbuck
........

[Farmerjon]

A friend and I each bought two Heritage Rough Riders about 10 years ago. Mine were the standard blued, one of his was the same the other was fancier, don't remember now. Anyway, my wife LOVED this gun. The way it handled, fit in her hand, shot, everything about it. When they came in it happened to be a snow day so my two girls and I got in his Blazer and we drove up to the gun shop to pick them up and shoot at the indoor range there. We each bought those lasers that mount on the front of the trigger guard (relatively cheap) well my girls who were 4/5th graders then, were deadly with them with those lasers. Think we ran through 500 rounds that afternnoon. The girls kept the two of us busy with loading the four guns! Anyway, long story short, we used those guns all summer. Everytime I was on the tractor, wherever on the farm that gun probably shot 20-50 rounds a day! End of summer, they started shaving lead. To the point of my buddy and I getting hit and he actually had blood drawn on his belly from shaved lead. We contacted Heritage, they sent an order for them, we sent them back, they were retuned, little other work done, still shaved, sent back again, stilll shaved, then were told they weren't to be shot side by side, Heritage said the shooter should be alone. Well they shaved bad enough that at a gun range, a person on the next lane would get hit by shaved lead. So eventually they bought them back from us. I personally have never bought another one, know that it was inexpensive, know that I shot the hell out of it, know that it became dangerous, know that the company was very good to deal with. I don't own another one. Won't buy another, but know people that have them and like them. Trust me, I liked it, my wife and girls loved them, they fit in their small hands and were comfortable to shoot ALL day. We are a family of 22 shooters, we shoot thousands of rounds per month since our girls started shooting their BB guns in kindergarten. My personal experience, for an occassional shooter, probably be fine. Maybe their QC is better and they are good for thousands of rounds of ammo. We shoot/use our guns probably more than the average person. The company was responsible and worked hard to get our guns back into the shape we thought they were when purchased. Even with safety glasses, I couldn't accept lead being shaved to the extent a person couldn't stand 3-5 feet to the side and shoot against each other without the other person ducking shavings. I am not being wishy washy or condoning or condeming Heritage 22's. If anyone has purchased a Heritage Rough Rider in the past couple of years and actually has run a thousand rounds through it and knows for certain sure it isn't shaving lead, I seriously would consider purchasing another for my wife as it is the revolver she compares all others against as to fit in her hand.

[killbuck]

Your wife and daughters testimonies says a lot about the gun.

Thanks,
killbuck

[Farmerjon]

Killbuck, your welcome. I thought long and hard on how to type that as I have seen the title of your thread for sometime now. I hope I conveyed that when they shot, they shot well. Once they started shaving lead, they didn't stop. In all fairness, the company did work them over twice at no cost. They might have just been completely worn out from use. I do hope someone with hundreds of rounds run through theirs speaks up and tells us they are better now, because my wife would love to have another. I just wanted to be fair to the gun, the company and tell you how it ended for us.

[Big Shrek]

Shaving lead usually one of three things, the axis pin for the cylinder has had it, too much gap between the forcing cone & the cylinder, or the cylinder being out of time.

The company should have easily resolved it...I'm surprised they couldn't fix it the first time.

There should be zero front-to-back &/or side-to-side movement of a revolver's cylinder.

The side-to-side movement could be caused by a number of factors. The cylinder stop, a precisely fitted part designed to hold the cylinder in place when the gun is fired, could be worn. The portion of the cylinder stop most likely to wear is a tab or small bar-like projection that extends through the frame and engages milled slots in the side of the cylinder. Ideally the width of the cylinder stop tab will match the width of the cylinder slots. If the cylinder slots have been enlarged or if the cylinder stop tab is worn and slightly thinner than needed, the cylinder will not be locked securely. There will be enough "slop" for side-to-side movement.

Another possible cause of this cylinder movement relates to the fit of the cylinder stop in the frame. As I mentioned the cylinder stop tab projects through a slot in the frame in order to contact the cylinder. This frame slot can also wear and permit side-to-side movement of the cylinder stop tab. This in turn allows movement of the cylinder.

Simple replacement with a new standard factory cylinder stop will not necessarily correct the problem. If there is wear on the cylinder slots and/or in the cylinder stop slot in the frame, a new cylinder stop may not be large enough to compensate for all this wear.

Step 1: Disassemble The Revolver
The first step in the rehabilitation of the revolver was to remove the cylinder. Obviously, before you begin any gun repairs, always make certain the firearm is unloaded! Following the removal of the cylinder, I took off the sideplate and removed the mainspring, hammer, and rebound slide. As I removed those parts I noticed wear marks and scratches on the sides of the hammer and the trigger. That's not good! Those marks are indications that the hammer and trigger are dragging on the inside of the frame as they are cycled. This makes for friction and a heavier trigger pull. It can also decrease the energy with which the hammer strikes the firing pin. In short, this is something we want to avoid.

The drag marks were made by burrs on the inside of the frame, and I removed the burrs with a bit of judicious stoning. I used a medium India stone and was extremely careful to avoid contact with the bosses, or raised shelves, around the hammer and trigger pivot pins. Never remove these bosses as they help to prevent contact between the sides of the trigger and hammer and the inside of the frame. Once the burrs were removed, I carefully and thoroughly hosed out the inside of the frame with Tipton Insta-Clean available from MidwayUSA. You absolutely must remove any and all traces of grit left by the stone. If you don't, it will cause trouble.

I installed the hammer and then the trigger to check movement back and forth and side to side. I found that even with the burrs removed I still had a problem. The hammer and trigger would shift from side to side on the pivot pins.

Fortunately, Power Custom also has a solution to this problem! The solution is tiny stainless-steel washers that are only .002 inch thick (that's two-thousandths of an inch). These washers are placed over the pivot pins on either side of the hammer and trigger until there is no side-to-side movement. You have to be careful that you don't use so many that they compress on the trigger and hammer when the sideplate is installed.

Step 2: Check The Cylinder Stop
With the trigger and hammer taken care of, I returned to the problem of the cylinder. I checked the fit of the cylinder stop in each of the stop notches in the cylinder. The Power Custom oversize cylinder stop was a nice snug fit with no side-to-side slop. I also checked the fit of the new cylinder stop in the frame slot. Again, there was much less side-to-side movement than with the old cylinder stop.

Before installing the cylinder stop I used an India stone to carefully break the sharp edges of the locking tab. This would help to prevent any possibility of the top of the tab scratching the surface of the cylinder. Just one or two strokes with the stone was all that was necessary. Some folks go so far as to polish the top of the tab, but this new part was incredibly smooth right out of the package.

Step 3: Reassemble The Revolver
The revolver was reassembled with the new stainless-steel washers and the new oversize cylinder stop. I left the sideplate off so I could check the fit and function of the new cylinder stop. The revolver was carefully cycled, and the function and movement of the cylinder stop were observed.

The timing of the cylinder stop is critical, and this is controlled by the forward portion of the trigger. As the trigger is squeezed, a projection on the front of the trigger engages a shelf on the rear of the cylinder stop and pulls the tab of the cylinder stop down and out of the locking notch in the cylinder. The cylinder is then allowed to begin to rotate. As the trigger continues to move it disengages from the cylinder stop. At this point a spring pushes the tab of the cylinder stop up against the cylinder so it can drop once again into the next locking notch.

Very little fitting was required, which is a tribute to the outstanding product from Power Custom! The cylinder now locks up with virtually no side-to-side movement.

With just a simple oversize cylinder stop and a few stainless-steel shims, this nice old Model 18 was ready for more shooting.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it is probably better now than it was when it was brand new and right out of the box. So the next time you run across a well-used old Smith & Wesson double-action revolver, keep in mind there might be a lot of life left in that old girl!

By the way, for detailed instructions on the fitting of the cylinder stop I strongly recommend The Smith and Wesson Revolver, A Shop Manual by Jerry Kuhnhausen. It's an outstanding book and available from most gunsmith supply houses.

Hope that helps