.22 Rough Rider

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wild cat mccane said:
Okay, I was about to purchase a 6" .22 Rough Rider but came across bad press.

What has been your experience? I am looking for some fun and good shooting, but won't be purchasing something more expensive for this role.

I trust the folks on this site.
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"Gun Tests" (the "Consumer Reports" of the gun world) gave it an "A" rating a few years back. I've got a few of them here in my shop, and they are really nice little guns, esp for the $. I don't see how you can go wrong.

Go forth and Plink!
 
Well, it's not a Sig, Colt, Smith, H&K blah blah blah. It's a $200ish revolver that will do what it's designed to do. If it is what you want then go right ahead and get it.
 
Late fall I was looking at getting a SA revolver. I don't have any and the "urge" was getting strong. I was debating a Ruger Single Ten or maybe a .357 Ruger SA. I found out the Academy's anual Black Friday sale they sell the 6.5" .22LR for $99. I did a massive ODC web search on the HRR and to my surprise the vast majority are favorable. So I went to Academy and bought two for a total of $200. :eek: One of the HRR the timing was off. I sent it to Heritage, free shipping, and it was repaired. If you check the Heritage site you can buy every spring, screw, grips, pieces and parts really cheap. I think a front sight blade is $5 for example. You can replace the grip frame for $35 and get a birdshead grip. The only parts Heritage will not sell are the barrel and the receiver. I plan on shooting both with various ammo and see which one groups best and shoots to the POA the best and sell the other or keep it for parts. I took the money I didn't spend on a Ruger Single Ten and bought a Uberti Cimmaron Evil Roy SAA for $635:D This is the competition model that has been worked over by a gun smith for Cimmaron in Texas. One day I may get the Ten. But the HRR does fine for punching holes in paper and killing vicious tin cans!
 
bowzette said:
Late fall I was looking at getting a SA revolver. I don't have any and the "urge" was getting strong. I was debating a Ruger Single Ten or maybe a .357 Ruger SA. I found out the Academy's anual Black Friday sale they sell the 6.5" .22LR for $99. I did a massive ODC web search on the HRR and to my surprise the vast majority are favorable. So I went to Academy and bought two for a total of $200. :eek: One of the HRR the timing was off. I sent it to Heritage, free shipping, and it was repaired. If you check the Heritage site you can buy every spring, screw, grips, pieces and parts really cheap. I think a front sight blade is $5 for example. You can replace the grip frame for $35 and get a birdshead grip. The only parts Heritage will not sell are the barrel and the receiver. I plan on shooting both with various ammo and see which one groups best and shoots to the POA the best and sell the other or keep it for parts. I took the money I didn't spend on a Ruger Single Ten and bought a Uberti Cimmaron Evil Roy SAA for $635:D This is the competition model that has been worked over by a gun smith for Cimmaron in Texas. One day I may get the Ten. But the HRR does fine for punching holes in paper and killing vicious tin cans!
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Wow, great deal! Heritage also sells steel frame and 9 shot rough riders. I wonder what kind of deals one could get on those? A 9 shot steel frame would be fabulous!
 
Here is an example of a new posts on other forum re the RR. Lots of discussion on various gun sites.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/firearms-knives-other-brands/466777-rough-rider-range-report.html

The steel frames are made to comply with a few states that tried to band "Saturday Night Specials"-north east cost I believe-by requiring frames meet a certain heat melting point. From all the post I've read an all steel frame in a HRR is a waste of money. I may spring for the wood grips one day.
 
Welp, I am convinced they are an amazingly fun gun for the money. They are still $100 for those who look around, just wanted to put that out there :)


After thinking it over, I wasn't sure it would be enough boom for my fun factor. So I purchased a GP100 1707 from grabagun.com just now. Yeah.
 
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I had one for a while. I sold it & a Mossberg 20 gauge about 3 years ago because I never shot them & there was something I wanted more. I liked it okay.
 
Well, I was at my LGS a couple of days ago, and they had the Rough Rider on sale. Since this thread, and a couple others on other forums had me thinking about them, I decided to pick one up.

This one is nicer than the one I owned previously I believe. It's only got the 22 LR cylinder, but since I have never fired a round of 22 magnum ammo in my life, I doubt I'll miss that.

The finish, both painted and blued looks nice. The fit of grip frame to the frame isn't as nice as some other guns I've owned, but it's isn't bad for an inexpensive. Same for the grips themselves. The grips are decent looking wood. The trigger again isn't too bad. Not much different than the Ruger Single-Six I've got. (I've also owned Colt, and Uberti S/A 22's.)

The safety is a non-issue to me. It's just there. Since I only shoot at the range, I doubt I'll ever use it. If I still bummed around in the woods...I might.

Not bad for a hundred and a half I don't think. Oh, I checked. The least expensive used Ruger Single-Six they had was $399.99.

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Now the bad. The flutes on the cylinder are too short. No practical affect on the gun at all, I just think they look funny.

The really bad. The first one the clerk gave me, felt like someone had dumped a box of rocks into the action. It was ROUGH. I handed it back and told him to get me another one. He tried it and agreed it was pretty bad. He got another one out of the case and that one was MUCH better. So it might be a good idea to check the one you're thinking about buying first, which I think goes for any gun. (I never buy anything online, and that's just one of the reasons why.)

Nope, I haven't fired it so I don't know how it shoots. I hope to find out one day next week.
 
I have two of them. One i bought new and the other one i bought used. There are a few differences in them, the used one is an older one. The hammers are a little different, and the cylinder flutes are longer on the older one.
I have read some posts cutting them down pretty bad and from the comments i am not sure if the early RR's were different or if they had a gun that was not a RR. For one, the barrels on both of mine and all the others i have seen are threaded not pinned in. The cylinder gaps on mine are very close,closser than most Ruger single sixes. The trigger pull on both of mine are 3 pounds and are smooth with no creep, much nicer than any Ruger i have ever owned and i have owned a bunch of them.They do look a little cheap because the frames look to be pwder coated instead of annodized aluminum. Yes the frames on mine are allow, but so are a lot of Ruger single six's and even some colt single action .22.Most other single action guns the grip frames are fitted individually to the main frame and the rough rider it looks like the grip frames are made so any grip frame will fit any main frame so it does not have that nice perfect line where they come together. Both of mine lock up tighter than the average rugers that i have had. Now, the Rugers are for sure a much nicer gun as far as fit and finish. And most of the things i do not like about the Rugers are easily fixed,smoother trigger pull and while the cylinder gaps and lock up may not always be perfect on a Ruger, they for sure are withing spec and will not cause any problem. Ruger has the best customer service of any fire arms company there is.I do not know how good the Heritage guns would fare in the customer service though. Also,,Taurus owns heritage rough rider. That would be a downside to some people but it for sure beats tong che rue or some china company,lol. Seriously, they are a great gun for the price. Really the only bad thing about them is that they are strictly shooting guns,they just are not the kind of gun that sleeps between you and your wife at night.
 
I have one. It is extremely accurate at 25 yards with bulk ammo. It goes bang every time. It doesn't eat ammo like a semi does because it takes a few seconds to reload.

It isn't a Ruger. I have a Ruger. It is a much better gun and has more resale value which is great considering I don't sell guns. The Ruger is no more accurate than the Heritage.
 
I made a soda can dance pretty good @ about 20 yards with mine... I don't have that gun anymore.. Sold it, bought a Ruger... Sold the Ruger... now i plink with a Ruger Mach III 22/45 with volquatzen trigger kit. Ill be holding onto that. But to get back to it.. the HRR was a good pistol. Don't spend anymore than 125, they go on sale a lot for 99 bucks. I agree with the post above that the Ruger isn't anymore accurate.
 
These guns are really the result of modern CNC manufacturing. No longer does a gun have to have a bunch of hand fitting to get them to work. As long as the opperator keeps sharp tooling in the machines the parts come out identicle.Someone paid a lot of attention in designing them in a way that they function very well yet do not require a lot of hand work. From what i have tried withy my two, you can simply interchange most parts and they work fine.If you buy a single cylinder gun you can send in a money order for $29.95 along with your guns serial number and they send you out a .22 wmr cylinder ready to go.Now of coarse a gun made like this will not have frame to grip frame matting like a Ruger or colt but the RR will not have overhang or anything like that either.Grip panels the same way, no over hang and the edges are slightly rounded. The steel cylinder and barrels are not highly polished but they do not have rough machine marks at all. Another thing i noticed about the RR is the cylinder ratchet. It is much larger/deeper than a colt or Ruger.When you spin the cylinder you will notice it right off.You can not give the cylinder a spin like on a colt. I think this was done to make the gun last a long time. That was one of the problems of cheaper single actions from the past.That and soft metal and i have not noticed soft steel on the RR at all so far. Both of my guns shot a couple of inches low when i got them. I think this is done on purpose. You can file the front sight to get them hitting where you want them. my guns did not need any adjustment on the windage. Some people will bend the front sight for that, it does not take much. But the barrels on the RR are screwed in , not pinned, so you can turn the barrel a smidge and do the same thing. Again, it does not take much and the tiny bit it takes will not even be noticable to most people. The sites are crude . The rear not is very small, just like an original colt peace maker. A single action was made to shoot more point style than how we use them today so that can be a problem. The heratige RR does come in an adjustable sight version though i have never handled one of them.
These guns are made to work and do very well, but some of the nice perfect fitting was left off to keep the price low.A very well thought out plan. When you take into account the other modern guns we use today, most all outo's, that are made the same way, CNC machining and cast polymer frames and parts that take little hand fitting and labour but yet profit off of that instead of passing the savings on to the customer,,i say this company was useing their heads. The only problem i see with the idea is that many people will see the price and think cheap no good gun.
 
i have a new hrr 9 shot 4.5" and 6 shot 6", both 22lr/wmr. i also have a used ruger single six. for what i paid i love them all. i keep the hrr 9 shot loaded with 22wmr speer gold dot defense rounds for trunk gun protection. while i might trade off or gift the hrr 6 shot i will certainly keep the hrr 9 shot and ruger. for $100-200 for any flavor of new, not used, hrr you cannot go wrong, especially if new to guns or on a tight budget.
 
From Post #67 to jstert
How long have you had the nine shot? How much did you pay? Is there any differences in quality?
 
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CajunBass, hope you enjoy it. I have enjoyed mine.

You wrote:

The least expensive used Ruger Single-Six they had was $399.99.
Click to expand...

My go-to LGS has had three in it's case for several weeks now (well, had three.) Two are older, "3-screw" models, priced well north of $500. The third is (was) a "New Model", with only the .22LR cylinder.

That one is here with me, and I paid just about that for it.

The Ruger feels, in the hand, like the "tougher" revolver, but the HRR, to me at least, feels more "authentic", probably due to the cruder sights, and the three-click hammer that must be partially-cocked to load/unload.

My HRR isn't going anywhere. :)
 
to traffer. i paid about $220 a couple of years ago thru gb.com for the 9 shot hrr, added $25 shipping and $22 ffl fees. quality is 100%. my ruger ss came used without 22wmr cylinder so i added an 8 round replacement by story, also 100%, most accurate piece that i own. i like the ruger too much to exile it to trunk duty, but i love the hrr as well. chiappa 22 single actions also offer greater than 6 rounds but i have no experience with them.
 
Bud's has the .22LR only version for $131 with free shipping.

Pretty big price uptick there to go to 9 shot or steel frame.
 
I was in a LGS with my buddy who was looking at one with a convertible cylinder in 22WMR. I proceeded to do a revolver lock up test to see how much wiggle it had in the cylinder. To avoid dry firing the pistol I rode the hammer down with my thumb while I had the trigger pressed. The entire revolver froze up and the cylinder would no longer rotate. I could not believe what I was seeing. Handed the inoperable revolver back to the clerk who took it to the onsite gunsmith to disassemble and get it working again.

The clerk seemed kind of pissed and the gunsmith was annoyed. I turned to my friend and told him it was good for a hammer. They knocked off $30 and he bought it anyway. He loves it but reminds me to this day that he will not ride the hammer home with his thumb.
 
The OP made up his mind already but I want to add my two cents.:D

About 15 years ago I bought a Rough Rider .22 with both cylinders. I shot the heck out of it. My brother liked it so much that he got one as well a couple years after me. They both were plenty accurate and worked well mechanically. The fit and finish part is pretty much what they lack along with the Zamac frame. Still all and all a good value for the price.

Move along some years and I "needed" an inexpensive 32 H&R mag revolver. So I got A rough Rider with the laminated grips. About what I expected and took it to the range to try it out. Shot really far to one side and high. They sent me a new taller front sight at no cost. They told me that to correct the horizontal problem to install the new sight and bend it. Then trim to vertical point of aim. I asked about a new barrel and having them fit it. It turns out the barrel is an interference fit and pressed/glued in. No way to replace barrel without ruining the revolver and by now that model/caliber is discontinued.:eek::banghead: Lesson here is you buy and it is either accurate or not out of the box. Thankfully most are accurate though it turns out. At least I have a full set of parts (checked the part numbers in both manuals) less the frame, barrel, and cylinder to keep our .22s running well into the future. YMMV
 
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