Heritage

[Allison]

At the range a couple of weeks ago and a guy rolls up to
the bench beside me with a wooden pistol case with a
Civil War scene on the front of it. I immediately think,
a fellow BP shooter, and start up a conversation. (BP
shooters in this area are pretty much non-existent.)
Turns out it was a Heritage revolver. I'd heard about
these when I was looking at Ruger Bearcats and they'd
gotten high marks in spite of being really inexpensive.
The guy said he had paid $130 for his which included the
very cool cedar box. When I got home I went to the
Heritage website which includes some magazine reviews.
One of the reviews said that the parts were made by Pietta
and then it was assembled in the US. Given the recent
quality improvements by Pietta, I'm thinking this might be
a very nice gun for very little money.
If this post is too off topic, please let me know.

Al

 

[Nicodemus38]

the heritage is a very decent revolver for the money. for 175 i got a 6 inch barreled 22lr/wmr that can do pop can groups all day with a weaver stance at 30 yards once you get used to it.
Quality is good, the only "issues" is that some of the grips are just fugly yet nice in their own fugly way. If you want to get aftermarket grips you can, but most online companies are selling similar grips to what heritage sells for twice what heritage charges.

 

[Allison]

I heard they were pretty accurate.

 

[frankiestoys]

It's a good little revolver, my kids love it.
I dont enjoy shooting .22's not enough bang for me, but the gun has been reliable and
its accurate enough. The finish could be better but its not horrible.

 

[tpelle]

I'm kind of thinking about buying one - I have a BUNCH of .22LR that won't cycle my semi-autos reliably.

I heard somewhere that the ejector housings and trigger are plastic. Can anyone confirm that?

I'd likely go with a .22LR only, as I don't really see a need for 22WMR. Do you all think the aluminum frame is sufficiently strong for that? (Probably so, I guess, as I recall my brother had one of those Remington Nylon-66's, in which the bolt cycled in plastic!)

 

[arcticap]

I have an aluminum frame Heritage Rough Rider that I paid $135 for years ago. It's very accurate and has a desirable and unique hammer block flip up safety to the left of the hammer. The frame is fine for .22lr and the only plastic on mine is the front sight. The frame and extractor housing is painted which can soften if it comes into contact with a powder solvent like Hoppe's #9 for any length of time.
Mine has a minor quirk in the timing which sometimes causes the cylinder bolt to engage and bind the cylinder when first cocking it right after loading it on 1/2 cock. That's solved by slightly advancing the cylinder by hand prior to the first full cock after loading.
This one came with a .22WMR cylinder which I never used, but if I did I would use the .22WMR Winchester Dynapoints which are significantly weaker than full strength .22WMR rounds. But many folks do shoot the full strength rounds without any issues.
I really like the adjustable fiber optic sight, accuracy, laminated grip and safety feature that this model has. I probably would have liked a steel frame better but at the time the price was right and I wasn't even aware when ordering it that it was aluminum. I haven't detected any noticiable wear at all involving the cylinder pin slot. While the round count may be under 1000 I don't think that the frame will wear out over a lifetime.
Since the original .22 BP rounds were much more corrosive this modern aluminum version should last 100 times longer.

 

[Allison]

arcticap....I like the grips on yours. Does the recoil shield safety
block the hammer?So you could carry a full cylinder?

Al

 

[arcticap]

Thanks.
Yes. The safety switch rotates a pin which physically blocks the hammer from falling all of the way and contacting the firing pin.
When the safety is off, there's a flat side cut into that pin which allows it to fall.
It's simple, easy to use and works well.

 

[tpelle]

OK, I think I'm gonna buy one. I checked Heritage's list of dealers and found a gun shop local to me that was listed. I called 'em, and they said that they sell a BUNCH of these pistols. They have a RR22MB6 in stock for about $190.00, or $211 OTD with taxes included. This is the blue 6-1/2" barrel version with the Cocobolo stocks, and comes with two cylinders - one for .22LR and one for .22WMR.

This little pistol kind of reminds me of one I had as a teenager. I recall it being an Arminius brand (German made) SA revolver, again with the .22LR and .22WMR cylinders. I had a lot of fun with it, ventilated a bunch of tin cans, but ended up trading it off for the money to buy a David Clark headset and boom mic back when I was aviating. That episode, as well as trading away my S&W Model 15 Masterpiece, is why I have resolved NEVER to sell or trade away another firearm!

Anyway, I have $150.00 in American Express gift cards, so I'll only be about $60.00 short - then there's that birthday coming up on the 30th............

I would just have soon not get the .22WMR cylinder, as .22WMR is never as accurate as .22LR in one of these dual-cylinder revolvers. The reason is that the old .22LR uses a heel-base bullet whereas the .22 WMR doesn't. See the following pictures to see what I mean:





You can see in the pictures that the .22LR bullet has driving bands that are as wide as the OD of the case, whereas the .22WMR bullet is seated inside the case. Consequently the .22WMR bullet is too small in diameter for the bore. It kind of rattles down the barrel like a marble down a drain pipe - not conducive to great accuracy.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I have one of these Heritage .22 revolvers and I like it. I have had my aluminum frame version for almost 4 years now and have no problems except for the finish getting thin in a few places on the frame. For the price they can not be beat and they are American made. I plan on getting another one in the future.

 

[Nicodemus38]

22wmr uses a larger diam bullet. he barrel that comes mounted in frame on lr/wmr revolvers is a 22wmr. on mine the wmr is most accurate.

 

[arcticap]

At .224, the .22WMR bullets are .001 larger in diameter than .22lr which are .223.
The velocity of Winchester SuperX .22WMR FMJ is 1910 fps while the velocity of Winchester Dynapoint .22WMR plated is 1550 fps (both velocities are from rifles and are even less from pistols). The .22WMR Dynapoints are sold at many Walmarts.

http://www.winchester.com/products/catalog/rimfiredetail.aspx?symbol=USA22M

http://www.winchester.com/products/catalog/rimfiredetail.aspx?symbol=X22M

I think that the 6.5 inch Heritage revolvers are capable of slightly better than pie plate accuracy at 50 yards with the right ammo. I realize that most folks have their preference of sights but I would suggest getting one with adjustable sights. Once the sights are tuned it then they can be left alone for shooting at most any distance with a variety of .22lr ammo.
I imagine if someone was really careful they could pull some bullets out of the rimfire cases, reload them with black powder and then replace the bullets.
Just kidding...no really, just kidding!

 

[tpelle]

Ahhh....so you're saying that the chambers of the .22WMR cylinder are bored out slightly larger that the cylinder of a .22LR. That makes sense - I stand corrected.

I was going from (dim) memory of my old Arminius, which shot the magnums like patterning a shotgun. I wonder if the magnum cylinder was out of time, or something?

 

[Nicodemus38]

22 wmr is built like a straight walled 357 or 45 lc.

you really cant pull a bullet form a 22lr without destroying it. most of the time the bullet heel simply snaps off in the case, and even if you DO manage to get a bullet out without destroying it, you have to deal with the crimped section of case.

ironically the federal shotshell for 22lr have a powder charge that almost fills a 22 short case to overflowing. win dynapoint in 22lr have a charge rougly equal to 3 shot pellets from the shotshell load.

 

[SteelyNirvana]

I have one and enjoy it very much. Very acurate gun. Mine likes the CCI CB shorts. Last time I had it to the range I was able to shoot a group of 4 in a perfect horizontal line at 7 yards.

 

[tpelle]

I notice in this picture of a Heritage .22 with the bird's head grip that the seem to have a "two-screw" action instead of the customary Colt SAA three-screw setup.



Looking at the exploded view in their manual, it appears that the trigger and cylinder bolt pivot on the same screw.

Don't know if this is a problem or not.....just sayin'.

Hmmm.........I just googled up some info on the Colt Scout (Colt's inexpensive .22 plinker revolver that they made back in the '60's or so), and they use the exact same two-screw system, with the bolt and trigger on the same screw. Now, ain't that somethin'?

The more I look at this Rough Rider, it looks to be more and more a clone of the Colt Scout. Lookin' at the exploded views and parts diagrams side-by-side, the only differences I can detect are that the Colt Scout had a bushing at the front of the cylinder (I suppose so that you could replace it to fix headshake issues), and the addition of a manual safety to the Rough Rider. Even the way the mainsprings hook into the front strap looks to be the same!

Look for yourself, and see what I mean:

http://heritagemfg.com/site/pdf/sbManual.pdf

http://www.coltparts.com/pt_scout.html

Just fer gits and shiggles, here's a pic I downloaded from Gunblast.com showing an original Colt Scout on top, and a .32 version of the Small-Bore Rough Rider on the bottom - the Rough Rider .22 is on the same frame.



Notice the two-screw action and the way the entire grip frame/trigger guard/backstrap is one piece on both. That last characteristic is what grabbed my eye, and got me to lookin' at the similarities of the two pistols. Hopefully next weekend (when some extra cash comes in) I'll head over to a gun shop and check one of these out.

 

[TomADC]

I don't know if you can find one or not but Shoot magazine Volume 39 March/April has a nice article on Heritage pistols etc . They give them high marks for the price range.

 

[arcticap]

The larger brass frame screw would loosen from cocking & firing it until I applied some medium strength blue Loctite Threadlock and it has stayed in place ever since.
That screw needed to have the right amount of tension on it.

 

[CajunBass]

l've never shot a Heritage, but I do have a Colt Frontier Scout from the late 60's. When I first looked at it I thought that it looked a lot like a Heritage, just a much nicer finish.



If I didn't already have the Colt, and a couple of Rugers, (and a few other 22 pistols) I'd probably get a Rough Rider.