Watchlords

Inspired by watching old Paladin re-runs, I recently bought a Heritage Roughrider single action .22LR/.22WMR six shooter revolver from one of the internet gun shops. 6.5" bbl, aluminum alloy frame, steel cylinders and barrel, cocobolo grips, fixed sights and a dark "blued" finish. About as "wild west" as you can get for short money ($129 + $18 shipping + $25 transfer fee) except for the stupid hammer block safety on the frame behind the cylinder. Fit and finish are surprisingly good given the price, with no sharp corners or rough patches. Cylinder lock-up is very tight with no wiggle whatsoever and the hammer cock is solid and positive. Only obvious cut corners are the use of hard plastic for the hammer block lever and the ejector rod thumb pusher. Oh well.

Spent a weekend afternoon with bro-in-law and his 2 boys out on the north forty with a good supply of paper "splatter" targets, water filled 2 liter soda bottles, paint cans and such like as well as a couple of steel silhouette squirrels (not to mention sandwiches, sodas, beer and a flask of Irish strictly for medicinal purposes). Used mainly 40 gr. CCI mini-mag LRs and 40 gr. CCI maxi-mag hollow points in WMR. It'll never be a tack driver, but my best group was a little over 3" at 15 yds. one handed. My brother in law had the best group of the day at about 2.75" - both groups with LR. Trigger pull is (surprisingly) smooth and crisp with very little creep. As far as the water bottles, we set 'em up at 10 and 15 yds, put the squirrels out at 25 and let the nephews bang away. Switched over to the mag cylinder about half way through. Cylinder change out takes about a minute and a half - half cock, open the loading gate, press the release spring button, pull center pin out and remove cylinder - replace with mag cylinder and reassemble. Cowboy fixed sights aren't much, but the boys had a great time splattering the water bottles and whooped with delight when they managed to make the steel squirrels ring. FYI - a .22 mag hollow point plays hell with a partially full paint can! Called it a day when the medical supplies ran out. Really a memorable afternoon with bro and boys.

So all in all the Roughrider is well made, has decent accuracy and is a hell of a lot of fun for short bucks - with the extra mag cylinder as a bonus.
https://www.gunsamerica.com/925890784/H ... UE-NEW.htm
(image from internet)

Seem like it might be a modern re-incarnation of the Ruger Bearcat...

Thunder1 wrote:Seem like it might be a modern re-incarnation of the Ruger Bearcat...

Ruger was where I started looking, but even the Bearcat is nearly $500. Seem as though I remember it at around $150 - of course it's been a few years.... Too much for a plinker.

I got my nieces into firearms with a 22cal PCP rifle, two of the three are now active hunters!

Falstaff wrote:the stupid hammer block safety on the frame behind the cylinder

Was in the market to replace the S&W 686 I sold some years back, since they have also incorporated the same hammer block safety crap, I'm leaning towards a Ruger GP100 Match Champion.


Good job on your purchase Mr. Staff!

Ah. The memories.

A way long time ago when I was ineffectively dabbling with cowboy action shooting I grabbed an STI Texican and a Doug Turnbull that started life as a USFA.

Not only did they not have hammer block safeties they were of the type that were generally considered 5-shooters due to the advisability of carrying with the hammer down on an empty chamber. They were strikingly similar perhaps due in part to Turnbull doing the color case hardening on both. They both got sold as a brace to the boss to finance, well, I can't even remember now.

Both the Turnbull and the STI cost the same or more than a genuine Colt SAA 3rd Gen but shot like a dream. Colt has addressed the issues in current production but I could not abide the pressed in bushing or the sloppy forcing cone and barrel/cylinder gaps all over the place. It was a classic example of a fine old company trading on former glory with a dubious product although arguably worse than AMF Harley Davidson making bikes out of bowling ball parts for a time. The SAA used to (perhaps still does) come with a dire warning that removing the chastity belt and actually gently cycling the thing would do horrid things to its resale. I remain convinced they pushed those warnings in an effort to hide the observation that many couldn't shoot worth a shit.

Putting "do not use" in a gun box is about like putting "do not wear" in a watch box - it just kinds kills it for me.

The Heritage product is obviously intended for extensive use and that in and of itself gets my respect.

Looks a bit like the Ruger single-six I got from my father after he passed. In the small world department I have a GP100 also. Was gonna buy one new years ago but the front sight was off center a bit, so I bought a lightly used one cheaper and with properly aligned sights. In the cheap plinker department I have a Ruger Mark II with the bull barrel which is fun to shoot. Recently, I have been looking at getting a Mossberg 715P. Have yet to see one in the flesh though so I haven't bought.

Cod and Mark - I've always been a big fan of Ruger's D/A revolvers. Owned both the Security Six and Speed Six (not at the same time) models in stainless. Both in .357 mag with the 3" barrel. In fact it was that 3" bbl. that sold me on those models - a bit longer than a 2.5" snubnose, but more concealable than the standard 4". Ruger was the only mfr. that offered a 3" option. Supposedly they developed that to meet the FBI's new spec for their service pistols (as well as a 9mm chambering). Had a Redhawk .44 mag (6" bbl.) for a while - great fun to look at, but just too much pistol to shoot regularly and gain any proficiency. Currently have a GP 100 in (you guessed it) stainless, .357 mag with 3" bbl. All have been rock solid performers with silky smooth actions. My only kick was when Ruger started stamping "read owner's manual before firing" on the barrels. I believe they were first to do that and of course everybody does it now, but at the time I thought it just spoiled the looks of the gun.

Falstaff wrote: I've always been a big fan of Ruger's D/A revolvers.

Ditto

The GF's SP101 has had thousands of mag rounds through it with no slowing down. Still as accurate as new.

My hog gun is a Super Redhawk with 9-1/2" barrel.




Was quite accurate out of the box and even more so with the 11° crown and some exhaust ports cut in by Mag-Na-Port International.

This revolver replaced a Remington XP-100 used for the same purpose and had also done our freezer good over the years. More fulfilling taking game with a revolver over a bolt action pistol imo.

As a side note..... Ruger sells a lot of 4.2" revolvers, quite a strange barrel length until one equates it to the 106mm minimum pistol barrel length making it legal in Canada. That .2" makes it much safer for the public I assume............
Sorry for the slight cecil.

Nice, Falsy, especially for the price!

Since moving back to Colorado, which, unlike The People's Republic of California, is a must issue state, I have been shooting with my cousin the retired SWAT sniper and taking the training required to obtain a CWP.

I have always preferred wheel guns to semis. After shooting with several different models, I decided on the S&W Bodyguard, the latest in the M&P series. It's a hammerless .38 special +P snub-nose, with an integrated laser sight. (They also make a .380 with a six shot mag, only 12 ozs.). It's lightweight (14 ozs), is easy to conceal, and fires very smoothly. I figure that with overpressure hollow points, it will provide adequate stopping power should I find myself in the right place at the wrong time.