Question about Heritage western style revolvers

[Randall53]

Do any of you own one of these? I'm hearing that a local club is talking about having some cowboy silhouette pistol matches and I'll need a gun for this. I don't have the money I used to have when I worked so these would fit my buget much better than the Rugers, Colts etc.....Any info would be appreciated.  :up:

[ou812]

I got the 22lr, last year on Black Friday at Academy Sports.  I love it!   Fun to shoot easy to clean.  The only gun I own that I can put all the rounds on target at 25 yards.

 

I paid $99 plus fees.  It comes with a free NRA one year membership. 

 

They sell the 22 mag cylinder at the Heritage website for $30 but the usually have a sale during dec.  I think it was 40% off.

 

Academy usually offers this as a Black Friday item or has the last few years. 

[Randall53]

Great info Sir. Thank you very much.

[ou812]

Great info Sir. Thank you very mu

You are welcome.

[10-Ring]

I have one and have nothing but good to say about it.  Is it the quality of a Ruger?  No, but it's a good value for what you pay for it.  Never thought mine was all that accurate when shot side by with me .22 pistols.

[seax]

As a gunsmith I cannot recommend one. They are serviced by Taurus. In a year we have had five com in for repair and of those four  could not be fixed. They offered to replace them. They charged full retail for the replacements and kept the original guns. I would suggest you look for a good used older revolver. BTW thier warranty starts at manufacture date, not sales date. A couple of the guns were purchased within 3 months of them being brought to us but had manufacture dates more than a year before.

 

Sorry about that.

 

Cheers,

 

ts

[Murgatroy]

I bought a Rough Rider convertible, shot a lot of bulk .22LR through it. Liked it so much I bought another.

 

I can spend an entire afternoon popping through a brick of ammo and enjoy it all. 

 

It isn't the fanciest, or the most cleanly assembled, but it is as fun as any of them.

 

It is however my understanding (from sporadic internet chatter) that the full bore calibers are different than the rimfire.

[gregintenn]

I had a 22 once. I would have kept it, but I let a co worker talk me out of it. It was every bit as accurate as my Ruger or Colt. The action was smoother than the Ruger, and the trigger was better. Fit and finish was that of an inexpensive gun. A lot of fun to shoot.

[JAB]

I have had my 6.5 inch barrel .22 combo for a few years, now so have no experience with them since Taurus bought the company.  That said, I like my .22 and find it to be pretty accurate and reliable as long as I do my part.

 

That said, would the .22 version be what you would choose for silhouette shooting or would you need a centerfire?  I ask because the two are not necessarily the same animal or at least they weren't in the pre-Taurus days.  Last I knew (again, pre-Taurus and my still be this way) the rimfire revolvers and the .32 version (which, to my knowledge, is no longer offered) were made by Heritage at their facility in the U.S.  I am pretty sure that most of the parts were made there.  That is, IIRC.  The centerfire versions, however, were (again, to my understanding) assembled at Heritage from parts made entirely or at least mostly by Pietta in Italy.  So, the rimfires were Heritage products while the centerfires were, for all intents and purposes, Pietta revolvers.

[Randall53]

I'm thinking the matches are going to be 22 matches, if they are approved. 

[roverboy]

I may be wrong on this but, didn't Heritage used to make centerfire calibers?

[Garufa]

I may be wrong on this but, didn't Heritage used to make centerfire calibers?

 

http://www.heritagemfg.com/

[Steelharp]

So, we have a bunch of owners that love them, and a gunsmith opinion that they are crap.

 

I'm confused, and have no opinion. Just an interesting observation.

[Joe357]

TS, may be incorrect about the warranty. It states on their website that the Warranty starts from date of purchase not manufacture date.

I have not owned one of these but I do own a Ruger. The Ruger is a nice gun for the money. It is the stainless steel version of the single six convertible. Edited November 18, 2015 by Joe357

[Caster]

Mine was a turd. I only had the Magnum cylinder though. I couldn't hit a barn if I was inside with the door shut.

[Steelharp]

Mine was a turd. I only had the Magnum cylinder though. I couldn't hit a barn if I was inside with the door shut.

Now, that's pretty bad!!! And really funny, too!

[TNWNGR]

I liked the ones I shot a few years back but much more prefered the Ruger Single-Six and New Model Bearcat. Additionaly I've seen a number of older ones at a couple of friends gunsmith shops for repair. Said repairs were generally due to a broken spring although several of them were disambled in shoeboxes. Pretty much the normal take it apart to clean it or take it apart to "fix-it" thing that puts food on the gunsmiths table.

[gregintenn]

So, we have a bunch of owners that love them, and a gunsmith opinion that they are crap.

 

I'm confused, and have no opinion. Just an interesting observation.

 

So, we have a bunch of owners that love them, and a gunsmith opinion that they are crap.

 

I'm confused, and have no opinion. Just an interesting observation.

They're a hundred dollar gun. One shouldn't expect Colt quality, but for a hundred dollar gun, they represent good value.

[ou812]

Academy sports has it again on black friday for $99.99

[TnShooter83]

I've owned one. I shot 5 different ones.
Mine was a .22lr that I later bought a .22mag cylinder for.
It shot low. As did 2 others I shot. Better low than high as mine did not have an
adjustable rear sight. There for, you could file file the sight if needed. I just held high and left the front sight alone.

Accuracy was actually pretty good. I hit 3" spin targets pretty regularly at 15 yards.
Never put one on a rest to see true accuracy. It was good enough for me and plinking.
Trigger was pretty good on most I shot. One has a bit of creep before breaking.
Other than that it was "nice". Not excellent but nice.

My friend did dry fire his and it caused the cylinder to peen. You could not load a cartridge.
Took a round fire with sand paper and knocked the peened edge off. A was goo again.
So don't dry fire it. Yes, I know you should not dry fire most .22lr. He didn't, but does now.

Now, my biggest issue was getting a conversion cylinder in 22mag that worked.
It took 3 different cylinders before I got one that would lock in place when you pulled the hammer back. It would almost lock in place but stop just short.

I tried all the cylinders I was sent in 3 different revolvers.
Of the 3, 1 cylinder fit 2 revolvers. 1 fit just 1. And 1 fit all 3.
Not sure what the issue was. Manufacturing tolerances I guess?
But after I got one that fit all was good.

I ended up selling mine. I didn't shoot it much when 22 lr was hard to find.
I also like having adjustable sights. Still haven't replaced it with a different revolver.
But if I do, it will like be a Bearcat or Single-Six.


I'd buy another one, but only if it had adjustable sights.
I'd call it good to above average for the money. But if you have more money
I'd look are at the Rugers. Edited November 19, 2015 by TnShooter83

[JAB]

A few years back - '09, I believe - my mom, nephew and I were at a public shooting range.  One of the guns that they brought was my nephew's falling block .22 single shot rifle.  They were plinking at some swinging steel targets out at 50 yards.  Just on a lark, I started plinking at those steel targets with my Rough Rider with the WMR cylinder installed.  I was surprised to find that I was hitting the steel at least as often as they were hitting with the rifle - and my mom is a pretty good shot.  I was probably hitting the steel about four or five out of every six shots.  I am guessing that the steel I was shooting at was about four or five inches across.

 

We were the only people at the range at the time so, just to further the lark a bit more, I put up a paper target at 100 yards to see what the Heritage might do.  I ended up firing a few cylinders full and attempting to 'dial in' my aim between cylinders by adjusting my POA, holdover and so on.  I was using Winchester Super X WMR ammo which, I believe, is pretty much the same as the load which Winchester used to develop the first WMR guns.  I didn't have a spotting scope so I was making the 100 yard trek between each cylinder full while trying to remember my POA from the previous cylinder full and making POA adjustments in my head .  It was kinda warm that day and there was no breeze, whatsoever which probably helped shooting but meant I started getting tired of making that walk, especially as I had already been shooting rifles at that distance and had walked out and back several times before that.

 

Anyhow, below is a picture of my results.  I may have posted it on the forum, before, because I like it.  The 'legend' in the corner gives some info and tells which color of ring (later edited in on my computer) corresponds with which cylinder.  I consider myself a serviceable shooter.  I was probably better then than I am now as ammo shortages, prices of rimfire ammo and so on have cut into my shooting time but I don't think I have ever been a stand-out shot.  A better shooter would certainly have done impressive things.  As it was, you can see that I really was 'dialing in' my aim and getting more/better hits with each cylinder full.  Had I kept going I might have done even better but I was tired by this point.

 

I didn't use a rest or support of any kind.  All shots were fired with a two-handed grip in more or less a Weaver stance.  My Rough Rider is the 6.5 inch barrel version so that will give some perspective as to the size of the target.  Not bad for a gun that, when I bought it brand new, had a price tag (before tax, etc.) of $120 with both cylinders.

 

 

Oh, and the target was hung on a thin piece of plywood which was there for the purpose.  At 100 yards I could tell that the Super X rounds were fully penetrating the plywood because each shot was kicking up dust from the dirt berm which was roughly ten yards behind the target stand.

Edited November 19, 2015 by JAB

[Randall53]

Dang...It appears that the you had it "dialed in" for such a long distance on that last round!!! 

[JAB]

I'd buy another one, but only if it had adjustable sights.
I'd call it good to above average for the money. But if you have more money
I'd look are at the Rugers.

 

Pre-Taurus Heritage did make some models that had adjustable rear sights.  I believe most/all of those models had fiber-optic front sights.  Not sure about now, though.

 

EDIT:

 

Yep, still in the catalog.  Oh, and I had forgotten that Heritage is now making 9 shot models (the link is for a 9-shooter.)

 

http://heritagemfg.com/product_detail.cfm?prod_id=16

 

Of course, that one has an MSRP of $349 which, to me, is getting out of Heritage budget territory but I guess you do get quite a bit for the price and street price would probably be lower.

 

Ah, here is a six-shooter version with an MSRP of $281.  Still not a great price for what it is but depending on how much lower the street price is I guess it might not be too bad.

 

http://heritagemfg.com/product_detail.cfm?prod_id=6

 

I am not even seeing combo versions of the non-adjustable guns with aluminum allow frames (Heritage makes steel frame models, too - I think for California compliance - and they cost a little more), just .LR only and still the MSRP is $194.  Magnum cylinders ordered from Heritage after the fact used to go for around $30.  Not sure how much they cost, now, but even that would put the price of a basic combo (based on MSRP) at around $224 which is $100 more than I paid for my basic, 6.5 inch combo back in 2008 or so.  Geez, if the Heritage guns have gone up that much then how ridiculous have the prices on the Ruger Single Six and Bearcat models gotten?

Edited November 19, 2015 by JAB

[JAB]

Academy sports has it again on black friday for $99.99

 

I wish that their special was on some different models.  In the past, it has pretty much been on the 6.5 inch model, only.  If I didn't have one with that barrel length then that is what I would want because, from various things I have seen from online sources I thought were trustworthy, a WMR from a 6.5 or so inch handgun is comparable to a .22 LR from a full length rifle (would have to order a WMR cylinder from the company in this case.)  As I already have that model, though, I'd kind of like to have one of the 'shopkeeper' type models with a short barrel and birdshead grips just for kicks but not enough to pay full price for one.

[i1afli]

I had a Rough Rider for awhile but got frustrated with the finicky dropout cylinder...had a hard time getting the pin in and out, so I sold it and found a .22 with a swing out cylinder.