Heritage Rough Rider
Heritage Rough Rider
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Traded an optic for a Heritage Rough Rider with 6 ½” barrel. Includes swappable steel 22LR and 22WMR cylinders.
In appearance it reminds me of the 22LR Ruger Single 6. Both being single action revolvers. While the Ruger is all steel, the Heritage switches to zinc alloy for the frame (barrel and cylinders both being steel). The Ruger is a better quality firearm, but it is about $600 more than the Heritage Rough Rider.
The sights are pretty rudimentary, the rear being a grove, the front a simple blade. An interesting feature of the Rough Rider is the flip up safety just to the left of the hammer. This safety is a physical barrier between the firing pin and hammer. I like this because it lets me dry fire the pistol using the Accurize Training Laser and Mantis Laser Academy.
The pistol shoots well and, as you’d expect with a Single Action Only pistol, has a pretty nice trigger. If you do any research about the pistol you find reports of the screws coming loose and in need of some threadlocker. It’s not a rumor. I had to tighten the screw retaining the cocobolo grips, the trigger pivot screw, the hammer pivot screw, and the ejector housing screw.
The trigger has four clicks. First to keep the hammer away from the firing pin, the second that unlocks the cylinder for loading and unloading, a traditional third for no reason at all, and the fourth fully cocked. The Rough Rider points well and is a retro blast to shoot. At 33.2 ounces it’s heavy. Not something I’d want to add to my hiking or mountain biking loadout. It is rock bottom on my rounds per size and weight spreadsheet…just one click under the Ruger Single 6. Shooting Federal Standard Velocity, I only got 744 FPS out of the 6 ½” barrel. Punch pushes its 29 grain bullet to 1156, and switching to the 22 mag cylinder I got 1400 fps with CCI Maxi-Mag.
Fun for introducing youth to pistol shooting. Maybe adequate, simple, and affordable for nightstand home defense. A fun way to do some casual rabbit or squirrel hunting without carrying a rifle. And A gateway into getting into cowboy shooting. I just might keep this pistol around.
In appearance it reminds me of the 22LR Ruger Single 6. Both being single action revolvers. While the Ruger is all steel, the Heritage switches to zinc alloy for the frame (barrel and cylinders both being steel). The Ruger is a better quality firearm, but it is about $600 more than the Heritage Rough Rider.
The sights are pretty rudimentary, the rear being a grove, the front a simple blade. An interesting feature of the Rough Rider is the flip up safety just to the left of the hammer. This safety is a physical barrier between the firing pin and hammer. I like this because it lets me dry fire the pistol using the Accurize Training Laser and Mantis Laser Academy.
The pistol shoots well and, as you’d expect with a Single Action Only pistol, has a pretty nice trigger. If you do any research about the pistol you find reports of the screws coming loose and in need of some threadlocker. It’s not a rumor. I had to tighten the screw retaining the cocobolo grips, the trigger pivot screw, the hammer pivot screw, and the ejector housing screw.
The trigger has four clicks. First to keep the hammer away from the firing pin, the second that unlocks the cylinder for loading and unloading, a traditional third for no reason at all, and the fourth fully cocked. The Rough Rider points well and is a retro blast to shoot. At 33.2 ounces it’s heavy. Not something I’d want to add to my hiking or mountain biking loadout. It is rock bottom on my rounds per size and weight spreadsheet…just one click under the Ruger Single 6. Shooting Federal Standard Velocity, I only got 744 FPS out of the 6 ½” barrel. Punch pushes its 29 grain bullet to 1156, and switching to the 22 mag cylinder I got 1400 fps with CCI Maxi-Mag.
Fun for introducing youth to pistol shooting. Maybe adequate, simple, and affordable for nightstand home defense. A fun way to do some casual rabbit or squirrel hunting without carrying a rifle. And A gateway into getting into cowboy shooting. I just might keep this pistol around.
NAA Mini Revolvers
NAA Mini Revolvers
20 years ago, I had a couple of the NAA Mini Revolvers. I thought of them as dangerous novelties, ultimately selling them as I raced up the centerfire caliber pyramid.
With my speculative “How the 22 Wins” video in 2020 followed up by the “How the KelTec P17 Wins” in 2021, I no longer think of the little 22LR self defense revolvers as amusing but as serious, effective, deep concealment pistols. So I asked NAA to send me one to review, they graciously sent two: a rosewood grip classic with a 1 ⅛” barrel and a folding holster grip with a 1 ⅝” barrel. With a capacity of 5 rounds and at 4.6 and 4.8 ounces respectively, the two are right on the heels of the Ruger LCP II in my Rounds per Size and Weight spreadsheet. But on the “Weighted Rounds” score (marginal utility of each additional round) the pair are first and second. Beautifully crafted out of stainless steel. Engineered for rounds per size and weight efficiency.
Rather than fumbling the manual of arms with live ammo, I spent a week practicing loading, placing the hammer in the safety notch, and unloading with dummy rounds.
I also tried dry firing the Minis. I could not get my padded dummy rounds to fit, so I used spent cases. I also did some dry firing with the cylinder removed which gave a bit more room to insert the Accurize training laser
After being comfortable with positioning the hammer into the safety notch, I took the two revolvers out to the range to fire Federal Punch and CCI Quiet-22. Both ran superbly with a definite difference in sound signature.
If you look at manufacture stats it looks like the Ruger LCP II Lite Rack has a 1 ⅛” longer barrel, but that is only because semi auto pistols include the chamber in their barrel calculation. Making allowances for this injustice, the LCP’s barrel is only 3/10” longer than the folder.
You can expect Punch to send that 29 gr bullet on its way at over 1,000 fps. Lethal out to any reasonable range for these short sight radius pistols.
They are adorable as Goat Guns, but packing “no discernible difference” in lethality compared to 9mm says the NATO and US Army “Handbook on Human Vulnerability”.
I could carry both of these NAA Mini revolvers for 10 rounds…same capacity as the LCP II..and still weigh less than the Ruger. Dual wielding Mini Revolvers?
I did find the folding grip far easier to shoot…specifically to cock quickly for fast follow up shots.
Overall, the NAA Mini Revolvers are ideal for those in a non-permissive environment or those in a low risk violent crime area. It could also be a handily available pistol to fight your way to your deeply concealed full sized pistol…itself being used to fight your way to your rifle.
Great little pocket protectors. I recommend the NAA Mini Revolver. Get one. Study its manual of arms. Load it with Punch. And Carry discretely.
With my speculative “How the 22 Wins” video in 2020 followed up by the “How the KelTec P17 Wins” in 2021, I no longer think of the little 22LR self defense revolvers as amusing but as serious, effective, deep concealment pistols. So I asked NAA to send me one to review, they graciously sent two: a rosewood grip classic with a 1 ⅛” barrel and a folding holster grip with a 1 ⅝” barrel. With a capacity of 5 rounds and at 4.6 and 4.8 ounces respectively, the two are right on the heels of the Ruger LCP II in my Rounds per Size and Weight spreadsheet. But on the “Weighted Rounds” score (marginal utility of each additional round) the pair are first and second. Beautifully crafted out of stainless steel. Engineered for rounds per size and weight efficiency.
Rather than fumbling the manual of arms with live ammo, I spent a week practicing loading, placing the hammer in the safety notch, and unloading with dummy rounds.
I also tried dry firing the Minis. I could not get my padded dummy rounds to fit, so I used spent cases. I also did some dry firing with the cylinder removed which gave a bit more room to insert the Accurize training laser
After being comfortable with positioning the hammer into the safety notch, I took the two revolvers out to the range to fire Federal Punch and CCI Quiet-22. Both ran superbly with a definite difference in sound signature.
If you look at manufacture stats it looks like the Ruger LCP II Lite Rack has a 1 ⅛” longer barrel, but that is only because semi auto pistols include the chamber in their barrel calculation. Making allowances for this injustice, the LCP’s barrel is only 3/10” longer than the folder.
You can expect Punch to send that 29 gr bullet on its way at over 1,000 fps. Lethal out to any reasonable range for these short sight radius pistols.
They are adorable as Goat Guns, but packing “no discernible difference” in lethality compared to 9mm says the NATO and US Army “Handbook on Human Vulnerability”.
I could carry both of these NAA Mini revolvers for 10 rounds…same capacity as the LCP II..and still weigh less than the Ruger. Dual wielding Mini Revolvers?
I did find the folding grip far easier to shoot…specifically to cock quickly for fast follow up shots.
Overall, the NAA Mini Revolvers are ideal for those in a non-permissive environment or those in a low risk violent crime area. It could also be a handily available pistol to fight your way to your deeply concealed full sized pistol…itself being used to fight your way to your rifle.
Great little pocket protectors. I recommend the NAA Mini Revolver. Get one. Study its manual of arms. Load it with Punch. And Carry discretely.
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