Heritage Rough Rider

I don't claim to be an expert on everything, everywhere. There are a great deal of firearms I have no shooting experience with, and others that I haven't even ever had in my hands. But, being a gun dealer for two and a half years, at the time of this writing, has exposed me to a great deal of what is out there. Since it is, as one might expect, often a "kid in a candy shop" sort of situation for a gun enthusiast to be surrounded by hundreds of firearms day in and day out, I have a bit of a collection, myself, now. So, while I may not have the ability to recall the days when they introduced the .44 Magnum to compare it with the introduction of whatever new cartridge that's been produced, I am, in my humble opinion, far from ignorant or inexperienced when it comes to firearms. Thus, while this is not the writing of a Gun Guru, it is based upon experience.

One of the less typical cartridges that interested me was .32 H&R Magnum. It was, from a look at nothing but numbers on manufacturer's websites, apparently about the same amount of energy as a .38 Special, but could be packed into a revolver such that you would get an additional round per cylinder.

There weren't, at that time, many companies that produced guns in this caliber, of which I think three have even been discontinued. What I wanted was the Ruger Single-Six, but I suspect it had been discontinued by the time I was ready to get a .32 H&R Mag. I didn't want a snubbie, so what I wound up getting was a Heritage Manufacturing Rough Rider.

It's a slightly scaled down version of the Single-Action Army design, and the .32 H&R version only comes one way: Satin Black Finish, laminate wood grips, and a 6" barrel.

It was probably the first gun purchase I seriously regretted. The Satin Black finish is something they probably sprayed on the gun and let it drip off and eventually dry. Mine had an ugly point on the finish where a drop had formed and hadn't been able to drip off before the coating hardened. I had been hoping, I suppose, for blued steel. I did not get that, it seems.

To add to the cosmetic issues, Heritage had seen fit to put a hammer-block sort of safety lever on the gun. They put this behind the cylinder on the opposite side from the loading gate.

I had, as typical, read the instructions, taken the gun apart, cleaned and lubed it, and then put it back together, before I even went to the range the first time with it. This is the start of the mechanical problem I had with the gun. Before I continue, this isn't a defect with the gun, but more of a lapse on the part of the person who wrote the manual.