Anybody experience with the Heritage ROUGH RIDER 357 magnum (Pietta made) revolver?

[AJG]

I Need son info of durability and Quality of the Pietta made assembled in USA Heritage Rough Rider big bore 357 Magnum Revolvers.

Here quoted my comunication with Pietta Italy:
First part is Piettas answer and below my info request to them.
<<Sir
the main difference between Heritage Rough Rider and all our Single Action is just one: we do not assemble the Rough Rider but the materials are the same for all the guns.
You can shoot .357Mg or 38Sp without problem
Regards

----------------------------------------
Subject: Richiesta informazioni da sito web
Corpo del messaggio:
Dear Pietta,
I just bought an Heritage Rough Rider 357 Magnum blued 5.5" Revolver (single Action). Heritage said the gun is made in Italy but assembled in the USA by Heritage. My question is now if it is the same Revolver as the 1873 Pietta Single Action Army Revolver or if there an Quality difference? On the Internet the Heritage 357 mag has mixed Reviews but the Cabelas model made by Pietta has very good Reviews. Is the Cabelas 1873 made by Pietta and the gun imported by Heritage the same gun? I plan to shoot 357 mag loads from the gun and do not know the material Quality of the gun. As well how does the Heritage gun described above compare to the Ruger Vaquero single Action 357 mag gun in Terms of Quality? Which kind of steel is used on the gun above? As Heritage told me it is not rated for +P ammo neigther 357 mag nor 38 Special. I believe in the good craftmnship of Italian manufacture but if you can Elaborate above questions and specially referr to Quality.>>

Has anybody experience with the Heritage (Pietta) Rough Rider 357 Magnum Revolvers? Quality, accuracy, durability, material strength, etc. And your opinion is much appreciated.

[roverboy]

I don't have personal experience with them but, have talked to guys that have handled and shot them. They say that they are well made and shot pretty good. They look good to me.

[Texantothecore]

There are a number members who have Heritage revolvers and they love them.

[Walkingwolf]

I have a FIE E15 that have had for decades, it has served me well. A couple years ago I had to replace the pawl, but that was after thousands of rounds. The FIE is the forerunner of Heritage. On other forums I have heard most people are happy with their Heritage revolvers. I also have a Pietta 1873 sold by Traditions, and I am very happy with it.

[AJG]

Thank you for your replies.

Here my first experiences from today with the Heritage (Pietta) Rough Rider 357 mag:

I got today my heritage Rough Rider (Pietta 1873) 357 mag. What a nice surprise. I like it already more than my 9mm. That SAA designs recoils less than a 9mm (Winchester HP 110 grain White box 357 mag factory ammo. My reloading Equipment for 38spl/357 mag hopefully arrives this week as well as the bullet molds since there are not commercially availlable bullets for 357 mag) and if let rolling there is None recoil with These Wood/steel grips. Old beats this time any plastic 9mm semi Auto pistol. No signs of cracks or damages after firing 12 rounds (each 357 mag/38 spl round costs here about 1.2 US$ and that is the cheapest ammo. Each 9mm factory round costs here about 0.75 US$ cheapest ammo). Shoots low but rigth on if I do my part (has to be Held in the middle of the front post in order to shoot rigth on spot) but with reloading every Charge is different so Kentucky hold will do it all. Works perfectly and has a nice Trigger. Just time will tell about the durability. But it seems to be built well and no Play in cylinder (cilinder has actually good chunk of steel so I believe it will stand regular 357 mag loads. I greased with liquid spray grease the gun all over and I am happier with it as I thought I would be (although I hate blued guns because they rust. Unfortunatelly stainless is not very often imported since they end up 3 times the US Price here and nobody can afford). In the USA that gun costs about max 400$ (more like 350$ on a good deal) and here I paid about 700 US$ for it (and it was on "laughable" sale. It is just a joke those local gun Prices if it would not be that sad). I hope nothing breaks since obviously NO Warranty. But Heritage told me if somthing breaks I just call them and they will send me the spare part (that works very nice as I have done it alredy with Mossberg like that).
Since I have small Hands I can not shoot any handgun single handed.
But I believe this gun I can. Tomorrow I will try it out and I am quiete sure it will work fine. Normally I do not hold firmly the handguns but rather allmost limp wrist them (I just barely hold them). This gun seems designed "to roll" so just barely Holding it will be even recommended in order to allow it to roll. My SD9VE never limp wrists although I hold it allways just barely (it allways loads). Actually I believe the 9mm modern design recoils more than this old design.

[Walkingwolf]

The recoil is more comfortable with a plow handle grip, but it still recoils. The 1873 is also heavier than most 9mm semi autos so that cuts down recoil. Shoot 9mm from a 183 and it will probably recoil the same, with less roll. 9mm uses less powder so it has less muzzle blast with all conditions the same. Personally for myself though I am not interested in a 9mm SA revolver.

My 1873 is a 44 magnum, I shoot 300 grain TC hardcast at 1200 FPS much more comfortable than I can factory .40 S&W out of a Glock 22.

[AJG]

!!!Update on the Heritage (Pietta) Rough Rider 357 magnum SAA revolver!!! nasty surprise.

Make sure to snug up all screws after a few cylinders of full powder factory ammo.
After I shot 21 rounds of 357 mag 110 grain Winchester (White box) hollow Point I suddenly realised something is wrong with the gun. I did not even get to shoot my 4 grain reloads.
I checked the gun and saw there something lodged between the hammer and Frame and realised it must be a screw or some gun part.
I decided to disassemble it and indeed that Piece turned out to be a spring Plunger retainer screw from the cylinder pin (that part you pull out in order to take out the cylinder). As well I detected 2 other Plungers lodged between hammer and Frame and at first did not know where they belonged to and how did it get there. I dissassembled the gun and saw as well one of the 2 screws of the trigger assembly was loose. That additional Plunger turned out (after lots of figuring) to be part of the cylinder Hand spring. The other Plunger was the safety bar push back. It's spring was still lodged in the cylinder pin as well as the spring of the cylinder Hand Plunger-pusher.
Luckily I did not loose any parts but almost the gun rendered useless because of loose and lost parts.

I assembled everything, put it in place and snug all up und till now nothing got loose (obviously I cant tell if the screws inside the trigger-frame are still snug.

Never the less the revolver shoots good. I do not blame Pietta or Heritage for this issue although they could have done some minor improovements on ingeneering the gun but I believe this loose screw issue is an inherent flaw of the 1873 Samuel Colt design. For the time it was an masterpiece of ingeneering but I can see how screw where lost all the time. Like you ride to another town and a few screw where missing form the gun.
Fiddeling all the time with a screwdriver is not the most pleasant but a must for These SAA design Revolvers (I had a modern design 22 lr Taurus who I never bothered with screws and it allways worked fine.

So each cleaning snug up screws is a must and you can just hope interior screws do not loose since putting together the main spring is a big hassle and the gun is easily marred since using a wise grip (even covert with heavy clothing) can damage the finish.
This design is not a mantainance free design nor to shoot and Forget about it (it is a high mantainance gun). And you better order a complete set of screws, Plungers and springs as well a grip assembly (in order you damage the finish from the wise grip) to have spare parts since there is a chance you loose any time all Kinds of screws, springs and Plungers.

[Speedo66]

Not sure which country you're writing from, or if this particular brand is available there, but you may want to use a thread locker such as Loctite Purple (#222) to keep the screws from loosening. It's designed for small screws, less than 6mm.

[hp246]

This isn't uncommon in SAA clones. I've seen screws come loose in Rugers and Uberti's during CAS matches. As Speedo66 said, use Loctite purple. I use it. Still double check everything when I do my teardowns.

[shoot-n-lead]

Loctite will solve the screw problem...not unusual in single actions.

Those are well made guns and you will enjoy it.

[AJG]

I Keep my blued guns fairly oiled and so I did not want to put locktite (locally there is an american thread locker availlable which works very fine on Cannon Sprayers and othe Landmachines) and did not want to paint with Brownells Aluma Hyde transparent paint since it has a supposed 6 month warranty (void if gun not kept as original).
Normally all my blued guns I paint over with this Brownells Aluma Hyde transparent (a camo Mossberg 500 Thurkey THUG tactical I have painted completely with this Aluma Hyde since the camo Comes off where it gets touched and that works and protects the gun very well till now).

I realised worse screw gets loose about every 1.5 cylinders is the base pin pin-Retention screw-spring assembly (it is on the ende of the base pin and pushes the safety bar back). That I have seen on an Ruger SAA as well on Youtube (has the same assembly). If that gets lost the gun pretty much can lock up since the safety bar hits the firing pin Retention screw (which is the same type of pin-screw-spring aseembly).

I could suspend that spring-pin-screw assemby (take it out) and take out as well somehow the safety bar but that I will not do (althogh that would terminate with this Problem).

[victorfox]

if you don't want to use loctite or equivalent, you can try nail polish. It's not near as good or durable but you can use some acetone and a swab to clean the offending screw and it's thread hole, apply a fine coat and insert the screw. Can't say hoe long it will last but comes off nicely with acetone and holds the srew quite well and is easy to remove. My wife gets mad at me sometimes for stealing her stuff

[Brandi]

I've heard 5 bad reviews about Heritage guns for every good one but then I come across folks who love them so I dunno. Anyone know if Heritage actually manufactures any of their guns? If they actually manufactured guns in the US I'd definitely be interested in buying one.

They would drive me nuts by plastering "made in America" and/or "manufactured in the USA" with the red, white and blue all over the advertisements when the guns were manufactured/made in Italy and only assembled in the USA. They played the "made in America" card like it was they only one in the deck and that's just dishonest in my opinion. Like Clinton arguing the definition of sex so he could claim he didn't it, just dishonest. I checked Heritage's website today and didn't see any of the normal "made in America" stuff so maybe they grew a conscience.

I wouldn't buy Italian replicas of American six guns unless I couldn't find it from an American manufacturer. It's not a quality thing, many of the Italian made guns are very nice, I just prefer to buy American when possible.

[Speedo66]

Brandi said "They would drive me nuts by plastering "made in America" and/or "manufactured in the USA" with the red, white and blue all over the advertisements when the guns were manufactured/made in Italy and only assembled in the USA. They played the "made in America" card like it was they only one in the deck and that's just dishonest in my opinion."

It's amazing what a good lobby can do with American gov't agencies, you can get away with things like that because of it. Harley's latest, the Street, is made in India and assembled here. Yet, they're able to call it made in USA.

[AJG]

Till now my experience with the Heritage (Pietta) Rough Rider 357 mag are actually very good. I just finished painting it over (it is the blued model) with Brownells Aluma Hyde II matte clear (transparent) paint (it is supposed to be gun paint and is epoxy based). I painted with it my Mossberg 500 tactical camo shotgun since the camo gets easily rubbed off where you hold/handle the gun. It is actually on the shotgun very durable. Holstering a Revolver we will see how it holds up.
The Pietta made "made in USA" gun is actually very good made (underside of the grip Shows a few scratches from toolmarks blued over). Way better than the Taurus I had (although the Taurus never failed but had tool marks). Has all leaf springs so I do not know of the durability of those.
It got anyways painted over and after a week curing (and redoing some bad painted Areas) I will handle it next week.

It shoots as shoots any handgun and allways I shoot only 9mm Federal Rimmed (homemade and reloaded from 357 mag cases) through it. Have killed several Tatus (plague) and one Ostrich (to see the power of the 9mm Federal Rimmed) with it already.

One flaw has the gun: Screws loose after every cylinder so Locktite IS A MUST. I almost lost twice the base pin retention screw, spring and Plunger which hold back the safety bar (they unscrew every cylinder of Shooting). I locktited all exterior screws and so no one is coming loose anymore (dunno about internal screws). If internal screws get loose it will be a big hassle to disassemble the gun. This 1873 model is actually I say the best handlin and Shooting Revolver ever (plow grip is a big Advantage).
I wrote Pietta already several times about a replacement screw, Plunger and spring kit but they "Keep themselves in silence" (never got back to me).

[AJG]

As well I asked Pietta if they would make an 9mm Luger cylinder for the gun but they never answered me. It would be so nice to have an 9mm Luger cylinder for the Revolver.

[AJG]

Pietta told m they will send me an kit of screws, springs and Plungers for free. But did not yet mention if they will make or have in stock an 9mm Luger cylinder for the gun to make it "Convertible". Kind of Ruger Blackhawk Convertible.
Nice Job Pietta with this gun since it is visible it is higher Quality than Taurus. I hope just Heritage does not let themselves drag into the pit downwards to Taurus.

[Traffer]

I have a Heritage Rough which I had to send back for repairs. The name of the Company that it was sent to was Taurus. I believe that Heritage is owned by Taurus.