I’ve been a huge fan of the Heritage Rough Rider series of single action revolvers for a long time. I liked the Barkeep, I love the Rancher carbine, and I think the Tactical Cowboy wheel gun is a fun idea. Anyone who can make a workable gun for less than $150 gets my respect all day long.
Sure, the Rough Rider is just a single-action, cowboy-style revolver, but it’s a ton of fun, and fun is the reason I shoot as much as I do. But I received a Heritage Rough Rider for Father’s Day and it had a problem.
My particular model was handpicked by my wife and kids, who ordered it through our local FFL. It features a tungsten Cerakote finish with a black cylinder. Heritage doesn’t hurt for options. The barrel is 6.5 inches long and it’s chambered in .22LR. I love all guns and wanted a Rough Rider to play and shoot with kiddos. It’s a perfect Father’s Day gift choice.
Sadly, my Rough Rider didn’t work. It was a light strike machine, firing once or twice per cylinder. Needless to say, I was disappointed and nearly distraught. Wait…not really. Guns don’t work sometimes, and I was fine with getting warranty work done and chalking it up to a temporary problem. I’m much more forgiving of inexpensive, fun guns. I don’t expect this to be a defensive weapon so I’m very slow to sour on it.
The Heritage Warranty
When I went to the Heritage warranty page, I was met with what I thought was some distressing information. From my reading, to get warranty work, I had to pay to ship the gun back to Heritage. I’m not an FFL, so I can’t use USPS, and FedEx’s draconian rules prevent me from using them. That leaves me with UPS, and they will only ship firearms overnight. That meant shipping to and from Bainbridge, Georgia would cost $106…a mere $14 dollars less than the cost of the gun. I makes more sense to buy a new one.
I tried to contact Heritage to explain that the gun never worked, hoping they’d eat the shipping cost. However, I just sat on hold forever. I never spoke to someone and didn’t have the tenacity required to stay on hold until someone noticed the phone blinking.
I was frustrated and decided to look to the internet to see what others had done.
Rough Riders and Light Strikes
My eyes were opened when I began researching the Rough Rider light strike problem. I started looking for answers to my warranty questions and descended down a rabbit hole. It seems others have had the same light strike problem too. I assumed (wrongly) that the light primer strikes might have been a Cerakote issue, maybe too much around the hammer that slowed its motion.
The real problem comes from the hammer main spring. Some are apparently too weak. Several people pointed that out, and Heritage will sell you one for a very reasonable seven bucks. On the page where Heritage sells the hammer main spring, you’ll see plenty of reviews pointing out how the part fixed their light strike problem.
That sounded great, but I kept reading. It seems that replacing the spring is one method, but the internet is the internet and other people have found a simpler way to fix the problem.
An Easy Fix
Before we get into this, I’ll assume that doing the at-home fix violates the Heritage warranty and voids it. Companies generally don’t like users playing with the internals of their guns, and at-home work will often void any warranty. I’m no gunsmith, but I can complete an 80% lower so I can shove credit card into a mainspring with minimal cursing. Due to the shipping price, I didn’t mind violating my warranty but consider yourself advised.
The simple at-home fix for your light strikes involves a small punch, a cut-up piece of a credit card, and about five minutes of your time.
Dig up an old credit card or, say, an Blockbuster membership card you no longer need. Cut a very small rectangular piece. You can use the front strap of the Rough Rider’s grip as a guide for the width and make the rectangle about a half inch long.
If you remove the revolver’s grips, you’ll have access to the mainspring housing. Insert your punch between the bottom of the mainspring and the grip frame. That lets you move the spring back just enough to create a little bit of space. Insert the piece of your Blockbuster card into that gap and remove the punch.
Re-attach the grip panels and the little plastic shim will stay put. That shim adds just enough additional tension to the spring to eliminate any light strike issue. That’s literally all it took to get my gun running smoothly and reliably. No more light strikes. The revolver now runs just like all of the other Heritage revolvers I’ve owned and loved.
Problem Solved
I wasn’t patient enough to find out, but I’ve since spoken to Heritage and learned they they do, in fact, pay for shipping for guns under warranty. I could have sent it to them and had it fixed without paying for shipping. That’s good news. But this fix was super-simple and a lot faster with no hassle involved in shipping the gun.
I’m glad mine is working perfectly now, and I can adorn it with a 3D-printed shroud to live out all of my space cowboy fantasies if I want.
Ain’t home gunsmithing grand?