Video Review of Heritage Rough Rider Revolving Carbine

Remember my recent post about Heritage revolvers and Rough Rider Rancher revolving single-action carbines? If not, don’t fret; here’s a link. The reason I’m asking is that the video below is about the long-barreled shoulder-stocked wheel gun featured in that post.

The video is by Small Caliber Arms Review, and unfortunately in the opening scenes we see him firing the Rancher carbine in a way that’s a bit “off.” The tang descending from the trigger guard is meant to be used to help snug the rifle into the shooter’s shoulder, but he is ignoring it.

It’s okay for shooting stance and grip to vary by user, of course, so that’s not really a biggie, but he’d be much more steady if he wrapped his left hand around his right hand with his left index finger on that tang. Later in the video, we see him doing just that. And still later in the video, he explains why he did it the other way earlier (it was all about the movies).

Like him, I have always been attracted to long guns with revolving cylinders. Why? Heck, I don’t know. Does it matter why? The bottom line is, I bought a black powder cap and ball revolving carbine years ago, and used it to take a whitetail deer. That’s how much I like them.

I can’t say I like having a safety on a revolver, but at least the one shown on the Rough Rider Rancher looks practical; it’s a simple hammer-blocking device to prevent the hammer from being able to contact the firing pin.

He’s pretty accurate with his Rancher, but he doesn’t tell us the distance between him and the target. Doh! A little later he does some 100-yard shooting and manages to hit a steel target 5 out of 6 times. Not bad at all.

He shelled out $269 for it, and I’m assuming that was before shipping and FFL transfer fees. That’s kinda rough. No pun intended. After all, this is basically a $100-$130 revolver with a little more barrel and wood added. Somehow, it seems wrong to double the price.

He calls the sling length adjustment “odd,” but it’s really just old-fashioned. I’ve seen that same style in use for years.

To sum up his bottom line into a Reader’s Digest version: It’s cheap but pretty good, and it usually hits what he’s aiming at.

The video review is only 11 minutes long if you’d like to watch it for yourself:

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.