Suppressing a .22 Revolver: Heritage Tactical Cowboy
David Higginbotham
Spoiler alert: this review of the Heritage Rough Rider Tactical Cowboy is going to be glowing. This is no humble rimfire revolver. Selling at just over $200, the Tactical Cowboy is a six-shot .22 LR with a threaded barrel, making this a revolver you can suppress.
What Is the Heritage Tactical Cowboy?
“Tactical Cowboy” isn’t a description of some guy at the range — it’s what Heritage Manufacturing named this particular Rough Rider variant, and the name is basically daring you to picture it. If it has MOLLE straps, it’s tactical. If it wears an unironic Stetson, odds are it’s a cowboy.
This particular gun has neither of those things, but it is a miniature Peacemaker knockoff, so there’s some Wild West in its blood. It earns the “tactical” half honestly: a threaded barrel and a Picatinny rail for optics — the two features that actually separate this from a standard Rough Rider.
I think the Rough Rider Tactical Cowboy is something altogether more than the mashup suggests. This gun is gratuitous. It’s over the proverbial top, while not hiding its humble roots. I see this version of the Rough Rider line as a hoplophilic representation of the Cowboys vs. Aliens mashup.
Shooting it is kind of like riding an old-school Moped. I’m not talking about the retro Vespas that buzz around the streets of Naples like the wasps that they are—those are genuinely cool. I’m talking about the half-bike-half-motor scooter things that were actually really fun to ride. Fun and a bit embarrassing. They were fun, until someone you knew saw you riding one.
Taking the Rough Rider Tactical Cowboy Seriously
I feel like I could be judged by my peers if I were to take the Tactical Cowboy too seriously. That said, it’s a gun. Guns demand a seriousness, and so I shall give it some respectful attention here, too.
Here are some specifications:
| Identity | Dimensions | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Model: RR22B6-TH | Barrel Length: 6.50 in. | Caliber: .22 LR (.22 WMR sold separately) |
| Manufacturer: Heritage Mfg. | Overall Length: 11.78 in.* | Capacity: 6 rounds |
| MSRP: $213.99* | Weight: 33.40 oz. (unloaded) | Action Type: SAO |
These guns, the Rough Rider rimfire line from Heritage, are not expensive. They lack the fit and finish that often defines revolvers. That doesn’t mean they’re not well-made, but you can see in some of the close-up images that the fit is sometimes just a bit off.
Rough Rider Controls
One unique element of the six-shot design is a hammer safety. A lever on the left side of the hammer can be thumbed down, which rocks out a block that holds the hammer off the pin.
Without it, the hammer (when down) could impact the pin in a drop. Heritage is concerned about that possibility, so it prints a warning on the barrel advising you not to carry a full cylinder with the hammer down.
The trigger isn’t bad. As a SAO gun, the trigger locks back and breaks with no slop or play. I suspect that it would even break in to be better than it is. Much of the gun feels like it has that potential.
A fiberoptic front sight is easy to see. At the rear, there’s a rail—but this rail has a deep notch cut into it. It is so deep that you can lock a red dot on top and still see the sight under its base.
And it has a threaded barrel.
Can you Suppress a Revolver?
Enough of the serious breakdown. Let’s get back to this gun’s true intent. With a barrel threaded ½ x 28, this is meant to be suppressed.
Suppressed? A Revolver? What about the cylinder gap?
Yes. There is a minuscule cylinder gap—the space between the down-range end of the cylinder and the forcing cone that eases the bullet’s transition into the barrel.
Most revolvers, those unequipped with suppressors, dump glorious fireballs out from between the cylinder and barrel. The bigger that gap, the more gas is going to escape.
Add a silencer, though, and you add back pressure. This should, in theory, force even more gas out from between the cylinder and barrel. There are almost no revolvers that are so mechanically perfect that the cylinder seals on the forcing cone (the Nagant is a unique case). Certainly not any that cost $213.99.
Gas, though, isn’t the only thing that escapes. Sound does, too. And some sound does leak. We were shooting CCI subsonics. These are a solid choice for suppressed rimfire shoots, and remarkably consistent.
With a SilencerCo Switchback 22 on the Tactical Cowboy, the sound of suppressed rounds was akin to a loud snap-an-pop. Not quite a firecracker. Not as silent as the same round, with the same can, through a bolt-action rifle. Hearing safe? Yes. A bit of a crack? Yes.
When we were sighting in the Holosun optic, a HS503R, we were shooting from under a steel roof. Shooting under a roof always makes any noise worse. There, I left my ears on. Once we were downrange, shooting in the open, the sound was much more mellow.
Why Revolvers Are Hard to Suppress
The short version: it’s the cylinder gap, and there’s no way around it on a stock gun like this one. The small pressurized gas leak between the cylinder and the forcing cone happens on every shot, suppressor or not, and it bleeds off both sound and a bit of velocity before the bullet ever reaches the barrel.
Closed actions — bolt guns, break actions — don’t have this problem, which is why they’re always going to out-suppress even the best-suppressed revolver. Semi-autos land in the middle. Revolvers are, mechanically, the hardest host you can hand a suppressor.
How To Suppress a Rimfire Revolver
A Tactical Cowboy needs a can capable of upholding the aesthetic. As a staunch traditionalist, I tend to gravitate to the Sparrow 22, but this gun calls for the capabilities of a suppressor that won’t be overshadowed by the carbon fiber and tactical black, and that’s the Switchback 22.
Switching up Length Configurations
There are two sections to the Switchback: one long, one short. Together, they form the longest configuration.
If weight and length are key, go short. The medium version will increase the sound suppression while still staying somewhat compact. For a Tactical Cowboy, go all in on the long combination.
If you want to geek out over the Switchback, you can reverse the baffle stack. In this configuration, the can is “Rifle Optimized.” SilencerCo’s testing shows noise levels can get as low as 108 dB with subsonic ammo run through a closed action and a rifle-length barrel.
Don’t go looking for those levels from your Rough Rider, pardner. Closed actions (like break-actions or bolt-actions) offer the best potential for suppression. Then semi-autos. Lastly, I’d say the revolver. Even so, the Switchback is a must.
How does the Tactical Cowboy shoot?
I ran two kinds of tests with this. The first was a simple gnat’s-ass accuracy assessment from 25 yards (with the suppressor). This was done in daylight, with the optic dialed as low as would be visible.
The Rough Rider’s group was decent for a gun in this category. Yes, I shoot much tighter groups from my Mark IV and my Buckmark, but this isn’t either of those. Rather, I would say that the accuracy is more comparable to what I do with a Ruger Wrangler—and I can’t suppress it.
There was no appreciable point-of-impact shift with the suppressor on or off. POI was relatively stable. I saw a bigger shift from using the irons or the Holosun. With the optic, as expected, shot placement was more consistent.
What’s missing?
The gun shoots straight. Its form and function both deliver on the promise of the premise. If I had a suitable holster for this beast in its suppressed form, this could be damn near perfect without being the least bit precocious.
In the end, I’m going to come out and say it. This may be the best $213.99 I’ve spent on a gun. And I did pony up for it myself. These are notoriously hard to come by, and that may be the biggest endorsement I can point to.
Check the Heritage dealer locator. Everyone is sold out. Check your local shop. Good luck. I had to set up a regular cadence of online trolling to find one, and I nabbed it just minutes after it was posted. Ok, maybe I paid a bit more than the MSRP—but it was new in the box, and the dude knew what he had.
And now I know what I have.
David Higginbotham
