Most handgunners own a rimfire revolver and appreciate them as affordable and enjoyable plinkers.
Because of these guns’ overall utility, our Gun Tests shooters fired three contenders side by side to see which one was the better buy.
All three have cowboy styling, although one is a double-action revolver intended to mimic the handling and handfit of a single action.
Our first contestant was Diamondback’s Sidekick. The Diamondback revolver was delivered with a spare cylinder chambered in 22 Magnum.
Diamondback Sidekick
DB0500A001 22 LR/22 WMR, $288
Our second gun also chambered both 22 Long Rifle and 22 Magnum rounds. The Heritage Rough Rider Tactical Cowboy is unusual in that this cowboy-looking handgun has a threaded muzzle and carbon-fiber grips.
Heritage Rough Rider Tactical
Cowboy
RR22B6-TH 22 LR/22 WMR, $212
The third gun was Ruger’s Wrangler Birdshead, a Talo Distributor Exclusive model. In contrast to the two guns above, there isn’t a Magnum cylinder option offered for the Wrangler.
Ruger Wrangler Birdshead
2030 22 LR, $250
Here's what we thought about these guns in more detail.
The fit and finish of the black-Cerakote-coated Sidekick are good. The black plastic grips are a good fit to the grip frame. The Sidekick sits well in the hand.
The single-action revolver loading system of the Heritage, shown at left, is slower, while the Diamondback’s swing-out cylinder, right, is much faster to operate.
The Diamondback gave good reliability with mixed loads.
The Diamondback came out of the box with both cylinders. The Heritage lacked the 22 Magnum cylinder.
The Sidekick also came with a neat dry-fire safety device that would prevent cylinder scarring.
Changing between cylinders is simple enough.
Use a pen shaft to depress the lock, and the shooter can easily pull the cylinder away from the frame.
Depress the lock to install the other cylinder. There is no fitting and no setting the barrel-cylinder gap.
The Lobo Gun Leather Holster from Tom Threepersons fits the Sidekick pistol well.
The lack of a loading gate on the side tips off the shooter that this is a double-action revolver.
The sights are incrementally better than the Ruger’s because of the dark black finish and sharper sight picture.
The Heritage Rough Rider Tactical Cowboy is easily one of the most versatile and useful rimfire handguns we have tested.
We were able to locate and buy a 22 Magnum cylinder for the Heritage.
However, the 22 Magnum didn't come with the gun as did the Diamondback's.
A removable thread protector covers the Tactical Cowboy’s threaded muzzle. Also, a big advantage of the Heritage revolver is its fiber-optic front sight.
The Heritage carbon-fiber grips were the first of their kind we have seen on a single action pistol.
The Heritage Tactical Cowboy's rear sight that cut into the rail is easily the best of the test.
The Wrangler Birdshead is the first shorter-barrel Wrangler with a 3.75-inch barrel length.
The Wrangler versions supplied with DeSantis Wild Hog holster cost about $10 over those without the holster. That is a very good deal, in our view, and we appreciated having the holster ready to go with the pistol.
The birdshead is a visually pleasing grip that readily accommodates most hand sizes. The birdshead grip seems to allow quickly cocking the hammer with greater ease than most grip frames.
The Ruger’s wooden grips are very nicely finished. Fit of the frame to the wood is excellent. Unlike the steel-frame Ruger Single Six, the Wrangler is manufactured with an inexpensive aluminum-alloy frame.
So what did our shooters think of these wheel guns?
The Diamondback Sidekick’s switchable cylinders are quite an innovation. The double-action trigger press is nothing to write home about, while the single-action trigger press is easily the best of the test. The pistol is accurate enough for most uses. We found sight regulation to be slightly off, but it would have been easily fixed. We gave it an A- grade.
We really liked the inexpensive but useful Heritage Rough Rider Tactical Cowboy. Accuracy is good to excellent, and the sights are the best of the test. The ability to mount a red-dot sight is very interesting. This is a lot of gun for the money. We thought it was a Best Buy and gave it an A grade.
The Ruger Wrangler is a well-made handgun. There is no faulting its reliability. The Wrangler Birdshead handles well and is fast into action. The problem is the sights. The sights simply fade out and are difficult to see, making its practical accuracy the poorest of the three revolvers tested. We gave it a C grade and probably wouldn't buy one because of that shortcoming. …...more
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