[ZRTaylor]

Friendly greetings. I'm a 23 year old Pacific Northwesterner who has recently started to develop an interest in firearms. My goals, so far, are limited and unambitious. I want to acquire a good, reliable handgun with which I can learn the basics of handling, maintenance, marksmanship, and some rudimentary self defense skills. Accordingly, I've been keeping an eye out for a handgun chambered in .22lr, because my research has suggested that this is a good, cheap caliber to learn fundamentals with.

My boss is the one I inherited the seeds of the bug from. He's been buying and shooting them for a little over a year now. While digging through some old stuff in a corner of our workplace he found a Heritage Rough Rider, chambered for .22lr, that had been used as a cosmetic prop in a train robbery stunt show for several years. He already owns three .22 rifles and a Walther chambered for that round, so he gave me the weapon to use as my aforementioned starter.

Because I had heard of the simplicity and reliability of revolvers in general, I was looking forward to owning the gun. It showed a lot of signs of wear, but the bore looked good, the cylinder was loose but indexed reliably, and it had no signs of rust or moisture damage. The only flaws with the weapon were a broken off ejector tube, and sights that were "bent" about ten degrees to the left of center. I assumed this was from a drop, which is common enough climbing on and off a train.

Just a little research lead me expect very little from the Rough Rider, and I took it to the local gunsmith to have it checked over, and grab a basic cleaning kit for the weapon. He suggested that the revolver would never be "Wyatt Earp" quality but that I could use a brass hammer to gradually ease the sights over during my shooting sessions to make the sights serviceable.

I took the weapon home, cleaned it, took it out to a safe firing location with a box of .22lr, and proceeded to do just that. I was amazed at how easily the sights were adjusted, they seemed to just slide right over with the merest tap. Before I knew it the sights seemed to be completely vertical. I chalked it up to cheap metal, and as a test I went to try and wiggle the front sight to see how weak it really was. It was here that I realized the sight wasn't bent at all, the barrel was crooked, and my incredibly light tapping had dislodged the barrel and it was now twisting freely from the frame. I was able to unscrew the entire barrel by hand with almost no resistance.

I called the gunsmith, and he informed me that my new project was a wash. The gun was a paper weight, firing it would be a significant hazard, and there were no means to repair the barrel fitting. Severe bummer.

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Now this brings me to the main portion of the thread. Part of why I want to get in to firearms isn't just to shoot them. I want to understand the whither-tos and the why-fores of what makes a weapon work, what keeps it from working, and what causes it to break down and lose function. What I would like to ask, is the following.

1. What causes a revolver barrel to come loose?

2. Why can't a loose screw-on style barrel apparently be replaced, at least in my case?

3. What are the potential dangers of firing a weapon with a loose barrel of this type?

4. Are there any potential repair options?

5. What potential use can I get from this weapon if it is totaled and unusable?


Thank you very much in advance, and I appreciate the efforts of any of you who bothered to read this. Much appreciated.