Featured Gun: Heritage Rough Rider

The Heritage Rough Rider is a low priced .22 single action revolver made by Heritage Manufacturing, now a division of Taurus USA.

This was a very difficult article to write. The information was not easily accessible and took some time to piece together the truth. The few articles written about the Rough Rider did not cover the history of this gun. In addition there are a lot of forum posts that have incorrect or misleading information.

The story of the Heritage Rough Rider really begins with the introduction of the Colt Single Action Army model of 1873. 

I don't think there is a need to dive into the history of the Single Action Army, most of us know that history, so we will fast forward our story to Hartford in the mid 1950's.

Colt had discontinued the Single Action Army in 1941 for two reasons. The first was that the old Peacemaker just wasn't selling like it used to. The second was World War II: Colt needed to free up production for wartime contracts.

The World after WWII was a different place. There was an economic boom, a technological boom and a baby boom going on. Hollywood began churning out more and more movies, among them a genre was being reborn....the Western.

Americans fell in love with the stories of the old west, following the adoration the demand increased for the lever action rifles and single action revolvers seen on the big screen. 

Add to the mix a new gun maker down in Southport (Sturm, Ruger & Co.) began making a single action 22 in 1953 and followed it two years later with a full size single action in .357. 
Around the same time Ruger was introducing the Single Six, Great Western Arms in California began producing a copy of the Colt.

The writing was on the wall, the single action revolver was back. So in 1956 Colt re-introduced the Single Action Army, known today as the "second generation". The folks in Hartford also wanted to introduce an affordable version in .22 rimfire.
In 1957 Colt introduced the Frontier Scout revolver.

 It was slightly smaller than the Single Action Army (similar in size to the Ruger Single Six) and had a frame, ejector rod housing and grip frame that were made of aluminum alloy. The gun also used a revised version of the SAA lock work which only required the use of two action screws instead of three.

In 1970 Colt revised the Frontier Scout. The new guns were called the "New Frontier Scout" and the "Peacemaker .22". The aluminum alloy frame was replaced by a steel one, this may have been done for safety reasons or it may have been to separate Colt from the copies that had emerged since the Frontier Scouts introduction.


Back to the 50's.....in 1955 a man named Allen Bernkrant sold his gun and bait-tackle shop in New York and moved his family to Miami. This will be important to our story later.

Meanwhile the sales for the Colt Frontier Scout were brisk and this led to a copy being made in West Germany by Herbert Schmidt in 1959. 

Herbert Schmidt Waffentechnik was a West German gun maker who had been in the gun business since 1919. During the war they were tasked with repairing K98 rifles for the Third Reich. 
A couple of years after the introduction of the Colt Frontier Scout Schmidt began producing a copy. Even the name was a bit of a copy, it was called the model E-15 "Buffalo Scout".
The gun's frame was made from a zinc-aluminum alloy. Originally they were made in .22 Magnum only, but 22 LR and "convertible" models soon became available.

the Herbert Schmidt E-15 Buffalo Scout

In short order the German made guns were being exported to the U.S.. 
Enter Saul Eig. Eig owned a company called EIG Cutlery, which imported foreign made knives of all shapes and sizes. 

It was unclear if Eig was importing guns before the sale, but on October 25th, 1962 EIG Cutlery was purchased by Allen Bernkrant (the man mentioned earlier).

It is also not known if Saul Eig or Allen Bernkrant signed up to import the Schmidt revolver, but this was happening while the company was still being called EIG.

In 1971 Bernkrant either changed the name of the company to Firearms Import Export (F.I.E.) or created a DBA called F.I.E.. 

That same year Saul Eig went to work for F.I.E. as a consultant, probably to help with the minutia of paperwork involved in the import business.

In 1974 Saul Eig (along with Bernkrant's cousin and employee Milton Koss) left the employ of F.I.E. and started a new company called Excam. 

Eig and Koss remained in Hialeah Florida and began importing guns to compete with his former company. This was in violation of the agreement made between Eig and Bernkrant.

If that wasn't enough Excam began importing an Italian made copy of the Colt Frontier Scout/Schmidt Buffalo Scout.

Excam had Tanarmi (Tanfoglio) manufacture a copy and even used the Buffalo Scout name.

This of course led to a lawsuit, as Eig was not only breaking his agreement not to go back into the gun business, but he used his insider knowledge to price his guns under what F.I.E. could sell their versions for.
The lawsuit was settled out of court, the details are not known.

I found this a bit humorous as two entities were fighting over the right to copy a gun neither of them designed. In reality Colt was the real victim here, yet I found no evidence of a lawsuit between Colt and the manufacturers or importers of the copies.


The F.I.E. E-15 .22 revolver (note the FIE name on the grip panel):

Eventually restrictions placed on the importation of these guns required that the frames be cast stateside and the guns assembled in Florida (and even for a time in Georgia).  
Throughout the 70's and 80's F.I.E. imported a lot of affordable (and sometimes downright cheap) firearms, including the parts for the E-15 revolver. 

On November 8th, 1990 F.I.E. filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. Around the same time Excam also closed their doors. It is assumed that the closures were somehow related, but I couldn't find a link.

At some point before the closure of F.I.E. and Excam, another Bernkrant, Keith Bernkrant formed a new company called European American Armory (EAA). The new company picked up where F.I.E. and Excam left off and continues in business today.

Two years later (1992) Allen's son Jay Bernkrant and Jay's wife (Maria Diaz) incorporated Heritage Manufacturing in Miami to resume manufacturing some of the guns from the F.I.E. catalog including the E-15 Buffalo Scout.

This time they gave the revolver a new name: The Rough Rider. For twenty years the Rough Rider was made in Miami, just as the Buffalo Scout was before it.

In early 2012 a deal is struck and Heritage Manufacturing was purchased by Taurus USA.

The Heritage plant continues to operate and produce the Rough Rider revolver.

Here are the exploded diagrams showing the similarities between the guns

The Colt Frontier Scout

The Herbert Schmidt/FIE/Excam/Heritage

And a comparison of the guns, you can see that other than fit and finish, the others are a direct copy of the Colt.

The comparison below shows one of the key differences in the grip frame between the Scouts/Rough Riders and a Colt SAA. The size, grip frame and screws make identification easy.

Here is the Rough Rider, notice how the top of the grip frame encompasses the grip panels

Here is the Colt model of 1873 Single Action Army

Specs:
Action: Single Action Revolver
Caliber: .22 rimfire 
Capacity: 6 rounds
Weight: 30.528 oz. (4.75" barrel)
Length: 10.125 (4.75" barrel)
Barrel Length(s): 3.5", 4.75" & 5.5"
Manufactured: 1992- present

Time Line of Events:

1873: Colt Introduces the Single Action Army model of 1873

1941: Colt discontinues the first generation of SAA revolvers

1956: Colt introduced the second generation SAA

1957: Colt introduces the .22 rimfire Frontier Scout

1959: Herbert Schmidt begins making a copy of the Frontier Scout in West Germany
1959-1970 EIG begins importing the Buffalo Scout
1962: Saul Eig sells EIG Cutlery to Allen Bernkrant
1971: EIG Cutlery becomes Firearms Import Export (F.I.E.)
1974: Excam opens for business, F.I.E. files a lawsuit
1982: Saul Eig passes away at the age of 56
1990: F.I.E. files for Bankruptcy, Excam also closes its doors
1992: Heritage Manufacturing is incorporated in Miami
2012: Heritage Manufacturing is purchased by Taurus USA
2015: On Christmas Day Allen Bernkrant dies at the age of 85

As with nearly all my Featured Gun Articles, this was inspired by a gun I came into contact with. My Father bought a standard model Rough Rider from my Uncle last year.



Sources:


American Rifleman 

Field and Stream 

Alloutdoor 

Wideopenspaces 

Chuck Hawks


Albright, Joseph (1981, Sept 23) Mom-Pop Conglomerate Makes It Big With Guns, Palm Beach Post, Page1,8