Rimfire Pistol Shooting with HP22A and Rough Rider

Rimfire pistol shooting. I got the Phoenix Arms HP22A for around $125 and the Heritage Arms Rough Rider for around $157. Cheap but effective pistols and cheap to shoot. Lot of fun and can be used for small game and varmint control. Rimfire is not reliable enough for defense due to the nature of the cartridge, not the caliber. The internal primer pad can dislodge causing failure to detonate. This happens when ammo is rough handled and tossed around regardless of the brand. Federal CCI tends to be a bit more reliable most likely due to better affixing or gluing of the primer pad. If rimfire was all I had for defense then I would use it though as its better than nothing.

As mentioned I try to get ammo as close to the standard velocity feet per second manufacturer rating of 1050-1150 for the HP22A. High velocity could crack the pot metal frame with repeated use. Also its a good idea to replace the recoil spring in any autoloader after the number of rounds get up into the thousands or when it has a high round count. A weak spring causes the slide to hit the frame harder and that could also crack the frame. This pistol has four safeties. A manual safety/slide catch, a manual firing pin block safety, a mag release safety, and a mag disconnect safety. I disabled the mag release safety and the mag disconnect safety so it functions mostly like any normal pistol now. There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to do this. Parts for the pistol are cheap and the disabled safety can be reversed if need be. Don't dry fire on an empty chamber. Any number of things could happen like denting the chamber face, shortening the firing pin, and damaging the firing pin spring, and damaging the hammer. Better to use snap caps, plastic screw anchors, or spent cases for dry firing but best not to dry fire it at all.

The Heritage Arms Rough Rider revolver will shoot any ammo fed it. It has a manual safety on the frame. It is a single action Colt style hammer with four clicks or C O L T. I often carry the pistol with a loaded cylinder and hammer down in first click or C (this is the old Colt safety) on an empty chamber with the manual safety on. This is how the owner manual states to carry the pistol. Both of these rimfire pistols should not be dry fired on empty chambers even with the safeties on according to the owner manuals. Dry firing the Rough Rider could ping or dent the cylinder face of the revolver. Snap caps could be used or simply plastic screw anchors or empty cases in the chambers for dry firing practice if need be but its better not to dry fire it at all. I would buy another of these pistols despite the flaws or defects I had. For the cheap price of the pistols I expect such things but it does not make them bad pistols. Any pistol can have flaws or defects no matter how cheap or expensive. Thanks for watching and please shoot safely.