A few years back I actually talked to a nice lady at Heritage
I was looking to see if Heritage parts would fit my broken F.I.E. revolver. They did not because Heritage changed the design slightly when they started making them in the U.S.
Numrich had some parts but not what I needed at the time.
Heritage used to be F.I.E., and imported those revolvers under the F.I.E., Hawes, Kimel, and a few other brand names.
They broke often, and my F.I.E. and Kimel are examples of their poor construction.
I understand the Rough Rider is built in U.S.A. and of better quality.
My 1964 Ruger Single Six just keeps going and going...

 

OK, after some additional digging I discovered the history behind it.

EIG Cutlery owned by Allen Bernkrant began importing the Herbert Schmidt, West German made guns and marketed them under various brand names including EIG, Kimel and Hawes.

In 1971 EIG was renamed FIE and the guns were labeled FIE

In 1990 FIE goes bankrupt

In 1992 Jay Bernkrant (Allan's son) starts Heritage Manufacturing to build the Schmidt revolver in Miami

2012 Taurus USA buys Heritage

 

I believe you are confusing EIG that was owned by Saul Eig and imported cheap German revolvers and derringers as well as knives in the early 50s here in Miami With Mr. Bernkrat's businesses that included FIE, Southern Gun Traders and National Gun Distributers. National Gun was the place I bought my first .22 rifle, a model 60 Marlin. If memory serves, his retail store was on the corner of SW 22 avenue and 2nd street in Miami, about 10 blocks from where I grew up in the 50s.

 

Interesting thread. Appreciate the info.

Would Titan Mfg. be one of those other brands? I have a Titan that has the Buffalo grips.

It's a nice little revolver which has a cylinder with chambers individually counterbored for cartridge rims.

Only problem with it is that it has a very narrow trigger compared with the Rough Rider.

 

yes, Titan was an FIE brand

 

Thanks. Got all this saved in a Word file.

 

Trivia: The 25acp F.I.E. A27B is a Junior Colt clone. The 25 acp Titan is E27

 

I found a source somewhere that stated Saul EIG sold his business October 25th 1962 to Bernkrant and they renamed the company FIE in 1971.

EIG was already importing the Schmidt revolver before the name was changed to FIE

 

That's probably true. Bernkrant got pretty big in the business and probably bought out a lot of the smaller competitors in Miami of which there were many back in the 60s and 70s. His retail store was a huge warehouse with all kinds of surplus rifles stacked in barrels! It was great place to go to for me as a kid.

 

H. Schmidt in Ostheim has an interesting history, too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Schmidt_Ostheim

F.I.E. also imported Sauer & Sohn revolvers under the Hawes name.

 

Back in the early 1960’s I hag a couple of Colt Frontier Scout .22’s and they really felt comfortable in my hand.

In the 1970’s I picked up a Ruger Single-Six and a Super Single-Six but immediately noticed they felt a bit sloppy on the grip. The Ruger grip frame is about 1/4” longer near the trigger guard. Great for larger hands.

A few years ago I bought my first Heritage Rough Rider and was pleasantly surprised to discover I had the “Feel” of my greatly lamented Colts once again. Now I have three Rough Riders.

The Rugers are great guns but you might want to compare grips before going with either. If you have smaller hands, a Ruger Bearcat might be your huckleberry.

 

another option is a different grip frame, I bought a used Ruger 3-screw Blackhawk a few years back that was missing the correct grip frame

So I followed the lead of another guy on the internet and adapted a brass Colt 1851 Navy (Italian copy) grip frame to it, then made my own grip panels from blood wood.

 

Love a brass grip frame, looks great.

 

I second that!