H&R 38-55 Target Rifle?

[tomf52]

Any opinions out there as to the quality or accuracy of this rifle? Thinking of adding one to the collection. Thanks for any input. Tom

[cabezaverde]

Hi Tom,

Might want to watch this thread, a little H&R Target discussion there.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=12404

[dlk]

I don't have the target model or 38/55, but I really like my NEF handirifle in .243. It's the same action as yours, and they're made by the same company, H&R1871. I've never had any trouble with it or my pardner shotgun, and I don't see why it wouldn't be just as accurate as any other factory rifle.


:brokenima
This smilie is cool!

[Bret4207]

As I understand it the H+R is cut with the neck a bit too small which doesn't allow a proper size boolit to be used. If the neck is reamed a little you can use a groove sized boolit and things go well then. The ASSRA or Single Shot Exchange had a series of articles on fitting sights and upgrading the H+R and the last Fouling Shot had an article on opening the neck with abrasive paper. There's an H+R Target been sitting at my dealers for 3-4 years that I've looked at. Maybe some day...

[Buckshot]

................Not too long after I picked up my 1892 Rossi the same gunshop had a H&R 1871 Buffalo Classic hanging there, and it sure was a nice looking rifle. As I'm 45-70 poor I needed another like a visit from the IRS. However I really would like to have another 38-55. One of my range buddies has a couple freinds of his who will stop by and shoot with us on occassion and one of'em has a H&R 38-55 target model.

I was admiring it one time and he said I could pick it up and check it out. It was a very nice handleing piece. He didn't have any other ammunition left for it but showed me a couple targets he'd shot and they were very respectable. The trigger was exceptional, but he's a real cowboy action shooter and any new gun he gets he takes straight to his 'smith. He said it wasn't bad before, but not really what he liked. All his shooting is done with commercial cast slugs, too.

A couple weeks ago I searched around and found out on the Davidson's site that they are 'allotted'. Meaning their best customers (retailers) get first dibs on them, depending upon how much they order from them. I'd asked the guys at the shop where I got the Rossi and they said they had no idea how long it would take them to get one, as the Buffalo Classic they had took about 18 months to show up.

..................Buckshot

[1Shirt]

Tom, Shot one that a guy had at the range this past summer. Don't know the load, but he was ringing a yellow gong about 8-10" accross at 200 yd. Asked me if I wanted to try it, and I put 5 downrange, and clanked the gong 5 times in a row. Load was slow, and you had to wait for the impact for a bit, but the rifle was definately accurate. I had one of the early ones in 45-70 that shot fair at best regardless of what I put through it. Could occaisionally get a 3" group with it, but more often than not, it was more of the 4+" with cast, and jacketed was no better. The sights on the old one left something to be desired, and that in part may have been a big reason for not shooting tighter.
1Shirt!:coffee: :coffee:

[lovedogs]

There may be something to what Tpr. Bret said. I've seen a few of the H&R .38-55's here in our club. The first one was "unmessed with" and shot great. The second one was bought for a friend's wife. He messed with it just enough to get her shooting. It shoots great, also. Then he messed up. He got one for himself. If he'd worked with it a little I'm sure it'd be a good shooter, also. But he's kind of odd on his approach to things sometimes. He was bound and determined to make it shoot what he wanted it to shoot. Well, we all know that kind of attitude won't fly. He was unwilling to use the right alloy. He was unwilling to slug the bbl. and shoot the right size bullets. He had his mind made up to shoot one powder that he wanted to shoot instead of seeing what the rifle liked. Instead of putting the thing in a milling machine to line up the long-range sight when he mounted it, or even using a drill press, he eye-balled it and drilled it with a hand drill. Then, in spite of the real nice trigger he had to try to "fix" it. He drove all the pins out and messed with the trigger. In short, he really screwed this rifle up. Then he complained that it didn't shoot the way he wanted. Duh...

If he hadn't screwed it all up I'd gladly have bought it from him as I'm sure it'd be a good shooter if it'd had some TLC. Funny part of this story is that his wife's is still shooting great... and she won't let him mess with it. I think they are good, solid guns that, given a little care to working them up, will shoot quite well.

[1Shirt]

Lovedogs, There are some people who just have to fix what ain't broke! A lot of them are in congress!
1Shirt!:coffee:

[NickSS]

I have shot one of them that a friend owned and it shot right along with my $2000 C. Sharps High Wall in the same caliber. I have also read two articles in the Single shot exchange on this rifle and they were both very complementary. One of them is in my future plans.

[HORNET]

The tight case necks I view as a favorable condition. A little trip through the neck turner gives uniform brass for consistant tensions, improved concentricity, and minimum slop for maximum alignment. [smilie=w:
IIRC, a few months ago, FINN45 showed how to lap the throat to a very smooth lead-in on his Buffalo Classic with minimum tooling.[smilie=1:
I've seen some very favorable reports on them. Now, if I could only find one.. and had some spare cash that SWMBO didn't know about... and could hide it out for a while...[smilie=1: [smilie=1:

[GLL]

After reading this thread I had my dealer order me one of the H&R .38-55's. He indicated the .45-70's were impossible for him to find but his distributor had 34 of the .38-55's available!

I am very new to rifles so this will be an eye-opening experience if I must have work done to make it shoot well! You can be sure that I will have a lot of questions in the next few weeks ! :)

I just cast a few bullets and they look pretty good.

Jerry

[cabezaverde]

I would love to find that chamber lapping post. Did a search and couldn't find it.

[HORNET]

Cabezaverde,
Try a search under Finn45. I think the thread title was 'NEF 45-70 Buffalo Classic', but I could be misremembering.:roll: It was quite a while back so the pictures that he posted have probably evaporated into the aether or whatever happens to them.:confused:
If all else fails, you could P.M. him. It may be a while before he answers. I think the spring thaw has to hit Finland to warm it up until the electricity flows again first.
:kidding:

[catboat]

I had one in 45-70 and it shot very well. 1.5 MOA with cast bullets (Lyman 457122 330 gr HP "gould bullet").

Barrels used to be made by Green Mountain barrels, and were very good shooters. Not sure who makes them now, with Marlin the new owners.

Check out the NEF section at http://www.marlinowners.com/board/ . They like them over there.

[robert william]

I have an NEF handi rifle in 45-70. All I did to it was to mount an ancient Weaver K-1 scope upon it and start playing with loads. Love the beast! It will pretty much shoot any cast load well, it shows a prefferance for heavy bullets at moderate to low velocity. It gave superb accuracey when I loaded it with 55 gr of WANO 3f and a 500gr WW slug. Right now I am shooting the same slug over 13.2 gr of Unique with very good results. It does seem to not care for fast jacketed loads but that is of no concern to me, they kick hard and give little in return. I figure a 500 gr slug at 1200 fps will flatten anything this side of the Rockies just fine, without beating up on me or my rifle.