H&R Topper 158, 30-30

[Remmy4477]

Another diamond in the ruff followed me home from the gun show today.

H&R Topper 158 in 30-30.
The wood has been horribly redone, solid but ugly. Barrel had a few areas of rust with some light pitting, Bore was dirty and looked bad.
The receiver is in good shape but the case hardening color is mainly gone and turning dark in areas.
Tight lock up, hammer spring is a little weak but still fires the primers off.
Standard square front post sight and a decent Lyman rear fold down.

Gave the outside of the barrel a quick clean and oiling, a little more work and the barrel will look very good. Ran a bore snake down the bore with some gun scrubber and wow the bore is about perfect, not much wear if any.
Kind of guessing it spent a long time as a truck gun?

Going to redo the wood, but stock was stripped of finnish, it will just need a fine sanding and a dark finnish, redo the forearm the same way.

Should be a decent little shooter.

Have a ton of reloading stuff for the 30-30. Should be a fun one with some cast loads!

[richhodg66]

Good score. My experience has been that those are more accurate and better rifles than they are usually given credit for being.

[barrabruce]

Iv’e been able to find a load that will shoot good in mine from bullseye to Varget.
120 grn to over 180’s
Enjoy.

[Texas by God]

My sister in law hunts deer with the Mannlicher stock version of that gun. A delightful rifle.

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[GhostHawk]

Truly a delight. I had a .30-30 with 20ga combo walk in my door a year ago.

Guy had it to the pawn shop down the street and offered him 125$ IMO about 1/3 of its value.

He asked if I was interested, and I said heck yes.
He said how much? I said that would depend on how it looks.

It looked brand new, flawless. 20 ga barrel has never been fired from what I can see.

I offered 300$ we were both happy.

It drills 185 gr gc bullets into a 1" group at 100 yards and keeps them dead center on bull. It don't get no better.

I am in the process of packing my new trailer for a fall trip down south. Comes down to which rifle do I bring?

So I am laying there in the dark, pondering. Bring the .30-30? There are some advantages here. I can shoot the same boolits in the Ruger SS .32H&R mag. Couple hundred LR primers and a pound of Red Dot and I could reload those .30-30 cases till the cows come home. And with the other set of dies keep the Ruger in anti snake and varmint loads too.

Or bring the .44mag? Which would probably mean no reloading for it until I got home. (You never know, guy likes to be prepared)

Either would drop a feral hog pdq. The dirty thirty has a combo 20 ga barrel with it which rounds things out nicely. One box with a few different types of ammo from birdshot to buckshot and slugs would give you lots of options.

Lots to think about.

Anyone know a good place to shoot hogs in Arkansas?Attachment 225721

[45-70 Chevroner]

I had one back in the 70's. 30-30, 20 gauge, and 410 gauge, it cost me a $100 bucks. Being young and maybe a little stupid I let it go for the same price. I thought I needed an other gun don't even remember what it was. But I remember that little combo and have been kicking my self ever since.

[Remmy4477]

I had one back in the 70's. 30-30, 20 gauge, and 410 gauge, it cost me a $100 bucks. Being young and maybe a little stupid I let it go for the same price. I thought I needed an other gun don't even remember what it was. But I remember that little combo and have been kicking my self ever since.

Been there done that many moons ago with a win 92, regret doing that, it was a keeper.

Planning on finding a few barrels for this, keep the 30-30 as the main barrel. Add a 12 and 20 gauge and maybe get lucky and find one in 45LC or even 223?

Met a gentleman at the last gun show who made his own barrels for his H&R/NEF.
Interesting way he made them. He'd find a good used barrel in what ever caliber he wanted. and would take a 12 gauge barrel and cut off the barrel just past the chamber, lathe down the old barrel and fit it in what was left of the 12gauge barrel, silver solder it in and cut an extractor slot and make a new extractor to fit in the H&R block.
Sounds like a bubba thing but it turned out real nice after clean up and a reblue.

Sure would be a way to have an H&R in about any caliber you wanted.
Not sure how safe it would be in some rifle rounds? But guessing it would do fine with some of the old pistol rounds, 44wcf, 38wcf and similar.

[GhostHawk]

Remmy I have a 9mm stub job like you described that I found for around 200$.

This particular one had been built by someone just getting started making them and had a few minor issues.

When he put the completed barrel in his jig to drill and tap the scope mount holes something slipped a bit.

Shot 1.5 to 2 feet LEFT of POA at 100 yards. Holes were drilled at a tangent.

He had a flash hider on the end tack welded in place but it was not indexed correctly.

Local gunshop moved the scope base forward a 1/4 inch, d&t'd new holes. Cost me 60$.

She stacks them up real pretty at the 100 yard range now.

I would say most any lower powered/pressure rifle round could be done that way as long as some common sense was used. And of course it is virtually made for pistol caliber carbines.

I have been thinking about a dedicated .45 acp barrel.

[Rio Grande]

Awesome. I have a pre-'68 on a pawnshop layaway, pick it up next week. Overpaid I think at $325 total, but it looks great overall. Besides, that model was the first new in the store firearm I bought as a youngster. I love the lightweight of it, better than the newer heavy barrel models. I like it takes down easy, goes right in a backpack. My find has an off brand scope which will come off.
I like your stock, I prefer the straight grip.

The singleshot 30-30 is so versatile, round balls at 800 fps, to cast 170 grain (or heavier) at most any speed, slow or fast, to 170 gr. soft point factory rounds. I've shot .32 acp from a chamber insert. With all those choices it can handle anything from frogs to deer.

PM coming.

[firebyprolong]

I've got a 158 in 30-30 that I like to say has killed more deer than blue tongue. Bought it as a used rifle 20 years ago and it has been in and out of trucks, saddle and ATV scabbards ever since. Shot my first cast bullet deer with it. Always been a solid and accurate rifle that I have dumped thousands of rounds though it. I actually have to shim mine up in the near future as I have finally shot the locking lugs as loose as I care too. A word of caution on the 158 frame, your better off to find one of the modern steel SB2 frames if you want to step up to high pressure rounds like the 223. The 158 is the what is known as the sb1, iron frame should be used only with the lower pressure rounds. 22 hornet, 30-30, 45-70, 45 colt, 44 mag, and the 357 play well with the 158 frame. . Enjoy it, but they are addictive so fair warning!

[30-30 guy]

I have a 158 H.&R and an encore with new MGM barrel both in 30-30.Both shooting 170 gr lee boolits. So far, 1.5 inch group with encore, load 20 grains of IMR 4198 Win LR primers. The old 158 4 shot group 7/8 with 2g0 gr BLC2, Win mag primers.Both at 100 yards. Still gotta love a cheap 1970's gun shooting like that. By the way had the trigger on it done to 2lb and gun is like new. Just starting on the encore with MGM and expect great things with it too. Love the 30-30, all seem to shoot good!!!

[Texas by God]

I much prefer the old profiled barrel and straight stocks of the older Topper guns compared to the NEF Pardner and Handis. I know you are limited to 30-30 and 45-70 with the 158 frame but that's not a bad limit IMO.

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[roverboy]

Nice score there. Does anybody know if one of these barrels will work on a Topper .58 cal. muzzleloader frame?

[geezer56]

The firing pin on the 58 cal. ML may be one of the large flat ones for percussion caps only. They won't set off primers very well. The barrel may fit, but not go bang.

[roverboy]

Ok. Thanks, I wondered about that myself but, wasn't sure about it.

[Walks]

I have a newer version. It is my very favorite cast bullet rifle.
You'll really enjoy it.

[1Hawkeye]

A shop near me has one that I'm thinking about. Its a .30-30 nickle plated model with no sights or butt plate but it does have a cheapy old 4x tasco on it. The metal is in nice shape but the wood could use some tlc. They want 175.00 for it but iv'e been holding off because i'm starting to collect .30-30's like when I can't turn down .22lr's.

[Texas by God]

A shop near me has one that I'm thinking about. Its a .30-30 nickle plated model with no sights or butt plate but it does have a cheapy old 4x tasco on it. The metal is in nice shape but the wood could use some tlc. They want 175.00 for it but iv'e been holding off because i'm starting to collect .30-30's like when I can't turn down .22lr's.

Buy it. You'll be sad if you don't.

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[Remmy4477]

Buy it. You'll be sad if you don't.

I second that! I missed out on a H&R 45-70 with the 32 inch barrel last month for $300, by the time I decided to get it, it was gone! Kicking myself!!