H&R Handi rifle

[Beekeeper]

I need someones opinion on the Handi Rifle?
Have been looking at the H&R website and I was thinking of buying one!
Is it possible to buy extra barrels in different calibers and use the same butt stock?
I'm not out to see how many rounds I can put down range and the Handi rifle seemed to be a perfect rifle for someone who only shoots a few rounds at a time.
If you can interchange barrels it will give a lot of versitality.


beekeeper

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Yes you can get more barrels actually, you can also get shotgun barrels for rifle frames but not the other way around. I have a Wesson and Harrigton, Love it.

Sam :D

[SwedeNelson]

Beekeeper

Check out "Single Shot Guns" below:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31

I have five or six and like them all.
More fun for the money than most.

Swede Nelson

[Lead melter]

Sam, I saw that rifle pic just a few days ago. Looks just like mine, tang sight and all, but I have a scope mounted at the time for accuracy trials with the 380-225-GC group buy. The standard rear on mine is a Williams while the tang is a Lyman with no windage adjustment.

What type setup do you have on it for a tang? I bought the rifle already with the tang mounted and am 'ciphering changing it out.

What part of the Low Country do you call home? At one time I lived in Orangeburg. Maybe we could get together one day and shoot the sh#@ or something.

[jawjaboy]

Here's a link to the barrel program. I have 3 of the Handi's in 223, 17HMR, and 45-70. Great lil rifle for the dollar. Accuracy with all 3 of mine is excellent.

Ooops, forgot the link.

http://www.hr1871.com/Support/accessoryProgram.asp



http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/jawjaboy/IM000237.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/jawjaboy/IM000236.jpg

[mooman76]

Yes you can as mentioned but you do have to send the gun to the factory to get it done. You can't just buy the barrels outright. I wanted to have it done. I have 2, 223 & 7.62x39. I sent them an email but got no reply. I should send another I guess. I heard they will work the trigger for you for free if you send it in and ask. I'm still trying to deside which barrels I want. I figure if I have to send it in I might as well get a couple while it is there.

[Westwindmike]

How are the stock triggers on the Handi Rifle?
Are they easy to "fix".

[leadman]

There is a whole section on just NEF/Handi rifles on Greybeard Outdoors. Includes info on about everything you would want to know on these rifles.

[Leftoverdj]

The Handis are better in low pressure cartridges than modern cartridges. Accuracy can be mediocore with the higher pressure cartridges and they are very sensitive to forearm pressure.

Trigger work is not difficult other than having to make up a couple of slave pins.

In the pistol calibers, they are enormous fun, and the .30-30 and .45-70 do pretty good.

[jh45gun]

I had a couple in 223 and 45/70 they are good for what they are. I traded both in to buy my Encore Pistol. What I do not understand is why you need to send the barrels to the factory to be fitted you would think they could machine them so the tolerances were the same. TC does it with their guns so why cannot these folks?

[OBXPilgrim]

Yep, they do work pretty good, but it sometimes take some tinking to do it. Of course, I've bought some much more expensive guns than these that have needed tinkering with.

After Remington bought H&R and "improved" things, their quality went down when it came to fitting the barrels to the frames. It's probably (I would hope), gotten better since I got my last H&R rifle pack made up. It was a 30-06 with wood stocks. Now it's a 30-06, 223, 444, and 50 cal muzzleloader - see the photo.

When it first came back the 223 barrel wouldn't even lock up. I could slam my hand against the top of the barrel out past the forearm & it would pop open. I wouldn't even shoot it the way I got it from them. The ejector sucked. It would not even touch the rim of the case. Had to make a new ejector button to push it up high enough to catch the rim.

Using the tips from the Greybeards site (and logic), it (and the 444) locks up much better than originally fitted. I sent one of their customer service folks some photos of some of the lock-up of the barrels & to their credit, he offered to let me send it back, but they had already had it for 5 months.

http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php?board=126.0

The 30-06 barrel shoots great with the 311041 - got a deer with it this past year. The 444 is starting to show promise with the 310gr Lee & the .434" Wide Flat 285gr Group buy - last range time got me some 1 hole 3 shot groups at 50 yards, but I haven't tried farther yet. Put Bushnell Trophy mil-dot scopes on the 30-06 & 444, just to make it easier for boolits. The 223 barrel is a 1:12" ejector, that they supposedly quit making over a year earlier, haven't found a good boolit load for it, but it does 1/2"'ers at 50 yards with cheap 55gr Winny j-words.

I've got one other H&R that's been fun too, a 22 Hornet, 7.62x39, 357 mag - cut to max, and a 50 cal muzzleloader. The 7.62x39 has scored on the deer also with the 311407 Group buy boolit (180gr at 1880 fps). I've got just one forearm for that rifle, and I think the accuracy suffers because of it. The rifle in the photo has each forearm glass bedded to that barrel, but I have been able to obtain perfect return to zero just yet.

The trigger was easy to fix - got mine down to 2 & 3/4lbs.

Hope that helps.

[OldBob]

I have 5 of them..... 2 4-70's, a 30-30, a 223 and a 357 mag that I recut to 357 max , guess I like 'em. As was previously said, the older lower pressure cartridges seem to work best for me although some folks seem to get excellent results with rimless hi power stuff. The interchangeable barrel thing is good in some respects, but these rifles are very sensitive to forearm pressure, so even though the barrels may fit fine you generally have to adjust the scope every time you change the barrel . Graybeard's site has a ton of information on fitting barrels, adjusting triggers, bedding forearms, etc. If you like to tinker, these are the gun for you.

[JIMinPHX]

It appears that there are 3 versions of the Handi frame in existence. All look alike, but they do not all handle the same pressure. If you get the low pressure version, then you can only get black powder & shotgun barrels fit to it in the future. If you get the medium pressure version, you can get shotgun, BP & low pressure rifle calibers fit to it. If you buy one in a high pressure caliber, like .308, or .30-06, or .280, then you can get any barrel that you want fit to it later. If you are getting a .223 barrel, check which twist they have available at the time. I have only seen 1:12 from them, but some people claim to have gotten 1:9 in that caliber from them.

More info on the accessory barrel program can be found here - http://www.hr1871.com/Support/accessoryProgram.asp

[ole_270]

Brother-in-law just bought one in .204, thought pretty well of it till he tried reloading. The chamber is so far oversize in diameter that we couldn't begin to push the case into the RCBS die. You could see the step up in dia. just in front of the web. Extraction was fine, just way oversize chamber. He took it back for a Savage bolt gun.