Handi....are they ALL crap or ?

[stillhunter]

Stick with the 45-70. I wasted time and money on a 38-55 that was a pig. I have a Ruger No 1 now and it is as good as the other is bad. H&R diserves what they get.

[leftiye]

Rechamber that 38-55 barrel to .375-06 if it has a goofy chamber. The Handis are ideal for customized chambers and paper patched boolits (if they don't have goofy rifling too that is). I've about decided to long throat my 45-70 with a real slow leade angle and dedicate it to paper patching.

[C A Plater]

My .38-55 finally responded with round holes in the target using .380 diameter slugs. I did have a slight chamber issue with some factory new Winchester brass. I suspect the chamber length is minimum causing a few of the unfired test rounds to not eject. A little tap from a cleaning rod dislodged the round and there were no marks on the bullet. The cases measured 2.080 and trimming them to 2.075 may do the trick. I'll do a chamber cast one day to get the real story.

[leftiye]

Are there signs of the case mouths being "crimped" a little? If so, this can be dangerous (as I'm sure you already know). Also a possibility is that your oversize boolits are tight in the case and the case tight in the chamber neck. So long as the case is not too tight in the chamber, this can be a good thing for keeping the boolit aligned. As was probly said earlier here, these H&R 38-55s are famous for tight chamber necks. Too bad their 45-70s don't have those too!

Do that chamber cast and find out. Your groove diameter may actually want bigger dia. boolits,

[Bluehawk]

I have posted here on this topic before I will go again
MY H&R 38-55 gave me fits for quite a long time . It turns out that they did the chambers and barrels to the original specs that the old manufacturers used which produced small chambers and big barrels . The old ammo manufactured in the older guns used black powder and cup based bullets at 30/1 or 40/1 and they bumped up nice to fill the barrels . H&R screwed up there and apparently re did the process for the last batch they produced then got tired of the gripes and complaints and dropped the rifle from production
I could not get the proper bullet size to chamber in mine with normal Winchester brass.Swithced to Starline brass ( on advice from guys here and other forums ) and PROBLEM SOLVED the rifle now chambers bullets with 380 bullets quite nicely and shoots very nice consistant groups of under two inches ALWAYS. Shot a deer with it last year too
I have one other rifle from H&R with one barrel ( 22 Hornet ) and one with multiple barrels in 223; 30-30 ; 30-06; and 45-70 + 3.5 inch 12 ga.
It took me much time to get the older ( Model 158 22 Hornet ) to shoot well but now either Lil gun or W296 make it shoot within an inch with J bullets of 40 grains .
THe other rifle had some interesting work and I am still working on some of the barrels
the 45 -70 will shoot the 350 Grain bullets exceptionally well at or under 1.25 inches all day with 3031 ,Varget , and H4895. It will shoot 400 Grain speer bulets well too but not quite as nicely as the 350s. I then went to the 385 grain Lyman cast RN and it shot "ok" about 2.75 in groups the best I could do off the bench at 100 yrds. It will not shoot any of the 400 /405 grain bullets well at all and will not shot the 450 or heavier bullets AT ALL .
The 223 shoots 50 grainers under an inch all day long with Varget and has never been a problem .
the 30-30 gave me fits until I happend to shoot some factory 170 grainers to get a new scope sighted in . NOW im happy to report it shoots the 165 gain bullets and 170 grainers well . IT WILL NOT SHOOT ANY CAST BULLETS AT ALL tried three diffrerent weights and styles and several loads. will not shot them worth a darn / I just got the 30-06 barrel shooting and it likes the heavy J bullets too I have not tried cast yet out of that .
I did also own one that I truly did give up on ( so littlejack give up on that one if you want ) I had a 308 Ultra that would not shoot ANYTHING! I tried every bullet weight from 130s to 220s , I tired every factory round I could lay my hands on , I tried three different scopes and mounts, I treid every different powder I could think of and different primers> I had the forend bedded and free floated and I tried every trick I have heard of or read on the fore stock and hinge etc and NOTHing worked never got less the 4 inch groups with any thing I GOT RID OF THAT boat anchor
Moral of the story is I have not given up on H&R all in all I LOve the guns for the money they are the best buy around IMHO ! BUT they do need "tweaking " either judicious loading , or work on the gun or both RIght now all the ones I have , in all the calibers I could take out hunting for the purpose they were designed for and be quite comfortable in feeling they could do the job nicely .

[lonewolf5347]

I went as far as .381 cast with starline brass in my 38-55 but like you said there barrels were a pot luck shot until marlin did there spec: over in the 2007 model

[crazy mark]

I took my new 357 mag Handi out today and I didn't find a boolit or bullet I had brought it didn't like. I was shooting 125 gr thru 240 gr in it. I was getting 1.5-2.5" groups at 75 yds. A 357 Max won't chamber and the chamber/throat doesn't seem to be excessively long. This one won't be chambered for 357 max unless it starts doing something weird. Mark

[jlchucker]

Exactly what Stillhunter said.

[OBXPilgrim]

You know, I still find it slightly humorous to see people talking about what a *** their $350 H&R 38-55 is.

I've seen on lots of threads where other folks have high dollar, vintage Winchesters, & modern Uberti's that were made the same way (oversize bores), but the H&R is still junk. Guess the other folks may have already known what was coming & how to deal with it.

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...ad.php?t=33151 (look at post #4)

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...highlight=.381

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...highlight=.381

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...highlight=.381

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...highlight=.381

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...highlight=.381

I guess H&R have all been making there barrels wrong and finally quit, but Winchester and Marlin have been doing it wrong since the turn of the century - and Uberti more recently. Guess they are all junk, huh?

[leftiye]

OBX, Good point. We all everyday shoot guns that shoot fine, or great and assume that all is well. And unless you have a hand made custom gun from a top smith, your gun has probly got many variances from the ideal, or from "perfect" tolerances. Many of the "sloppies" we never find out about, and couldn't measure without special tools and taking the gun completely apart. Bad news is that we can measure things like bore, and groove diameter, and make chamber casts. And bad practice like shallow rifling does get noticed.