I told him that the thing better shoot good to make up for how ugly it is...he didn't laugh.
Generally 30-30, 45-70 & .223 have the best rep's for out of the box accuracy from what I've seen. There are many tuning tricks to get the most from them all though.
Some are FAR from ugly too! For the largest source of info on H&R/NEF arms in all their varieties I've yet to see more than here:
http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php#12