Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Sow's Ear

well said kliktarik, well said.

dennis

I can only wish I could have said it so eloquently.....

Pardon me while I go make use of my silk hankie... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[color:"green"]Grasshopper [/color]

I'm still trying to figure out if I got spanked or not. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

If you like the Ruger long guns, that's fine. The 10-22, and the #3 are pretty nice. It's truly a shame they dropped the #3. I like the Handi because it has the qualities I admired in the #3. With some work, the #1 can be a pretty good rifle.

Hey this is starting to sound familiar

Handi shrimp rifles are the rifles of the sea. You can barbecue 'em, boil 'em, broil 'em, bake 'em, sautee 'em.

There's, um, Handi shrimp kebabs,
Handi shrimp creole,
Handi shrimp gumbo,
pan fried handi,
deep fried handi,
stir fried handi.
There's pineapple handi and lemon handi, coconut handi, pepper handi shrimp, handi soup, handi stew, handi salad, Handi shrimp and potatoes, Handi shrimp burgers, Handi sandwiches... That's, that's about it.

They are pretty much that. The same receiver can be a .22, a shotgun, a centerfire rifle, and a muzzleloader for less than the price of an Encore or a #1.

You forgot jack handle and latrine shovel.

I prefer accuracy over pretty. But my NEFs are very nice looking. You can see one of mine in this months issue of "The Backwoodsman" magazine. I'm going to submit a full article in the near future.

The article will of course be unbiased and accurate... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

Sounds a lot like most multi-use tools. They do a mediocre job at a lot of different things, but not a real good job at any one of them.

Case in point -- an adjustable wrench. The only thing they do really well is slip and skin knuckles. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

harsh, 'ist, harsh ... but funny.
i'm not gettin' the swamper's back, but i gotta, all of the handis i've owned - including the one still in my safe - have been very good to excellent shooters except for a .44 mag. and it shot fine as long as bullet weight was kept to 240 grains or less. twist rate and all that.
but i sure wouldn't take oner in a contest against a sharps or no. 1 or no. 3 or high wall such that is well-tuned. the hinge action simply cannot be guaranteed to shoot excellently every time. very well, perhaps, especially rimmed chamberings, but not excellently.

I think most of us accept that the Handi is a decent rifle, and good value for the money. Nothing more, nothing less.

I never said any different, and I currently have three of those actions in my safe. They are all good shooters - if one defines good as and inch or bigger (possible exception is the Buffalo Classic). The trigger on the Classic is good. The 243 and the shotgun both have shotgun triggers, and shotguns are okay to be close enough with a slap of the trigger. Close enough never is close enough in a rifle. But that's all I'm saying lest I be charged with animal cruelty for flogging a dead horse. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

"that is well-tuned"

Being the key phrase.

Mine all have excellent triggers (even the shotguns) so I can't really comment on the trigger issue. I haven't seen an NEF that didn't shoot well right out of the box with factory ammo. and that's what I expect when I lay my money down. That's also the reason I shoot Remingtons if I feel I might need more than one shot. I'm not sure why other manufactuers can't just ship rifles that are ready to hunt with.

They do. I'm sure sorry you can't figure it out or just feel the need to step on the shoulders of other brands and better makes in an effort to put them down, and in order to make yourself and your point have some value.



The truth is, you don't like the truth and won't acknowledge it.

never argue with an idiot. he will drag you down and then beat you with experience.

dennis

Dennis:

My buddy tells me that his grandfather always told him: [color:"red"]"When you think you are arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't thinking the same thing!" [/color] <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[color:"green"]Grasshopper [/color]

I have never found a factory rifle yet that was ready to roll as shipped. But I'm picky. I was unimpressed with the Ruger #1 trigger, although it was certainly serviceable. So far the best factory triggers I've found are on the CZ bolt guns, and they still require adjusting.

I looked at a handi again today and while the trigger was adequate, it was by no means great unless you have very low standards. Fit and finish was of 'tool' quality with plenty of machine marks.

The ejector/extractor was totally unacceptable. It should be mechanical, rather than spring loaded. I'd rather have a working extractor than an ejector anyway - at least for a break open.

Swampman1, your blind advocacy of this rifle above all else single shot shows a convienent neglect of this rifle's faults. As stated, it is a good value for the money, but it is not in the same class as the high end single shots - in terms of accuracy, fit, finish and aesthetics. The very article you quoted from Gun Tests showed this is a 1-2 MOA gun, which is certainly minute of deer. That the Dakota 10 shoots as poorly as the Handi is more of an indictment of the Dakota than a recommendation of the Handi. But with the Dakota, the buyer is purchasing a piece of art as much as a rifle.

If your only measure is accuracy, then probably no break open or falling block single shot is in the running compared with single shot turnbolts. If repeaters are added in, there are a number of rifles that put 1-2 MOA guns to shame. An FN PBR XP or Remington LTR will reliably turn in 1/4 MOA groups out of the box with suitable factory ammunition.

People who are bying single shots are doing so for more reasons than performance. There's the challenge of one ready shot, and there is a certain beauty in many of these rifles. If someone were really buying a performance rifle, particulary using your criteria of $1000+ , the handi wouldn't even be on the list. Nor probably would be a Number one.

Even if you only need one shot, an LTR or PBR will beat an Handi every single time.

Tod, I agree with you on that from a target shooting angle. My last Remington is plenty accurate for hunting and easy to build just about any load for - other than, and perhaps because of, a really tight chamber that two different brands of dies couldn't size once fired brass enough to chamber. That rifle, however, unlike so many Remingtons I've shot, has a really hard trigger, a much less user friendly trigger than the untouched Winchesters and Rugers I have. I was able to shoot it well enough, however, in spite of that. As pretty as those Mountain rifles are in many ways, I suspect this one will hit the road. It just doesn't suit me for hunting.

As for my #1s (I only have two, but plan to have at least one more), my 45-70, ironically, has a much better (two screw) trigger than my small game 218, also a two screw. Just because it is fun to punch paper with the little 22, I'll probably have the trigger worked on to make it more enjoyable.

I have gone around on another post about the extractor on these NEF rifles. I find the idea of an extracter rather than an ejector to be an abomination on any rifle seriously intended for hunting. You are quite right, a mechanical extractor (like the #1 has) is really the way to go. As a kid, I used single shots including a Savage which had a spring powered ejector which worked well most of the time. With small animals it seemed rather appropriate to let them die without further disturbance after one good shot. Hunting much larger game as an adult has surely changed my thinking on that though and I really appreciate any rifle that allows an easy reload for a second shot. A single shot rifle like the #1s with their selectively adjustable ejector/extracters make that an easy thing. My recent moose would have died from the single shot I made after loading the empty gun after I found him. Being able to quickly reload and add an insurance shot to hasten the stopping of that animal was also a good thing, just as it was with my fall brownie.

I guess I am kind of an odd duck when it comes to accuracy in hunting rifles. I haven't consciously done it, but suppose I have gotten rid of my most accurate hunting rifles because they were a bit boring from a hunting perspective. The pursuit of accuracy in a rifle is fun for sure; once that accuracy is found though, sitting there shooting groups far smaller than anything useful for practical hunting pursuits seems rather boring.

You are probably right about the accuracy thing. I came to hunting from the target/tactical shooting world. It sometimes hard to adjust from that thousand yard way of thinking, where 1 MOA or better is critical.

This last year I bagged my buck from 325 yards with one of my tactical rifles - a 1/4 MOA rifle that used to weigh 17 lbs (I have since bobbed the 27.5 inch bbl back to 20 inches).


I then went hunting with my BP rifle, and learned about hunting, as opposed to shooting (i.e. stalking up to within 75 yards or less).

The reality is that minute of deer (2-3 MOA) is probably good enough for 90% of hunting in my area. I'd like my Ruger #1 to be bug hole accurate, but under 2 MOA should be more than enough.

There is certainly something to be said for light weight rifles. I started with the 40x, bought an FN PBR XP that got the weight down to 12 pounds with scope, followed by the Number 1. My most recent acquisition is a CZ-527 that weighs a mere 5.9 pounds. All this in the month since hunting season ended.

Now I just need to relax enough to go hunt with a rifle that is 'good enough' rather than perfect.