Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots H&R/NEF Handi Rifles

Is any one here into Handi rifles ??

Out in the front yard sittin on a log , got a single shot rifle and a one eyed dog

I have a Handi in 243 and a H&R in Buffalo Classic - 45-70. Would sell the 243 cheap, wouldn't dare get rid of the 45-70.

Had a 30-30,.243,.270,45/70 and 45/70 Buffalo Classic.
30-30 was good and accurate.Traded it like a fool..243 ultralite wouldn't group consistent.Sold it..270 was good.A friend wanted it so I sold it to him.45/70 Buffalo Classic was great .Accurate.Just had a long 32 inch barrel.Sold it.Kept the 45/70 Handi with 22 inch barrell.Love this one.Accurate with a big boolit.What's not to like?It will hit tennis balls at 100 yards with iron sights and handloads.

Stan

How do you cook those tennis balls to get them tender?

I have a NEF in 308 that is a neat little rifle that shoots great and is a AWESOME tree stand gun!!!

I bought one of the synthetic stocked .223 Handi's on a whim one day for about $225 new,..mounted a series of scopes on it but finally settled on a Nikon Buckmaster 6-18X40. I've had a lot of fun loading for it and shooting it off the bench.

Some people get very good accuracy out of them and some people don't,... it seems to be a "luck of the draw" kind of thing.

Mine seems to be "middle of the pack" as far as accuracy goes,.. but I've found a few loads that will consistently do 2.5 MOA.

My opinion is,.. you'll be lucky to get one that does much better than that,.. in .223, anyway. But I was at the range a while back and there was a guy shooting a 30-30 Handi and getting regular 1.5 MOA with it. If I had it to do over again I'd probably get one in 30-30. From what I've heard, the 30-30 Handi is one of the more accurate chamberings to be had.

All in all,.. I consider them great value for the money and NEF is very good at customer service. If you send the frame and handguard in they'll fit it with an additional barrel for about $100 per.

I have owned many-many of these. I am a trader at heart and always seem to be trading something off. I had a 223 with AA grade Quilted maple that was very nice. I had it fitted with 45-70 and 12ga bbls. Won a few turkey shoots with the 12., got accuracy similair to above with the 45-10. With the 223, it was a learning expereince. i say that because with my particular gun, I could go no better than 2 MOA. I and a good friend with lots of Single shot expereince had fun one summer shooting it and trying to improve the grouping. here iswhat we found:
1-get rid of the trashy-ass aluminum base and get steel base and rings.
2-Use ONLY commercial ammo, and you MUST full length resize every case and trim to EXACT size or it will stick in the chamber.
3-At the time I owned mine (1993), the triggers were heavier than now, so we cut a coil off the spring, but that in turn made it not always fire when hitting the hard military primers.
4-A screw in the back of the trigger guard to limit overtravel is a surprising improvement to pull.
5-The basic weakness is that the barrel cannot be free-floated because it is screwed to the fore end. Unless the barrel is heavy, different pressure points can cause signifigant impact shift. I countered this by attaching a bipod to the swivel stud, and always firing it off the bipod.
6-A torque wrench is very handy to make it repeatable when removing the forend
7-I glassed the inside of my for end to make it less suceptible to swelling with the wood.
All that together with good handloads put it a little below 1" very consistently


I handled one of the moared SURVIVOR with that Choate "handhole" stock and like it so much I am thinking of getting one in 308!

I've messed with handi's for some time and now have a Ultra Rifle in 25-06,.6 for 3 hots consistant. A 12ga rifled trackerII barrel fitted with Hornady SST slug 3 into .75 at 80yds. I've had a load of the Ultra Varmints in .223. My ultra will be going back for a .205 barrel after the first of the year. If your interested in making them shoot go to. www.varminthunters.com/tech/nef.html

.223, .243, 7mm08, .308Win. love em all! the 7-08 is wife's. I had a gunsmith shorten the bbl to 20 inches and I handload for her 140gr Trophy Bonded Bearclaws (2400fps) and it shoots inside 1 inch at 100yds from the bench. It's light, compact and she loves it. She's been goin every day hoping to get her first deer.

My 308 is very accurate but the cases keep failing to extract, been back to NEF and keeps doing it shooting factory loads, any ideas?

YES! Try polishing the chamber with some Flitz on a paper towel wrapped around the end of a dowel. Make sure the dowel/rod is small enough to fit in a drill and go to town. Check out Varmint Al's website for more info on chamber polishing. Had the same problem and this worked GREAT for all of mine.

I got one in 243, shoots bug holes, had a 20ga rifled slug barrel put on it. It shoots good too.

I like em....

I load for my buds .243 and was surprised to see the first group with 58gr V-max and IMR3031 do 1/2 @ 100yds. 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