Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Craig Boddington likes 'em............

I have several NEF/H&R rifles and shotguns. They are 'basic' guns. They are not 'junk guns'. I have never had a breakage or a failure to eject.


How fast the fire is irrelevant. Do you want you daughters to grow into spray and pray fanatics or do you want them to learn to do it right the first time.

The simple singleshot is VERY safe. It teaches that the first shot is the most important. If you can't be sure of the first shot don't shoot. No animal deserves a snap shot that cripples it just enough so the hunter will have time to to get off a second, or third, or ...

I have all kinds of guns. Everything but Class III. I enjoy them all for what they are but for 'sport hunting' I increasingly turn to my singleshots, whether they be NEF/H&R, Browning, Ruger, T/c, EA Brown, Martini, etc.

If I were going to war I would certainly chose something else but sport isn't war.

I just inquired at my favorite shooting emporium about their luck with these guns, as they sell a lot of them--and are not shy about not stocking something that tends to come back broken.

They sell a lot of shotguns and varmint rifles, mostly, though they do sell some .243's and .30-30's (bigger calibers do tend to kick quite a bit). They have had excellent luck with all, witha very low percentage of breakage, so apparently these days things are OK.

MD

A good friend on mine debated back and forth on a deer rifle for his 12 year old son. He was not sure if the boy was really interested in hunting and did not want to spend much. However, he just spent $1200 on a bow and took three guided trips last year alone, the point is that he has the money to buy a decent bolt action and could always sell it if the boy lost interes. Long and short, he bought the H&R/NEF single shot in 243 with a BSA scope (my friend uses leupold for himself). Anyway, the rifle is fine but the trigger is stiff, heavy and drags like rusted steel. The scope is not so great either. Kids don't need a $2500 rifle but they do have small hands and heavy triggers can be difficult to manage. They also do not need top-shelf optics but no need making it any harder on them then necessary. My only real beef with the single shot rifles is the typically rough triggers. I am not sure it they can really be improved by a smith and then with the money spent, why not buy a savage or similar to begin with?

Thanks for the replies guys.

257 Bob,

I have contemplated the Savage or Stevens. Biggest problem is weight and Length of pull. Have shortened and put recoil pads on wood stocks, but the Stevens is Synthetic, so that's a quandry for me.

Perhaps the NEF trigger has improved??

I handled two different ones, new at a gunstore and the triggers were VERY nice.

Better than on My Rem 7600, and it shoots fine.

Has anyone shot one of these?
Thinking about one for my grandson to shoot maybe .223 or 22-250.

Dt

Mauser 96, to contradict myself a bit, I do have two "current production" NEF shotguns, a 410 and 28 ga and they are fine. I do understand that quality firearms and optics are very expensive and it is hard to justify such a purchase for a young hunter. that said, a rifle with a good fitting stock, 3 or 4 lb smooth trigger and nice scope will help a new hunter be more successful. for a compact rig, I really like the model 70 compact featherwieght. I have one and my kids love it. however, it is not cheap. a rem model 7 youth or standard cut down would also be another alternative.

Droptine yes I have you can look and see my previous post.
The groups from my 223 with its favorite loads will run 1 inch or less. My granddevils will go thru as much 223 ammo as I have on hand thru that little thing when they come to visit.

The single most common reason NEF's fail to eject is that folks let oil and/or solvent drain from the barrel after cleaning. When you store the rifle muzzle up (as most of us do) the oil runs into the chamber and puts a hydraulic lock on the cases.

Dry your chamber out well and most ejection problems will go away.

I've also learned that after a couple hundred rounds down the tube, things tend to improve considerably.

If you reload, a small base die would be a good idea. At the very least, full length size the cases. I have had one case seperation on my .223, and this was after about six reloadings on the Lake City brass. The necessary constant FL sizing would have the prudent man discarding the cases after three or four firings. My opinion, of course.

I free floated the forward portion of the forearm on my .223 Ultra Varmint. This helped quite a bit with accuracy.

I did my own trigger job. It isn't easy to knock the action pins out, so I won't recommend this to the forum. But the triggers can be made to work better.

If your trigger has some creep to it, you might simply use an old trick that .45 auto afficianados (there is only one .45 auto, by the way <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) use. Take a popsicle stick or something such and with the chamber empty (natch) apply a bit of upward leverage on the hammer as you pull the trigger. This will help burnish the sear engagement some, and improve the pull to some degree. Do this several times to get a good "wear in."

Also check the forearm fit. If it doesn't drop into place without forcing it around the forearm screw post, you've got tension there which will negatively affect accuracy. Drill out the forearm hole to be *just* large enough that the forearm doesn't bind when you install it.

The Weaver rail screws should be removed, degreased, and thread locked. These tend to back out.

Make sure the front screw in that Weaver rail isn't too tight. It's just supposed to touch the barrel enough to provide a resting point, so don't have it too tight...

Make sure that the action locks true. If there is any "wiggle" to the locked action, the rifle needs to go back to H&R to be tightened up. If you want, you can peen the barrel's locking lug in the correct place to tighten it up. You're on your own if you try that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

My .223 Ultra Varmint is a sub MOA shooter. I've shot several 3/8" groups at 100 yards with it. A bud once bet me I couldn't knock a blackbird off his perch in a tree top at 205 yards. He lost the bet. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

These little rifles have something of a "cult following," and you either love 'em or hate 'em--as can be surmised from a quick reading of this thread.

Dan

Sometimes I think that I am an early Alzheimers candidate. I forgot that I also owned for a very brief time a .204 Ruger heavy-barreled NEF with a laminate stock. It was very accurate and recoil was virtually unoticeable do to the heavy barrel. I did not experience any mechanical "issues" either, other than the trigger not being to my liking. My Dad also had an older .243 NEF with a heavy barrel. He killed quite a few deer and a couple of pigs with it. It never had extraction problems.
[bleep]

Don't know if anybody else caught it or not but take a CLOSE look at that "NEF Handi-Rifle" in the pic. It's not even a NEF, it's a Rossi.
I've always been too much of a self admitted gun snob to own a Handi-Rifle but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get one of the new ones in .500 S&W. I'd much rather have something a little classier but it doesn't look like any other company is going to do a production rifle in .500 and I sure as hell can't afford one of the custom jobs. If I do get one I'll see if I can buy a set of laminated stocks from NEF to dress it up a little bit. The plain hardwood stocks are about as appealing to the eye as a telephone pole