Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Handi 30-30

I was happy to recently find a NEF Handi rifle 30-30 in like new condition. Put a Nikon 2-7 scope on it and a green laminate stock set I had put back.

I've shot it with handloaded 150gr. Speer FN. They would be fine and I've got a lot of them. Still, I'm thinking it might be time to put some Sierra 125gr PH or Nosler BT to work.

Either way, it'll get time in the Mississippi woods this season.

i don't think that the gods want me to have a handi rifle . i had to sell one in a divorce (45-70 wood stock). i gave one away to my friend's son (45-70 black plastic stock) and my oldest son took my 45-70 (black plastic stock) out of state.

i had a 30-30 Win m94 (now it's a 35/30-30) and i reloaded 150 and 170gr Speer and Hornady RN and 125gr Seirra FNHP and i killed alot deer.

i have a TC Contender in 30 Herrett (10" barrel) that uses 130gr Speer HP and Reloder 7. i just got it, so no deer....yet!!! i think 125-150gr Nosler BT and 150gr Hornady SST are good for a single shot like yours. i've heard that premium bullets, like the Barnes Tipped TSX, are good, but you have spend money to use them. something i won't do, i'm a cheap bustard!!!

or, you can go like i did, a 165gr Ranch Dog. i use it in my 30-40 Krag and it kills deer like right now!!! i've used it at 1925fps (H4198) and it just knocks the poop out of them.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/4pV0D7p.jpg?1[/img]

Congratulations on the snag. They are a functional rifle what just work.

I know the Handis are cheap guns, I have a friend who calls them tomato stakes, but I like them for just being a simple gun. I would just as soon hunt with one of them as I had an Encore. I've been casually looking for the right one in 30-30 for years.

I just bought several hundred Speer 130gr. Varmint HP bullets. Who knows, they might make a good deer bullet at 30-30 velocities.

I found myself and several family members 45-70 Handis when Mississippi starting allowing them for primitive season about 20 years ago. Killed a bunch of deer with them.

I ran across a H&R in 44mag, had a wood ram rod like a muzzleliader under the barrel, looked factory. In very nice shape asking 400 for it. I pondered it but they have a left hand rem 700 in 308, I'm thinking on putting in LayAway.

Nice find. One caliber I've never owned in a handy rifle

I shot my first deer with one of those 30-30s in 1983.

saddlering,

The .44 mag. didn't come with a ramrod/forend. The rifle could have come as a muzzleloader and someone fit a .44 mag barrel to it.

The best way to check if the barrel was factory fitted is to take off the forend and remove the barrel. The factory engraved the last three numbers of the frame's serial number on the left side of the barrel lug.

Troutnut,

I've had a lot of Handis and multiple factory fitted barrels. I paired down the inventory quite a bit, but still have seven of them, two with multiple barrels. The 30-30 or the .357 mag. are the only ones that I would look to buy at this point.

Congratulations on the find. That particular rifle/cartridge combo seems very useful. As a woods hunter myself, I really wouldn’t be giving up anything to carry one. Effective, but unpretentious. It is just what it is, and that’s enough.

NEF made a run of 35 REM single shots a few years ago, but they are very hard to find

Nice!

Try some Barnes 130gr TTSX over CFE223.

Ed

The older Shikari model was made in 44 Magnum with a ramrod for looks.


It's been quite a few years ago. H&R stopped making rifles in 2015.



My son shot his first doe, buck, and black bear with a H&R chambered in 357 Maximum. I have 6-8 Handi rifles. We like them!

I agree 100% with trying a 130gr bullet and CFE223 powder. I shot one of my tightest groups with that combo.

Man pics are hard to post here. Here's my Frankenstein H&R 30/30. The SB2 frame was from a new 280 Remington. The barrel is the 2nd gen type 30/30 barrel (medium profile, ejector). Mounted it all up in a cinnamon laminate stock set. The scope is a gloss Leupold Vari-Xii 3-9x40.

Dinny,

Do you know what you got for velocity with that load? The 130gr. Speer bullets arrived today. Look forward to trying them along with the 125gr. Sierra and Noslers.

Have a .30-30/20 gauge combo on an SB1.

The .30-30 is pretty darned accurate at 50 yards with a 3 MOA Burris dot sight. I've wondered about going AI with it. But I'm not certain the SB1 would be safe above the 42000 psi threshold of the standard .30-30 Win.

I'm not sure what typical pressures run on the .30-30 AI

pressure stays the same, even if it supposed to be 100 - 150fps faster. i used a 22-250AI and it was about 40 - 60fps faster. the only good thing of making the rifle AI is brass. you don't need to trim it much.

I'm away from home and my chrono data, but I believe I was between 2500 and 2600fps.


https://www.speer.com/reloading/rifle-data.html

https://reloadingdata.speer.com/downloads/speer/reloading-pdfs/rifle/30-30_Winchester_130.pdf

I bought Nosler 150 grain Ballistic Tip ‘seconds’ for my 30/30 Handi Rifle. No problem putting venison in the cooler. In its factory standard chamber it would touch the first 3 shots then spread #4 and #5 shots about that many inches from the first three shot group. Did exact same pattern as a 30/30 Ackley Improved. It’s just a trait of a tight barrel fit in the action. As the chamber area of the barrel heats up, it expands and becomes trapped between the breech face and pivot bar. I’m sorry I sold that neat little rifle.

I live my 30-30 Contender but would be just as content with that Handi once the barrel was threaded

😁