H&r

[Mike in tx]

I know that there are folks out here that do not like the H&R Handi's. My experience has been pleasantly surprising and perhaps this is not normal. I have 2 SB2's. The 45-70 is of 2002 manufacture. It has a bull barrel and I shoot Hornady's Lever ammo. It is a true 1 MOA. I have place a butt stock with a high comb to place my eye in line with the scope; way to high for the open sights that are still on it. It is a wood stock that I finished off myself to work for me. The second is the 270 that has been discussed this past week. It is a true MOA rifle. It has its problems but I believe that they have been worked outed thanks to V.

An friend of mine has a #1 in, IIRC, 22-250. He has had nothing but problems with it's safety and it shoots groups like a shotgun. He put it in his safe 3 years ago and has not shot it since. Another fellow has a CVA Elite Stalker, a rifle with a poor reputation but it is what he can afford. It is in 270, has taken many hogs and keeps on going. When asked what light he had on it he said no brand and that it wears a cheap scope. My neighbor has seen the targets that this fellow has shot and told me that it was hole in hole at 100. As stated this is what B could afford and the only rifle that he has that I know of. Just goes to show you that it is not the brand but the particular rifle and shooting, shooting, shooting it.

I am becoming a snob and plan on hunting with a single shot. Love mine.

[versifier]

My antipathy towards Handi's has never had anything to do with their accuracy. It has been inconsistent QC with the heat treating of their bearing surfaces, causing way too many of them to loosen up prematurely. (The Rossi takeoffs are much worse, though, I have seen them become unshootable after twenty rounds.) For some unknown reason, the 20 & 12ga shotguns built on the same rear end stand up much better over time - they do loosen up, but not like the rifles. But some of those rifles stay tight for thousands of rounds and never give their owners a bit of trouble, it has always seemed to me like it's a roll of the dice what you're going to get. Maybe that has improved, but as they run a minimum wage labor force I have my doubts. I don't trust any firearm made in Massachusetts in recent decades anyway for personal, moral, and political reasons. I have put more than one former Handi barrel onto a Mauser action resulting in some impressively accurate hunting rifles.

Ruger rifles, the older ones especially, have never been known for their accuracy, though you do occasionally find one that's an absolute tack driver. That I believe is because their own barrels were poorly made - when they used outsourced barrels (GM used to make runs for them when I worked there when demand exceeded their barrel production capacity) there was a notable improvement in their accuracy. Deep hole drilling and the reaming, sizing and rifling of barrels is a highly specialized art and you need real machinists involved, not button pusher machine operators. They don't come cheap.

T/C's Contender and Encore barrels have also had intermittent accuracy issues for the same reason - we made a lot of barrels for them, too. Many of their in-house barrels usually had a lefthand twist, GM's had a righthand, so if you knew what to look for it was easy to improve your odds of getting an accurate one. S&W dumped their whole crew in the buyout and now puts their own consistently piss poor 5groove barrels on everything and I won't own one.

I like single shots, too, frontstuffers and breechloaders. Since there are no damned deer around here anyway I'm happier carrying a lighter rifle. If there is no first shot, a quick second or third makes no difference. ;) But after more than 35years of shooting Contenders and well over a hundred thousand rounds in various chamberings, by now I've had enough practice that I can reload them pretty quick unless my hands get too cold.

[Clayt]

I can't knock the Handi-rifles at all. They cost what they should too.
I would offer that guy with the problem 22-250 a $100.

I think TC's are over priced and overrated!

[Mike in tx]

Bring the $100 next year and I will watch Pat laugh his butt off.