godale
Member
weird my handi was made in 1996, even though it is a great shooter about 45 rounds into it i have ejection troubles. however for the rifle and the scope on it i paid 200.00. so for the price it has been very serviceable
H&R Handi Rifle: Should I get one?
- Thread starter Mauser lover
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Armored farmer
Member
If you plan on shooting paper in competition, better hold out for a better gun. IF you plan on strapping it into a shooting rest, the break-action doesn't work too well for this. If you want to shoot sub MOA, you better get more gun.
If you are like me, want to hunt in the mud, rain, and snow, not worry about strapping your rifle to an atv, or putting it in the bottom of a conoe, then it may be for you.
I have 'em in .30-06, .204, and three 12ga slug guns. BTW my .30-06 will spit empty shells over my shoulder.
If you are like me, want to hunt in the mud, rain, and snow, not worry about strapping your rifle to an atv, or putting it in the bottom of a conoe, then it may be for you.
I have 'em in .30-06, .204, and three 12ga slug guns. BTW my .30-06 will spit empty shells over my shoulder.
doubleh
Member
I bought one in .223 several years ago. All I can say is if the handi-rifle was the only rifle I could own I would just give up shooting.
trapper500
member
Handi Rifle
I have has several of the Hansi Rifles & not had any trouble with them shooting good just my wife's 243 opened up & my gun Dr. fixed that & its not ever done it again & she has put many rounds through it over the years as for my 500 S&W Magnum Handi Rifle i am gonna have the trigger worked & do some other things to it & it will be a monster Black Bear & Whitetail rifle at the range of shots here in the mountians of Va
I have has several of the Hansi Rifles & not had any trouble with them shooting good just my wife's 243 opened up & my gun Dr. fixed that & its not ever done it again & she has put many rounds through it over the years as for my 500 S&W Magnum Handi Rifle i am gonna have the trigger worked & do some other things to it & it will be a monster Black Bear & Whitetail rifle at the range of shots here in the mountians of Va
DUNEZRUNNER
Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2009
- Messages
- 37
I have a 20 ga and a 17 hmr Handi. Both seem to be good guns, especially for the money. I hate the 20 ga though, I have had it since I was 10 and it kicks like a mule for some reason. But my son likes it so I let him shoot it. The 17 hmr is more accurate than I am. It shot a dime size group at 100 yds the first outing and does it with boring ease everytime.
http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php
This is the Handi Rifle mecca. Anything you ever wanted to know or do to a Handi is in here.
http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php
This is the Handi Rifle mecca. Anything you ever wanted to know or do to a Handi is in here.
SniperJon
Member
I have the survivor version in .223 and .308 as well as a 12 gauge. The .308 (20" heavy barrel) and 12 gauge (18.5" barell) will almost knock you off your feet if you're not careful. Not the most accurate rifle but simple to use, clean and shoot. I like the survivor because I can fill the buttstocks with ammo (29 rounds in the .308!) and a lot more in the .223. Tried steel case ammo once and after a lot of work to get the empty out of the chamber, I learned my lesson.
Giterboosted
Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2010
- Messages
- 578
I'm very happy with my .45-70 I purchased new bout Half a year ago
Mauser lover
Member
AARGH!!! I had a really long post, and when I went to post it, a screen popped up that said that I needed to log in, so I lost my page or two post....
Anyway, an abbreviated post follows.
Trapper500, I already had your thread on my bookmark bar, and I am waiting eagerly for your video of you shooting your .500...
nashlaw, thanks for that book title, I will be looking for it. Can you give me any hints how to accurize the rifle? Or do I have to read the book?
Pretty much everyone else that has chimed in on this thread, Thanks for giving me your comments, and I am sorry that I lost the rest of my post, the part that was addressed to most of you......That was stupid of me not to save it before I tried to post it; it has happened to me before....
Anyway, an abbreviated post follows.
Trapper500, I already had your thread on my bookmark bar, and I am waiting eagerly for your video of you shooting your .500...
nashlaw, thanks for that book title, I will be looking for it. Can you give me any hints how to accurize the rifle? Or do I have to read the book?
Pretty much everyone else that has chimed in on this thread, Thanks for giving me your comments, and I am sorry that I lost the rest of my post, the part that was addressed to most of you......That was stupid of me not to save it before I tried to post it; it has happened to me before....
fallout mike
Member
I bought my first one today. Its a 17 hmr with a leupold vx-1. I paid $132 for it. Won't get to try it, out till this weekend though.
fallout mike
Member
Smokey, that's the only reason I bought it. Although my dad hunts with a 45-70 handi and loves it. He's never had any issues. In mississippi he is able to use it during primitive weapon season.
Mauser lover
Member
For everybody that said to get a better gun, I already have a better gun, but a bolt action .30-06 is not exactly a lightweight close range squirrel gun. I don't plan on competing with it, and I don't plan on babying it. I plan on pretty much abusing it, and shooting it close range, which is why I want a cheap gun.
Fallout mike, That seems to be a pretty good buy, by prices that I have found on the internet. Good score with the scope too.
Fallout mike, That seems to be a pretty good buy, by prices that I have found on the internet. Good score with the scope too.
godale
Member
if you look at grey beard outdoors the handi has a huge following, almost as big as the 70 or 700. i think you should check it out
trapper500
member
Handi Rifle
My Handi Rifle doesn't eject the cases it raises them up so i can get them out with no problems
My Handi Rifle doesn't eject the cases it raises them up so i can get them out with no problems
Armored farmer
Member
......just a thought.......
None of my Handi-rifles are lightweight fwiw
fallout mike
Member
Trapper, the older ones ejected the casings. They don't make them like that anymore.
My dad's is the standard barrel profile, which is still rather thick, and no it isn't light.
Knockdownpower
Member
They are handy, mine is in .45-70 govt. Don't shoot it much, but I'm very happy with it.
Let me start off by saving I don't, and wouldn't own one of these, but I do have quite a bit of experience shooting one. I couldn't recommend one of these to anyone, especially not for the price.
A good friend got one for his daughter in .243. He traded a $600 Ruger Lever Action .44 Mag to it, not knowing what either were worth, so that just added insult to injury. His daughter is left handed, and he wanted a single shot, that she could easily shoot. Turns out she hates it and would have rather had the Ruger, or a right handed bolt action. Regardless he went to sight it in for her, and noticed that when shooting it, after each shot the action would pop open and it would shoot the shell out right by your head. This is dangerous, as the shell can hit you in the face very easily. He asked me to look online about it since he doesn't have a computer. When I did, I found this is a very common issue, and the only known solution is to keep the breech face absolutely clean, and absolutely dry with no oil on it. Other than that, just pray it doesn't happen again and hurt you. They cleaned it, and got any oil out of it and so far it seems to be staying locked together, but I don't think any of us really trust it, and this is a big reason why his daughter doesn't want it.
The next issue it had was every couple of shots, the fired casing would stick in the chamber. Once again I got online and found out this was also a very common issue for several of the calibers, and that a fix really wasn't known. Some had polished the chamber themselves, some had sent it back to H&R/NEF, and others had taken it to a gunsmith, and each of them still had the same problem when the gun returned. He decided to take his to a gunsmith and see what was going on. The smith measured the chamber and said that it wasn't cut deep enough, and was out of spec. He recut the chamber to proper spec and sent it back. When it came back, it functions a lot better, but still has the same issue way too often. Instead of doing it every 3-4 shots now, it does it once every 20 shots or so, or that's how it was when we shot it last, but it's still way to often in my opinion. From what I've read online the factory's solution for the new ones is cut a notch in the barrel so that when it does stick you can pry the cartridge out with a knife or screwdriver. Are you joking? That's their fix? That also seems to be what people recommend on the older ones as it seems the sticking is inevitable. The other thing I've read of people doing is when hunting with these carrying a cleaning rod with them so that when it does stick they can knock the empty casing out. To me this is ridiculous for a $300 gun. If it was $50 new, I could put up with this, but for $300, seriously?
Those problems aside, the fit and finish of the gun isn't very good either, and the trigger is horrible. However, I've read online that some come with decent triggers while others don't. So this seems to be luck of the draw.
Then onto the accuracy issue. They got lucky and this one is reasonably accurate, but it's still nothing to write home about, and from what I've seen online it's probably one of the more accurate ones. I've seen tons of reports of 4-6" groups. When they first sighted this one in, they shot it at 30 yards, and were impressed by the accuracy. He told everyone how it shot one hole groups, and while it wasn't quite that it wasn't far from it. He just neglected to mention this was at 30 yards. Once we moved out to 100 yards, it opened up to 2" groups. We couldn't get much better than that with factory ammo, and it seemed to hover between 1.5"-2" groups at 100 yards. We did try some of my handloads and got slightly under 1.5" groups with it. These same handloads shoot .5" groups in my Savage at 100 yards. I don't think any of us can complain about these groups after seeing what some other ones shot, but at it's not great.
The same friend has another one in 45/70 for his son. This one doesn't seem to have the shell sticking issue, but it's accuracy is horrible. They tried to scope it, and never could get it sighted in as it just shot all over the place and nothing that even resembled a group. He took the scope off to use on another gun, and it just sits in the gun cabinet with no scope, and never being used. The scope works perfectly on the other gun he put it on, so it's not the scope.
IMO, there just really is nothing about this gun that is good. The reliability is horrible, the trigger is lousy, the fit and finish is lousy, and the accuracy is so-so at best if you get a good one, and lousy if not. I keep hearing fans of them talk about how cheap they are and that for the price you can deal with some issues, but they really aren't that cheap compared to many better guns in that price range. If they were a $50 gun I could see putting up with these issues, but they sell for right around $300 as a package deal here.
For $300 you can get a Stevens 200 that is 10x the gun, that doesn't have any of these common reliability issues and is quite a bit more accurate. Not to mention it's a bolt action not a single shot.
For an extra $100 you can get a Savage Model 10/110 at Walmart with the accu trigger as a package. Then you get a gun that will shoot well under 1" groups in almost all cases, and I've seen many shoot under .5" groups with handloads, you get a trigger that's 100x better, and you get a much better quality gun. Plus you get customer service that's 10x better if you ever do need to use it.
As for the Handi Rifle being lighter, they aren't. So if you really want a lightweight rifle, that's not something that this rifle is good at either.
There just are so many other great options in the same price range, that I don't understand why anyone would want one of these pieces of junk. If you do buy one, expect reliability issues, accuracy issues, and when all is said and done you still have a single shot with these issues that cost you just as much as something better.
A good friend got one for his daughter in .243. He traded a $600 Ruger Lever Action .44 Mag to it, not knowing what either were worth, so that just added insult to injury. His daughter is left handed, and he wanted a single shot, that she could easily shoot. Turns out she hates it and would have rather had the Ruger, or a right handed bolt action. Regardless he went to sight it in for her, and noticed that when shooting it, after each shot the action would pop open and it would shoot the shell out right by your head. This is dangerous, as the shell can hit you in the face very easily. He asked me to look online about it since he doesn't have a computer. When I did, I found this is a very common issue, and the only known solution is to keep the breech face absolutely clean, and absolutely dry with no oil on it. Other than that, just pray it doesn't happen again and hurt you. They cleaned it, and got any oil out of it and so far it seems to be staying locked together, but I don't think any of us really trust it, and this is a big reason why his daughter doesn't want it.
The next issue it had was every couple of shots, the fired casing would stick in the chamber. Once again I got online and found out this was also a very common issue for several of the calibers, and that a fix really wasn't known. Some had polished the chamber themselves, some had sent it back to H&R/NEF, and others had taken it to a gunsmith, and each of them still had the same problem when the gun returned. He decided to take his to a gunsmith and see what was going on. The smith measured the chamber and said that it wasn't cut deep enough, and was out of spec. He recut the chamber to proper spec and sent it back. When it came back, it functions a lot better, but still has the same issue way too often. Instead of doing it every 3-4 shots now, it does it once every 20 shots or so, or that's how it was when we shot it last, but it's still way to often in my opinion. From what I've read online the factory's solution for the new ones is cut a notch in the barrel so that when it does stick you can pry the cartridge out with a knife or screwdriver. Are you joking? That's their fix? That also seems to be what people recommend on the older ones as it seems the sticking is inevitable. The other thing I've read of people doing is when hunting with these carrying a cleaning rod with them so that when it does stick they can knock the empty casing out. To me this is ridiculous for a $300 gun. If it was $50 new, I could put up with this, but for $300, seriously?
Those problems aside, the fit and finish of the gun isn't very good either, and the trigger is horrible. However, I've read online that some come with decent triggers while others don't. So this seems to be luck of the draw.
Then onto the accuracy issue. They got lucky and this one is reasonably accurate, but it's still nothing to write home about, and from what I've seen online it's probably one of the more accurate ones. I've seen tons of reports of 4-6" groups. When they first sighted this one in, they shot it at 30 yards, and were impressed by the accuracy. He told everyone how it shot one hole groups, and while it wasn't quite that it wasn't far from it. He just neglected to mention this was at 30 yards. Once we moved out to 100 yards, it opened up to 2" groups. We couldn't get much better than that with factory ammo, and it seemed to hover between 1.5"-2" groups at 100 yards. We did try some of my handloads and got slightly under 1.5" groups with it. These same handloads shoot .5" groups in my Savage at 100 yards. I don't think any of us can complain about these groups after seeing what some other ones shot, but at it's not great.
The same friend has another one in 45/70 for his son. This one doesn't seem to have the shell sticking issue, but it's accuracy is horrible. They tried to scope it, and never could get it sighted in as it just shot all over the place and nothing that even resembled a group. He took the scope off to use on another gun, and it just sits in the gun cabinet with no scope, and never being used. The scope works perfectly on the other gun he put it on, so it's not the scope.
IMO, there just really is nothing about this gun that is good. The reliability is horrible, the trigger is lousy, the fit and finish is lousy, and the accuracy is so-so at best if you get a good one, and lousy if not. I keep hearing fans of them talk about how cheap they are and that for the price you can deal with some issues, but they really aren't that cheap compared to many better guns in that price range. If they were a $50 gun I could see putting up with these issues, but they sell for right around $300 as a package deal here.
For $300 you can get a Stevens 200 that is 10x the gun, that doesn't have any of these common reliability issues and is quite a bit more accurate. Not to mention it's a bolt action not a single shot.
For an extra $100 you can get a Savage Model 10/110 at Walmart with the accu trigger as a package. Then you get a gun that will shoot well under 1" groups in almost all cases, and I've seen many shoot under .5" groups with handloads, you get a trigger that's 100x better, and you get a much better quality gun. Plus you get customer service that's 10x better if you ever do need to use it.
As for the Handi Rifle being lighter, they aren't. So if you really want a lightweight rifle, that's not something that this rifle is good at either.
There just are so many other great options in the same price range, that I don't understand why anyone would want one of these pieces of junk. If you do buy one, expect reliability issues, accuracy issues, and when all is said and done you still have a single shot with these issues that cost you just as much as something better.
fallout mike
Member
Wow, just imagine all the hunters that kill deer with these and never knew they were not accurate, unreliable, can't get hulls out, and have horrible triggers. And like you said, you don't even own one. Just imagine what else you would find bad with them if you actually owned one.
Kachok
Member
Even a cheap 2 moa gun with a crappy trigger can be used for hunting at close range, if you plan on shooting 200+yd I would save a few more bucks and get a Savage/Tikka/Venture/XS7 they are all pretty well established MOA guns on the cheap. I was thinking about a Handi rifle recently, but the range reports were very very mixed, some claimed MOA performance others claimed MOB (minute of barn) I have tons of experence with Savage/Tikka and they have all been shooters without exception, even the cheap package guns with the el-chepo scopes shot well.
I'm not saying you can't kill deer with them. I'm saying they are pieces of junk. I could make that sound nicer as to not to offend people that own them, and maybe I should have, but I didn't see a need to sugar coat it.
If you go online and do a Google search, and even read the forums of guys that like them, you will see these issues mentioned very very often, so it's not like I'm making them up. Heck, look at how many of the posters already in this thread have had these issues.
If I owned one, I may find more wrong with it, who knows. However, I've shot this one as well as his 45/70 enough that I know that I have absolutely zero desire to own one when I can get something much better for a similar price. Had I not had so much experience with theirs I may have bought one myself.
fallout mike
Member
They are very popular in mississippi bc you can use them during primitive weapon season. So, everybody that hunts here has at least one. Most of them love them and never have any issues. You keep referring to stories on the internet. You can do that with any name brand gun on the market.
Mauser lover
Member
slowr1der, For 100 bucks more I couldn't get any rifle at Wal Mart. The ones here don't sell any firearms. The closest thing to firearms that they sell is either a flare gun, or bb guns, and they sell the really bad bb guns at that.
If I want to do any long range shooting, I pull out the .30-06. Please remember that I want this gun to abuse and shoot at less than 150 yds, and probably never more than 100.
Also remember that I am hoping to get a Handi in about the lowest pressure chambering that you can get the centerfire version in.
So, it is an extractor now; not an ejector?
If I want to do any long range shooting, I pull out the .30-06. Please remember that I want this gun to abuse and shoot at less than 150 yds, and probably never more than 100.
Also remember that I am hoping to get a Handi in about the lowest pressure chambering that you can get the centerfire version in.
So, it is an extractor now; not an ejector?
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