Possible good deal

[Kyle M.]

I got a call about 8:00 yesterday evening from the owner of my lgs telling me he has a rifle I might be interested in. He has an H&R Topper 158 in .22 Remington Jet with an old weaver 4x scope on it. He says it's in mint condition and appears to have been fired very little. It includes 100 pieces of prvi partizan brass new in the bag, a unopened box of 100 of hornadys .222 40gr. jet bullets, and a set of rcbs dies. He's asking for $175 otd, I figure for that price I can't go wrong. The best part is with remington and prvi making brass and hornady making bullets I won't have to spend $85-$100 a box on collectible ammo to shoot it. He's holding it for me now and I'm gonna go check it out, and most likely take it home with me after work.

 

[RPRNY]

Very cool cartridge and perfect for a Handi Rifle. That's a good deal on any Handi. I assume it's an SB2 receiver? The Jet is a little HOT (SAMI has Max pressure at 40,000 CUP, based on revolver specs) for the old ductile iron SB1 receivers but in an SB2 you can safely exceed that. In any event, it was an H&R factory offer so it will be safe at SAMI max in any event. That being said, you may find the throat a bit short...

Is is a carbine barrel? It would probably look great in a Classic Carbine stock if you can find one.

And one last thing. While the cartridge was designed with .222 bullets, you want to mic the bore before using those Hornady bullets. Knowing H&R, it's entirely possible that they used a .224 bore blank chambered to .22 Rem Jet. It was the old days, so maybe they did it right, but worth checking.

 

[Kyle M.]

Very cool cartridge and perfect for a Handi Rifle. That's a good deal on any Handi. I assume it's an SB2 receiver? The Jet is a little HOT (SAMI has Max pressure at 40,000 CUP, based on revolver specs) for the old ductile iron SB1 receivers but in an SB2 you can safely exceed that. In any event, it was an H&R factory offer so it will be safe at SAMI max in any event. That being said, you may find the throat a bit short...

Is is a carbine barrel? It would probably look great in a Classic Carbine stock if you can find one.

And one last thing. While the cartridge was designed with .222 bullets, you want to mic the bore before using those Hornady bullets. Knowing H&R, it's entirely possible that they used a .224 bore blank chambered to .22 Rem Jet. It was the old days, so maybe they did it right, but worth checking.

I've read elsewhere that H&R did in fact make the bores for .222 bullets, but I've also read of guys getting the best accuracy with .224 bullets. I don't know what receiver it's built on but the blue book shows the topper 158 in the non combo version as having been chambered in .22 jet only for 1963. They made it in .22 jet in I believe a 2,3, and 4 barrel combo for longer but with one barrel it was '63 only. Oh yeah it's a 22" barrel not sure what constitutes as a carbine barrel by H&R's definition, but I would guess 20" or less. I'd prefer to slug the bore but I'm not sure I can find anything lead that small, I'll have to go look and see if I can find a fishing sinker that small.

 

[LuvMyGuns]

If you can get a gun, scope, brass, bullets, dies for $175 I cant see you going wrong