Got me a handi!

K

kawasakifreak77

New member
Walked into my lgs today & they had a used 30-30 handi rifle sitting in the rack. I've been curious about these for awhile but all the new ones have god aweful plastic stocks & no irons. Doesn't seem fit on a single shot.

I talked them into selling it for $200 out the door & since it's about new condition, I think I did okay.

It reminds me of my first break action 20ga I had as a boy that I learned to hunt with. I've already got dies, brass & a shelf full of various 308 bullets so ammo is already provided once I make it. I took it home for a detail cleaning & noticed a few things:

The action locks up like a stinkin' bank vault & the trigger is surprisingly nice. Bit heavy but crisp as all get out. Very happy there.

It's got micro groove rifling. Not much experience with this, but had a wally world 22mag once with it & that little sob was one surprizingly accurate rifle!

So I read that the micro groove barrels are 1-10 twist instead of 1-12... Got me thinking how heavy of a bullet this might stabilize. I might try to load me up some 220 SMKs over a light charge of unique & see if they hit the target straight at say, 50 meters.

Might sound crazy, but I'm thinking poor man's blackout here. Enough stability to make it through a can & down range accurate enough yet yaw when it strikes something. Which seems to be the blackout's weakness is it just bores straight through whatever it hits.

Just thinking out loud. Any body tried something similar?

If it don't work I've got a proven load with the discontinued speer hollow point 30 carbine bullet that pretty much explodes anything I've shot with it. Fun stuff.

Anyways. It needs a rear peep something fierce! The front sight ain't shabby though. Nice black square post that should be good for target work depending on how much real estate it covers down range.

I'm already thinking about having it fitted with a 35 Remington & 20ga barrel. Figure there's not much around the plains I can't put in the freezer with that combo.

Regardless, I already like the simplicity & having to make that one shot count. I can break it down super easy & chuck in in the back of the plane for when I go out camping & I've read they're great for 'tinkerers'. If there's one thing I like to do, it's tinker with stuff!
 
A good friend of mine gave me one of them in 45/70. I didn't have high hopes for it shooting good, but it's a great shooter. Nice sights, crisp trigger and a compact little package to haul around.
 
My Handi is a .223 with the black plastic stock and clean (no sites) barrel, but that is how I wanted it. Mounted a cheap simmons scope on it, sighted it in and threw it into the back seat of the pick-up where is still is. Shoots great, and locks up tight, and yeah the trigger is pretty good (better than my AR), light, compact, accurate, seems it is with me an awful lot when something needs shot, like a bright white rock in my pasture, or a hedge apple, or well you just never know.

I would be interesting to see what a heavy MK bullet would do out of you .30-30 version.?
 
Seems people either love or hate these guns.

Might sound crazy, but I'm thinking poor man's blackout here.

I suspect the thing which has stopped a lot of people playing extensively with the .30-30 is the fact that it's almost entirely been a lever-action cartridge, which means no Spitzers (yeah, yeah, I know, Hornady FTX), no high-pressure loads, and very OAL-sensitive. But it's got that flipping huge long neck to play with, which from everything I've read should make it a tinkering handloader's dream. That being said, I've heard the other thing which keeps the .30-30 from really soaring is the actual brass, and that Thompson-Center .30-30 barrel owners are advised to keep their loads down too.

I'm very tempted by Handis myself, but I already have one break-action rifle and I would prefer that the next thing I bought was a bolt gun.
 
It's got micro groove rifling. Not much experience with this, but had a wally world 22mag once with it & that little sob was one surprizingly accurate rifle!

So I read that the micro groove barrels are 1-10 twist instead of 1-12... Got me thinking how heavy of a bullet this might stabilize. I might try to load me up some 220 SMKs over a light charge of unique & see if they hit the target straight at say, 50 meters.
Click to expand...
Be careful and methodical with those 220 gr experiments. I tried something similar with Hornady 220 gr RNs that I had left over after selling my Krag, and I only managed to get 2 of the bullets to exit the barrel (Marlin 336 in .30-30). ...lots of time with a piece of .302" O-1 drill rod, knocking out the bullets. :(
The only reason it didn't get ugly, was that I was very careful, methodical, and observant with those loads.

One of these days, I'll revisit the idea. (The load, in theory, is a perfect ballistic clone of my 437 gr .444 Marlin loads, and good for cheaper practice in a rifle that's nearly a 'clone' as well). ....but I haven't hit paydirt, yet.

In that particular rifle, I was losing gas pressure after the bullets went past a tight spot under the front sight. I didn't want to push them much harder, but the lighter loads couldn't overcome the friction of that large bearing surface after the gas seal was compromised.
One of these days....



Seems people either love or hate these guns.
Click to expand...
I love and hate mine.
My only Handi is a .444 Marlin. I love it for its simplicity, light weight, 'short' overall length for a 22" barreled rifle, and low cost. But, I hate it for the poor fit and finish (it's a Remlin), the cheap plastic parts, the lack of iron sights, and the insanely cheap "pallet wood" stocks.

Plus... I bought it to serve as the platform for 3-5 extra 'accessory barrels'. But, Remington has been jacking up the cost of labor, and charging for every part and screw involved in the barrel fitting process (those costs used to be included). So, where adding say a .35 Whelen barrel used to cost about $130, you're now looking at $200-220. For that, you can buy another rifle - especially right now, with several gun shops clearing out discontinued 2013 models in .444 Marlin, .35 Whelen, and a couple limited runs with two barrels, for less than $200.
 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone.

Out of curiousity I was looking around for extra barrels & came across some on ebay... Most the barrels are getting bidded up higher than I paid for the whole stinkin gun!

& this barrel has like NO throat. I had to seat over .800" of a 220 smk in the case to just be off the lands. The boat tail is well inside the body of the case.

Will be taking it out later on to see if this works or not.
 
the lack of iron sights

I have their latest catalogue, and this in most cases is what constitutes the deal-breaker for me. If you're going to send a budget knockaround "survival" type rifle out the door, IMO you have to put some sort of irons on it, front and rear. HAVE to.

The more reading I did on these guns, the more I realised that swapping out barrels wasn't the easy modular thing it would appear to be, and I shied well away from that POV.
 
I've got four of the darned things, they're addictive. Mine are in .223, ..308, .30-30, and .45-70. Very good shooters, if you can get past the cheap stocks. H&R 1871 made some nice ones with laminate stocks back before they were slurped up by Remington, and those are very nice shooters indeed.

That long necd on the .30-30 is a cast-bullet loaders dream, and cast bullets can be shot very accurately in them. However, that 1:10 twist becomes problematic at cast bullet velocities. I've actually had bullets come apart on the way to the target from being over-rotated.

Still, the Handi is a nice little rifle, and just about perfect for the piney-thickets we have hereabouts.
 
:D :D :D I have fired a lot of weapons in my time. The most accurate weapon I ever had the pleasure of shooting was a H&R 25-06. I believe it was an "Ultra" model. I really didn't like having to turn it back in. H&Rs are very under rated! Just my 2 cents worth...:)
 
My older ejector model 30-30 Handi has a very short throat as well, but that works well for me and my lead hand loads. I keep the bullets just short of the lands.
 
I bought one in 500 S&W a while back. I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to working out an accuracy problem I'm having with It. Don't know if It is the rifle, me, or my scope set up. But I am determined to give It every chance to prove it's self before It becomes an object of violation of Rule #1. :D
 
I do have an older one and have been exposed mostly to older ones. No idea on the newer ones under new owners. The old ones were impressive for the price.

Cheap metal, cheap finish, cheap wood, cheap options... But they shoot straight.
 
I have 3 of them and they're all very good shooters. My favorite of the 3 is a .45-70 that I put a Williams peep sight on. I only shoot cast bullets out of it and I don't have any plans to change that. My first 5 shots out of it were a one inch off hand group at 50 yards with experimental Teflon patched ammo. If I measured center to center, the group would have been more like 3/4". Off rest it shoots cloverleafs at that range.

I also have a .25-06 and a custom .17 Hornet Handi rifles. Both are also way more accurate than the cost of the rifle would suggest.

Tony
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top