Handi rifle newb

[ssn585]

My story in a nutshell: I have been an "accumulator" of firearms for 35 years, starting in my mid-teens, and over the past year had a hankering for a small, lightweight single shot rifle. The goal was to make something of a simple Rook Rifle in a modern caliber that could be handloaded to a soft-shooting, relatively quiet round. At the same time, a carbine in a more "sturdy" caliber also seemed attractive.

After mudlding around with some ideas based on a T/C Contender, I got a chance to shoot a Buffalo Classic at a public range. Now, a 32" barreled 45/70 didn't EXACTLY fit the bill, but I could envision that the clean lines of the Handi Rilfe in a short-barrelled .32-to-.35 dia would be just the ticket, especially with a straight-gripped stock and one of those cute little schnabel forends. Then I found this site: wow! What a resource!

Because the opportunity for the bigger bore piece came first, I am about to become a proud owner of a .45 Colt Buffalo Classic later this week. It will get fitted as soon as possible with a .357 barrel from the factory, but I have a few questions.

(1) I love the straight grip factory stock profile, but am fond of a "fancier" wood, especially a fiddleback or curly maple. Does anyone here have experience with the Gunstock Inc. replacements? If they are not a good choice, are there any you would recommend?

(2) It looks to me as though the correct approach is to have a separate forend fitted for each barrel, which is my current plan. True?

(3) As most of my home-made "customizing" has been with ARs and AKs, for which there is a large cottage industry of everything from match triggers to handguards to sights to... whatever. Even though I have built 2 safe and functional AKs from parts kits, I am not very adept with home gunsmithing. In the best interests of my little H&Rs, I am happy to have a competent and reliable gunsmith do the work. Who would you recommend for
-- cutting and crowning
-- sight mounting (especially fitting a new front sight on a shorter barrel)
-- trigger work

(4) trigger over-travel stops: this is something I could do on my own, but do they make sense (looks like it might interfere with the transfer bar function)?

Many thanks. I have reviewed the FAQs, but may have missed some or all of the answers to these questions, so apologies in advance for missing something that is probably already posted. I'd be grateful for links if that's the easist way to answer.

[Ed for spelling -- still probably missed some]

[gendoc]

tha MAN.. should be along real soon....

[quickdtoo]

Welcome! 

If ya like working with wood, the GSI stocks are great, they come "full figured" and take a bit of work to slim down, the forend is unfinished as well and must be fitted to the rifle, there are quite a few pics of them in the "let's see some Handi" link in the FAQs.

A fitted forend for each barrel is the next best thing to having complete rifles which many choose to do, myself included.

Site sponsor Oregunsmithing is one of our favorites, Wayne does rechambers, rebores and stubs(FAQs) as well as normal GS services, but there are methods for the home GS in the FAQs for trigger work as well as cutting and crown work. Trigger overtravel doesn't work well, it's been attempted with limited success, the t-bar won't work if the trigger isn't held all the way back, of course you can eliminate the t-bar with an old style hammer which is also covered in the FAQs in low profile hammer mods 2.

Tim

[ssn585]

Thank you, sir!