Major Larry
I dont do much gunsmithing and will be the first to admit that I may not fully understand all there is to know about firearms.
That makes two of us my engineering back ground has nothing to do with guns either. But I been interested in guns all my life and learned to work on them.
The Handi has been my perfect tinker toy of late. You can actually loose sleep trying to figure out some problems on these wee guns. They do get under your skin.
Yesterday I toke out my Ruger#1 in 25-06 for the last day of deer hunting,
after using my 257 Handy all fall I found the Ruger very awkward and heavy and slow at 9 lbs. So today I have been crunching numbers to see how I can streamline the Ruger #1 and loose a pound and a halve.
Set the barrel back 3/4" and shorten to 23" and rechamber to 257 Roberts RCBS Imp or the 257DGR. Reduce the the barrel weight with an octagon profile, Hollow out the butt and shorten the forearm.
Except for reblueing the barrel I can do all the metal work in my friends machine shop. The wood work is easy enough.