New handi, questions and comments

[cpj]

Hey yall, I ordered a 223 survivor last Sunday night from wally world and it arrived yesterday.Wont get to shoot it till Monday when my dad and I are planning on going shooting with every gun that we own. We havent done that in awhile, I cant wait! Anyway, here are my first impressions of the new gun, followed by some questions.

1. Fit and finish is alot better than I expected. The only thing I had seen of a nef up close was my Pardner 12, and inside the action was pretty rough. The handi on the other hand was nice and smooth.The trigger was not bad either for a 200$ gun. I was  suprised actually.

2.The receiver had a nice black matte finish to it.

3. The barrel bluing job was ok, wasnt a polished as say a T/C, but will suit my needs just fine. I love a nice bluing job, but I also hate getting scratches on said bluing jobs. SIDE NOTE: The finish on the contenders and encores that I have seen lately, are NOT what they used to be 12-15 years ago.  


4. The survivior is not a "pretty" weapon.

5. The stock fits me real well, I like the pistol grip.That being said, the comb is way to low IMHO, for a scoped gun. No worries, I work with leather and will raise the comb with a leather pad one of these days.

6.The gun  lock that was sent with the handi was tough enough to withstand a bullet from any caliber that NEF offers.  Not some cheezy cable. Mine wont ever be used, I have my guns locked up in a cabinet anyway. But it was a nice touch for someone without a locking cabinet.

7.The "sling" that came with it well...... Again, I am into leather working and will soon fix that.

8. Why doesnt NEF update their web site to reflect all of the calibers that they offer? I was suprised at the number of calibers that they offer when I saw them in the catalog that came with the gun. WOW! ( maybe I am just missing them?)

9. Just for grins (and no I wont shoot them this way!) again just for grins, I tried swapping barrels between the handi and the pardner scatter gun. Results: 223 barrrel would fit and lock(dont know how well) on the shotgun frame. The shotgun barrel would not fit on the handi frame. Like I said, just for grins.

10 Finally,  this is a direct quote from my wife when I showed her my new gun: " Whats so special about this gun?  You already have a black gun." :-D  ( she was reffering to my remmy 870) She wasnt being hateful, she just didnt understand.

Sorry for the long post! But Im not done yet. Now for some questions
questons.

1. The O ring trick. Can I assume that it needs to be just big enough to fit around the barrel lug?

2. I know it depends on the temperture outside, but how many shots do you guys shoot before letting the barrel cool down? It will be a balmy 33 degrees on Monday, if that helps.

3.How often or after how many shots do you clean your barrel?( after the polishing is done) Or do you just wait till you get home?

4. I have DSL, but I have trouble loading the graybeard site quickly. Is it slow,or is it just me? I couldnt even get on it late last night.
 

Anyway, I have 80 rounds of white box ammo and 30 or so rounds of home brew stuff to shoot. Ill  let yall know how it does.

[Mac11700]

Congrats on the new rifle

You'll have a-lot of fun with it..

I suggest you look thru all the FAQ's and stickys on top of this forum...it will give you most of your answers your needing.

As with any new gun..shooting till the barrel gets extreamly hot isn't the greatest thing for them..and the breaking in process can be speeded up somewhat by polishing the bore with JB paste or Flitz..this can save a-lot of ammo instead of burning it up downrange while working on getting it to settle down...Again..check out the Stickys and FAQ's and you'll see.

Mac

[poncaguy]

Should have bought the Fluted Varmit model, I like their looks better and it's a great shooter. I'm very sure you will be happy with urs. I bought a 308 Survivor, then put th Choate Varmit stock and forend on it, very, very good shooter......

[Norseman112]

Congrats on your new handi
As far as getting on GB, I was able to no problem at 10:00pm central time. I would also be careful not to get the barrel warm.  How often you clean your handi when shooting ...well I cleaned mine every shot for the first 10 rounds and then I would clean it after every 3 shots until I had about 50 rounds through it. Then I just shoot and clean it when I get home.  I am not saying my way was the best, its just the way I do it. I would also shoot the handi with out the "O" ring before I put it on because some like them and some don't.  If you look at the faqs it will help you very much. I wish you luck.

John

[stimpylu32]

CPJ --- Welcome to the fun .

First thing . make sure that you take down the rifle and clean it very well to get all the crud out , you will be very happy with it .

My 223 hb was a tack driver right out of the box .

After a good cleaning i fired 10 rounds then cleaned then 20 rounds then cleaned . Now i just clean when i get done shooting or 50 rounds which ever comes first .

As far as the o-ring my 223 hates it but my 270 will not shoot with out one , so try it before you put one in .

You will want to polish the chamber also to avoid stuck cases , I just used a case with a screw in the primer hole and a batt. drill .

The sticky's will make a world of diffrence .  

[bluebayou]

Maybe I am just lucky or maybe I don't know better.  I just shoot my Handi as fast as I like.  I did let the barrel cool between shots when I was having a stringing problem.  After getting a 44 barrel fitted to my 223's frame, the forearm just wouldn't line up right.  I sanded out the bolt hole in the wood just a touch to take the pressure off and it stopped stringing (thanks to the advice of people here).  This was 18 months ago.  At some point, the poly on the wood started peeling and I refinished it with a Minwax spray poly.  In doing so I sanded out the barrel channel in the forearm and the groups shrank from 1" to .5-.75 inch depending on the day.  I am EXTREMELY pleased with my $200 rifle.  I will clean the barrel between brands of ammo or after 50 shots, but for no real reason just superstition maybe.

To sum up:
Never did the O-ring, but have sanded the barrel channel
Did enlarge or "ovalize" the forearm bolt hole
Don't let the barrel cool really, will shoot accurate 10-15 strings

My gripe about the Handirifle would be that the 22" 223 HB is not polished and gathers surface rust easily.

As a side note, I have a cable modem that shows 1.3M for a transfer rate most any time of the day, and I find the GBO website to be slow.  I normally have two Explorer windows open so that I can read something else while I wait.  Was wondering if anyone else thought that.

[cpj]

Thanks for all the replys. I plan on cleaning it today,  and maybe polishing the bore. We will see how it shoots tomorrow.

[Datil]

cpj, I can't give you much on the handis that above have not already given you. But I see another Handi-holic in the making  
 Welcome to GBO forums, come often alot of good reading here, enjoy.
 Marv.