.500 MAGNUM Problems

[Walks with a gimp]

  I got around to loading some 385 grain Remington bullets with Winchester standard rifle primers and 39 grains of H110. I still had about a 50% miss-fire rate on the 10 rounds I shot the other day, about the same with the first box of factory ammo I bought with the gun. Accuracy amounts to vertical spreading of about 8 inches and horizontal spreading of about 2 1/2 inches. I have a Weaver one peice mount with TC steel rings. About 1/3 of the front of the mount is not contacting the barrel and there's no set screw up front to make contact and support the front of the mount. The front ring of the scope is mounted above the "gap" between the barrel and scope base. I'm thinking the verticle spread could be from the non supported scope base up front. I have a 1.5 X 4 power Bushnel Banner shotgun scope on the rifle and I think the gun should be capable of 2 inch groups at 100 yards.  Think if I shimmed the front of the scope base it would shoot better. The gun has a ton of power and would sure be a stopper but I'm a little disappointed in the accuracy and miss-fires. I'll try to get some time to work on the gun soon..

[quickdtoo]

I'd either put some new slots in the rail so the forward ring is on the supported part of the rail, or loose that rail and get the H&R rail, the H&R rail is much better than the weaver #82, you can see the difference in the pic below.

When you place a loaded round in the chamber, is it flush with the chamber mount, or recessed slightly? Mine had a little too much headspace, that in combination with not pulling the trigger all the way to the rear can cause ignition problems, the transfer bar dictates that the trigger be pulled all the way to the rear each time or it can fall and the hammer won't transfer full impact to the firing pin. If that doesn't help, I'd contact H&R, specially if there's excess headspace.

Tim

[Walks with a gimp]

I didn't remove the barrel from the receiver to measure accurately, but it looks like there might be a few thousands too much head space on my particular gun. I'd bet it's probably "within tolerance" and would be returned to me without modification. The miss-fires that occur though will probably have me returning the gun though. This rifle will probably stay in the family and will probably be borrowed by one one of my 9 grand kids at sometime. I don't really want for them to try to remember to "pull the hammer completely" to the rear to fire the gun while hunting. I'm not sure that that instruction will result in 100% firings until I shoot some more. I like shooting off the bench when testing for accuracy and I simply squeeze the trigger to make my best shots,, about 1/2 the time nothing happens with this gun and I've never had that problem with any other guns I've ever shot so something needs to be done for safety's sake. I don't like opening the gun to look at shallow primer dents

[quickdtoo]

The combination of too much headspace and not pulling the trigger properly can do just what's happening. Normally, not pulling the trigger completely to the rear will just cause inconsistent pin strikes and accuracy will suffer. Fixing the headspace issue will require a new barrel.

Mine had too much headspace, so I flat filed the back of the barrel before fitting  it to a frame, H&R won't do that, I'm sure. If the headspace is in their spec, they might put a slightly longer firing pin in it, dunno. It could also have a weak hammer spring which wouldn't be the first reported here. I bought some extras from Numrich, Fred has one or two of em as he had problems too.

Tim

[Mac11700]

I didn't remove the barrel from the receiver to measure accurately, but it looks like there might be a few thousands too much head space on my particular gun. I'd bet it's probably "within tolerance" and would be returned to me without modification. The miss-fires that occur though will probably have me returning the gun though. This rifle will probably stay in the family and will probably be borrowed by one one of my 9 grand kids at sometime. I don't really want for them to try to remember to "pull the hammer completely" to the rear to fire the gun while hunting. I'm not sure that that instruction will result in 100% firings until I shoot some more. I like shooting off the bench when testing for accuracy and I simply squeeze the trigger to make my best shots,, about 1/2 the time nothing happens with this gun and I've never had that problem with any other guns I've ever shot so something needs to be done for safety's sake. I don't like opening the gun to look at shallow primer dents

Your rifle needs to go back and be repaired correctly...Call Jennifer or Gordan at NEF and tell them of all the mis-fires you are having and light primer strikes...They need to have it back there to fix the problem correctly...Be nice when speaking with them...and ask them for a call tag so the return shipping won't cost you...

Pulling all the way thru on the trigger is something you will have to do with all Handi rifles...otherwise you'll have accuracy problems...Unfortunately you can't fire them any other way and expect to get it to shoot consistently...and has always been a real pain for most new Handi-holics to contend with...

Mac

[Walks with a gimp]

  I've got another Handi (my first) in .223 and it's as dependable as the sunrise when I shoot it, no miss-fires at all. I'll probably take it to the store where I got it and have them return it for me..    Sorry, but I won't buy the remedy for lite primer strikes.

[Lone Star]

The poor ignition is the most likely cause of the vertical stringing.  The scope should "whip" the same for each shot unelss the recoil impulses are different - which they could be with your intermittent ignition.  I bet if you chronographed those loads you'd see a pretty large extreme spread. 

If it failed to reliably ignite factory ammo, send it back to the factory, pronto.


.