Handi .243 - odd wear from barrel/frame mate-up?

[MO]

As shown in the following photos there is wear on the left side.  What does this mean?  Is this anything to be concerned with?  Could it be the cause of inconsistent accuracy?

I noticed it while giving the gun a massive cleaning in preparation for lapping it with Flitz to hopefully take care of some accuracy issues.

This is the same gun featured in this thread:
 Handi .243 cold barrel flyer. Any fix?
http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,204520.msg1099068103.html



The latch looks pretty evenly worn, but it's quite obvious that something is causing this poor mate-up and has worn off some blueing on the left side.

So, whatdya think?

[AtlLaw]

You have almost exactly the same situation I had with a friends .308.  Those high points on the barrel face will pean down with shooting and a gap will open up and widen between the face and the standing breach.  This will cause the barrel to bounce right and left when fired which is NOT good for accuracy.  Acuracy will probably get worse as the situation is aggravated with continued shooting.

On my friends rifle, and I put a lot of bullets down range from it trying to figure out why it wouldn't shoot, the right side of the spacer was actually peaned down from it banging into the right side of the receiver.   

When I finally realised what was happening, which was after emailing Tim about the problem about a thousand times, I squared up the barrel face and shimmed the action.  She's flush and nice and tight now!   

Load development for this season will start shortly.   

[quickdtoo]

Handis are a tinker's dream, anyone can do just about anything to make it shoot better, see the barrel fitting info in the FAQs. 

Tim

[trotterlg]

This is very normal.  With all the barrels I have worked on and done stubbing on, I have never found one that had the breach end square with the bore.  The only way I know to get it truely square is to turn it in a lathe, which is how I have found them not to be square.  Larry

[MO]

The plot thickens.  Found more damage - and it's all on the left side of all parts involved.

This gun is only a year old.  I can't believe that this is normal quality control.

Do I just send it to the factory or is there something reasonably easy that I can do to remedy this?

[quickdtoo]

If it won't shoot 3-shot groups with factory ammo into 2" or less at 100yd, it needs to go back to H&R for repair, give em a call and tell them what it's doing and make arrangements to get it fixed, toll free (866)776-9292, ask em to send you a prepaid return shipping label. 

Tim

[trotterlg]

This is also normal, more wear on that side because that is the side of the breach that it locks up on.  Just normal H&R stuff.  Larry

[MO]

If it won't shoot 3-shot groups with factory ammo into 2" or less at 100yd, it needs to go back to H&R for repair, give em a call and tell them what it's doing and make arrangements to get it fixed, toll free (866)776-9292, ask em to send you a prepaid return shipping label. 

Tim

Thanks for the info., Tim.  It does shoot a bit under 2" at 100 fairly regularly, but it's just not consistent.  The groups are getting worse the more I shoot it - not better.  It seems to me that this wear shows that it's likely to get progressively looser with more shooting.  If it were your gun what would you consider doing?

This is also normal, more wear on that side because that is the side of the breach that it locks up on.  Just normal H&R stuff.  Larry

  Wow, that's disappointing to hear.  I just got a call an hour ago from my dealer - the .223 and 45-70 handi's that I ordered are ready to be picked up.  If the guns can't hold up to 150 rounds of .243 better than that how in hell is it going to handle hundreds of rounds of 45-70?

[trotterlg]

It will just wear off the high spots and settle in, no problem and not out of the ordinary.  This is what you get with a mass produced entry level $200.00 gun.  Larry

[quickdtoo]

Is the barrel loose without the forend on when the action is locked up, can you feel any movement at all? Sometimes there will be a burr on the pivot that will wear off and the barrel becomes loose, accuracy deteriorates when that happens, you won't know the barrel is loose with the forend installed. As long as you're shooting it from the same consistent position, accuracy shouldn't change unless something else is wrong.

Tim

[MO]

Is the barrel loose without the forend on when the action is locked up, can you feel any movement at all? Sometimes there will be a burr on the pivot that will wear off and the barrel becomes loose, accuracy deteriorates when that happens, you won't know the barrel is loose with the forend installed. As long as you're shooting it from the same consistent position, accuracy shouldn't change unless something else is wrong.

Tim

It's not 'loose', but there is a tiny bit of side to side movement without the forend.  You can't really see it, but you can feel it.

[gcrank1]

To clarify though, is the side to side play at the hinge pin, front of the action with the forearm off, or at the breech end?

[MO]

To clarify though, is the side to side play at the hinge pin, front of the action with the forearm off, or at the breech end?

It seems like it's in the hinge pin area.

[gcrank1]

Im sure others with more knowledge and experience in barrel fitting will address this, but I believe that with the forearm and the shape of the spacer on, and butting against the frame and barrel, the side to side play is eliminated. Per the FAQs this can also be shimmed. The real critical area to not have play is at the standing breech.

[quickdtoo]

Loose is loose regardless of where you might think it is, it shouldn't be loose anywhere, sounds like a poorly fitted barrel to me, I'd return it for repair,  they can do a better job than that. If it was a second hand barrel, you could fix it yourself, but on a relatively new rifle, the factory repair is the best option.

Tim