Troy,
Nice article thanks for posting. While I enjoy reading about all the new advances in firearm design, and new powders, etc.. I wish the gun mags would do a decent article on the H&R's once in a while. I'm a little tired of reading about all the zillion 1911's made.
My first H&R/NEF was a .410 youth model Pardner shotgun purchased for my son, back in 1995.
I think I only recall three articles about H&R's in the main gun mags. I still have them somewhere. The one in Guns and Ammo about "Youth Shotguns" - Ross Seyfried (July 1997, Vol 41, No. 07) was the first, I remember reading about H&R/NEF's. Then another article about H&R's ability to swap barrels (written around the same time period, I think it was in the American Rifleman), between different rifle calibers, resulted in me buying my first Handi rifle in .243Win. to which I promptly added a .223Rem. barrel, and also added two shotgun barrels to the Pardner.
The rest is history, with me adding Handi's in different calibers, a little at a time, until, I discovered this site. Now it's a full blown epidemic of Handi's.