High-pressure cartridges and the Handi-Rifle...

[OregonBoy]

As hunters in my neck of the woods are buying their gear for the fall, I've noticed many Handi-Rifles leaving a local gun shop with new owners. This particular shop almost always has the 243, 270 and 30-06 Synthetic Handi-Rifles in stock, and sometimes has the 280 Rem version available. They look like neat guns, but how safely can they handle high-pressure rounds like the 243? They look like they're pretty strong, but I remember reading somewhere about Handis auto-opening after a certain number of firings. How strong are they?

[Thunder38849]

Mine opened upon discharge once, but it was due to the fact I didn't clean it after purchasing it.   After I cleaned the lock it hasn't done it since and that was many many rounds ago.

[Leftoverdj]

Strong enough so the only reports we've had of one blowing up came from a wild man who did it on purpose. Even he really had to work at it. And there was the guy who rechambering a .38-55 to .378 Weatherby, but we never got a range report from him.

The auto opening thing is a quirk that mostly happens to guns with a lot of grease in the action. It's not dangerous, just disconcerting. The barrel can't open as long as there is much pressure pushing the case head into the breech. I don't recall having heard of it happening to a well cleaned broken in gun.

[JPH45]

Only thing I can add is go to the local range or in some way hook up with one of those new owners and shoot one of these for yourself. Yes there are occasional problems with a rifle opening on firing, but most often this is attributable to a dirty rifle. A friend has a 243 Handi and between the two of us fired over 40 rounds one afternoon, the only problem we had was running out of ammo. I would be surprised indeed that a poorly built or cheaply made rifle that was indeed a hazard to its owner would attract and hold the interest and dedication of enough shooters to support a forum page like this for the better part of the last two years.

[Mitch in MI]

A poster here made a 300WSM. The barrel became quite loose in 90 shots. The backthrust of that cartridge clearly exceeded the gun's limits, but it doesn't seem to have put the shooter in danger. This was one barrel of three fit to the same receiver, and the other two barrels still fit fine, the damage was limited to the barrel lug. The inside surface area of the WSM case is a lot greater than the 243 case, and the pressure is higher too.
The same shooter mentioned above has a 24" 280AI which he loads to 2900-3000 fps with 160gr bullets, and this gun has given him no problems in two or three years of use.

[JPH45]

Mitch, Interesting. Back on the old site there was a fellow who had one of these rechambered to 300 Win Mag, (Not WSM) he posted some time later on a thread about accuracy that his rechamber didn't shoot all that well but other than that I've heard nothing. The WSM case is larger in diameter yet than the H&H case which is .513 so I'm not surprised by the result, though it is in a way good to hear of the results. I think too often some here have been maligned (in past) for taking the stance that the Handi is simply not robust enough for cases larger in diameter than the '06 family while operating at the same pressures.

[Mitch in MI]

The WSM belongs to Handi35 (HRAKONE at H&R talk):
http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=32700

I seem to remember reading about 300WinMag and 7mmRemMag, but I can't remember any details.

And then there is Clark, who grossly overloaded his 45-70 well past the point at which it started auto-ejecting. I wonder if his posts are archived anywhere?

I figure it's safe to run a 26" 280AI handi up to short barrel 7mmRem velocity, but I'm not going to go beyond normal 45-70 pressures with a fat case in a bottom-latching break barrel.

[kombi1976]

I'm not sure why this post has really caused so much discussion. Not only do NEF/H&R chamber for only non-magnum rounds for a good reason, but there is a general consensus world wide that break open actions, be they single shots, double rifles, drilling or cape guns, aren't as strong as bolt actions or falling block actions.
Why we should argue about whether it's safe to chamber Handi-rifles in WSM or big magnum cartridges seems ridiculous when NEF takes the road of least risk. Of course the barrel lugs get worn, of course there seems to be issues with opening on discharge if we make it do what it wasn't designed to do. Save up for a Ruger No.1 if you must have a magnum.
In my personal opinion, and it is just an opinion, properly used NEF makes chambers for cartridges you can use to hunt almost all game. I've seen so many posts where guys take elk or moose with a 30-06 or a 45-70 and the handi-rifle hasn't caused problems there. To quote another post I read a while back "It groups better than I can shoot!" Perhaps we should worry more about our own abilities & less about how our rifle won't winkle a bottle top at 700 yards. I know this is an exageration but I'm sure you see my point.