Affair with single shot H&R/NEF

[hunman55]

Just what is it, men, that makes us love these guns, besides cost? I'm serious! I own eight of 'em. Hunman55 :grin:

[hunterwinco]

it is pretty weird huh!  I was hooked about 10years ago when I bought a 20 gauge pardner...darn thing pointed great!  It made a good truck/partridge gun.  I have a hornet, 30-30, and 223, and it is funny, I hunt with my brother a lot and he just shakes his head at me!  He can't see the attraction.  For whatever reason they just turn my crank.  It must be the engineer in me that just appreciates the simple design/accuracy etc.  I think my brother just sees the ugly stock and the fact its a single shot. . ."Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"!

[quickdtoo]

Just what is it, men, that makes us love these guns, besides cost? I'm serious! I own eight of 'em. Hunman55 :grin:

It's a sickness, that's plain and simple!! That's a good start, but you have only begun....I have 27 rifle barrels and 16 frames now, and I haven't quit buying yet!!! That's not including the barrel I have on ebay right now, either!!! :-D  :-D  :-D

Tim

[knight0334]

I've always liked single shots, not just Handi's but other makes too.

The way I was tought was that if you need a follow up shot that you should learn to shoot better, use a more suitable caliber/cartridge, and better designed bullet-or dont take the shot.  The single shot available makes you more likely to place a better aimed shot, one more humane to the receiving critter.  It takes more skill to use a singleshot, then it does to use a rifle that you can let you sling 4-7 bullets thru the air in 15 seconds.

My first years hunting were with my dad's Win 94 30-30.  But he only gave me one bullet.  He said make it count..    ..since that very first outing, I've never ever had to pull the trigger on the same game animal twice.

Lets not overlook the fact that these NEF/H&R's and Rossi's comparible models are a godsend to us poor people.  Not all firearm enthusiests can afford to shoot targets regularly, let alone own a high dollar firearm.

I've owned MAK-90/AK-47's, AR-15's, Marlin Camp 9/45's, leverguns, boltguns, and pumpguns..   ...all but my Marlin 93 levergun are gone.  But I still have my singleshots, they perform as well as several hundred dollar multi-shot rifles-the proof is in my freezer.

I still have my Mossburg 500 12ga and my Marlin model 50 or 60 22lr semi rifle though..  The 22lr for plinking cans or teaching my younger cousins how to shoot, the 12ga for turkey shoots and hunting.  The Mossburg will get replaced with a hammered double shotgun someday..

[Ranger J]

They make me a better shooter as I know I only have that one shot I had better take my time and make it good.
RJ

[McLernon]

It must be the engineer in me also that appreciates a good product made for a really reasonable price. The Handi is truly a respectable looking piece of work and I believe that they can be made to shoot pretty well too. It's a good gun to work on even if it is somewhat challenging. But then again maybe that's part of its attraction. I don't agree that the Handi is unattractive. Even my 'pallet' wood stock is well finished for a field gun. The frame is exceptionally well made and finished notwithstanding some of the design issues associated with all tip-up designs ie lock-up and stiffness problems. But to my way of thinking the tip-up design is simplicity itself and that too attracts me to it.

I really wish I could take advantage of the barrel program like you folks in the states but maybe soon. Our new government is commited to repealing the long gun registry laws.

I hope NEF appreciates the contribution of this forum and follows the advice of it's 'devotees' and tries to make some of the improvements recommended.

McLernon

[Mac11700]

I think a-lot of us started out with a single shot early in life and we like to harken back to those early years away from all the hussle and bussle of our adult lives (yea right ..)..They have always been around though..and many of us did start out with singles of some kind..and we learned how to make that first.(and sometimes only shell we were given count) ..Their barrel accessory program,their simplistic design..their great accuracy,not to mention their low cost,and top-notch customer service,makes it easy to become a Handi-holic...all in itself.. and having a place like this to share ideas with so many Great like minded folks is a major bonus too..( Thanks GBO management )

Yup...I agree :toast:

Mac

[Plinkomatic]

Real simple-
Chicks dig a 'handi'-man.
But seriously-
I'm out shooting guys with $1500 Rem700's mounted with $800 glass with my $200 Survivor and a $70 Tasco, using relatively inexpensive ammo (which they can't put in their gun).
That's why.

[Hammerspur]

:grin: Years ago I got my first H&R as a gift from my brother when I first became interested in shooting and hunting. It was a 410 Topper shotgun from K Mart.

Carrying it about in the woods during my first forays as a would-be Nimrod, I appreciated the trim 'handi'-ness and quick pointability it posessed, and with the slim 410 bbl. I thought "What a great little rifle this would be!"

Later while reading various gun catalogs and identification guides to educate myself in the variety of firearms designs and manufacturers I found out about the Topper Rifles...I had already become enamored of single shot rifles, so it was a runaway obsession from then on.

Being something of a frustrated industrial design/engineering type who since childhood has been taking things apart to see how they work (sometimes "worked") I saw these arms as diamonds in the rough right from the start.

As far as aesthetics, IMO these rifles can be massaged to true beauty with a little imagination and elbow grease. I've been a devotee of Graybeard since joining due to the tech education and service provider information found here to help with the funtional improvements.

The 'disease' is definitely progressing... I'm waiting for the new receiver I bought from the classifieds here to arrive. Plans at this point are leaning toward getting a  26 in. 25-06 bbl. fitted, then having it rebored to .338-06 (maybe Improved) as our two moderators have done... the list of other possible specifics are too lengthy to discuss in this already verbose post.

But I can't state enthusiastically enough how much Graybeard offers, especially the insights from all you other addicts. Thank you all!

[myarmor]

="Hammerspur.... Carrying it about in the woods during my first forays as a would-be Nimrod, I appreciated the trim 'handi'-ness and quick pointability it posessed, and with the slim 410 bbl. I thought "What a great little rifle this would be!"
 

I was about to say the same thing. It's all in the name..except this time its the actual meaning of the name. There's no 2 ways around it, these rifles are among the most compact, Handy rifles around. The inches lost between a 22"compact bolt action, and a 22" Handi rifle is a big advantage. Of course this in addition to the already mentioned aspects of course
-Aaron

[EVOC ONE]

Other than the style of the single shot, I fancy the Handi's for three reasons.  First is the price.  Second is the avaibility to change their appearance to suit our individual taste.  And third is that we can tinker with them in many ways to enhance their performance.

I fashion the Handi experiance similar to sporterizing/customizing military rifles, which is far more expensive these days than ever and unpracticle with some military guns becoming in short supply.

It is an addicting hobby, though.

However, I recently became addicted to .22 RF Marlins!  They are rapidly catching up with the Handi's!

Will it ever end?

EVOC ONE

[Norseman112]

I started out with a single shot when I was 12. Now that I am just a  little older  :-D  and although I have other rifles that are dear to me I started looking at single shots again.  Just an interest at first because I liked the idea of being able to get different barrels, well in short one frame for most of all your hunting. Then I seen the handi rifle, liked it, seen the price and said to the clerk "really?".  that was 17 months ago  and now I have two handi rifles. Oh yeah I have the bug, you know I just can't have two.  :-)

John

[superjay01]

For me it was when my dad bought me a 30-30 single shot for my birthday.  It said that I only had one shot so I better make it count.  As I got older I wanted to go to big named guns and still enjoy them today. (Heck, I'm look at getting A Winchester 94 in 7-30 waters.) I think the thing that has brought me back to them is that I can work on them rather easily. Plus, you can get a lot of different barrels so what more could any guy want?

[hunman55]

:grin: Thank you all for your response. Keep them coming!  A special thanks to Graybeard(my Dixie-neighbor in Alabama) for this forum and the moderators for all they do. Now a question: Is it better to put a peep sight on the barrel or the receiver of these break-open single shots? Thanks again ,guys. Hunman55 :grin:

[Cookiemann]

I must first echo the Thanks to Graybeard for this forum.  What a find!
I was 20 somethin' when I first purchased a firearm.  It was a Pardner 12ga from the local K Mart.  Iti is long gone, but my passion for the these great little guns was re-kindled about 2 years ago when I purchased another.  I now have 3 receivers and 5 barrels.  I, too, like the simple design and low cost of these guns.  I hope my grandsons will share my passion for the single shots and pass it along to their sons and daughters.

Cookieman

[quickdtoo]

Is it better to put a peep sight on the barrel or the receiver of these break-open single shots?

Aperture or peep sights are intended to be mounted close to the eye, it also gives you the longest possible sight radius which improves accuracy. Open barrel sights are Ok if you have young eyes, but old eyes don't do well with barrel sights, for me, I can't tell which of them to use cuz there are 2 of em, one almost as blurry as the other!!!

Tim

[hunman55]

:grin: Thanks for your reply, Quickdtoo, and I can surely relate to the blurry sights. I'm 56. As you know ,of course, the BC has the Williams peep mounted on the barrel-right ahead of the receiver-both front and rear sights on the same part. I was wondering about mounting a peep on the left side of the receiver as the old Lyman 53 was. Would there be an accuracy loss-however slight-with front and rear sights mounted on separate parts. Does this make sense? Hunman55

[Cookiemann]

I have little problem sighting through the BC sigths.  I was just wondering how things would change with those same sights mounted on a shorter barrel, ie: 22 or 24 in.

[one$$shot]

I have to jump in on this one.  I grew up living in the country.  We had a stone quarry a couple of miles from our house.  I would hear shooting from there regularly when I was a kid.  I would say to my brother "listen...they're shooting semi-auto's in the quarry today"!  This meant that after they were done and gone my brother and I would ride our bicycles down to the quarry.  

We would sometimes find a half dozen or more shells (410) that didn't go off but with a dent in the primer and left for duds.  We knew that these shells would work in our H&R single shots.  Sometimes if the shell didn't go off we would open the chamber and rotate the shell 90 degrees and try again.  We killed a lot of squirrels for free.

It's hard to forget where we came from.  Who would want too!