[jbunny]

newbie with a question? does anybody have the 357 mag handie rifle and how does it shoot??
how does it shoot cast bullets???
thanks
jb

 

[gomerdog]

I have one and haven't been able to find one great load for it year, but I aim to try. I have shot 180 grain cast bullets with it: some without gaschecks and some (BTB) with gaschecks, and some 200 gr. cast w/gaschecks (BTB). Shoots to about and inch and a half at 50 yards and about 3 inches at 100. Certainly not great, but I think with some "dinking around" I can do better.

Jeff

 

[horseman 1]

You may have to wafer float or pillar float the barrel and feel around with the torque on the barrel/forend bolt. The transfer bar on the hammer fall starts to drop as the trigger is released. Be sure to follow through with the trigger pull,
Mine likes the sandbag about an inch forward of the hinge. Others get slightly different results. These are the major and most common points that cause accuracy problems. Mine shoots cast well enough to take head shots at squirrels with open sights. I have no data on jacketed.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I had one which never shot worth beans. I blamed the way they cut the chamber, very long and with no throat at all, just a long taper from case diameter to bore diameter. I rechambered it to .357 maximum and even that did not completely clean up the original H&R .357 mag chamber. After a great many loads tested the best I ever got was around 3-4 moa. Some people claim great accuracy with their handi rifles but I've never seen it myself. I've tried out four of them in different calibers and was never happy with the accuracy of any. I did have a couple of the old original H&R's, before they became NEF, and they shot pretty decent and were much better finished.

 

[Hi-wall]

The problem about the chamber throats is well documented. They cut a forcing cone(per SAAMI instructions) instead of a throat. Fixed barrel rifles do not need a forcing cone like a revolver

 

[Swampman]

I've had 2 and they both shot great. Handi Rifles rarely need anything to shoot as good as rifles that cost 10 times as much. I just reamed my current .357 Mag to .357 Max.

You really need to go over to Graybeard Outdoors and ask this question on the Handi Rifle forum. I've never heard of a .357 Handi that wasn't an awesome shooter.

 

[broom_jm]

I've got Handi Rifle barrels in 30-'06, .243, 50 cal ML and 358GNR (445SM necked down to .357). I haven't worked up loads for the last one, but the first three barrels shoot at least 2 MOA, with the .243 much closer to 1" groups at 100. David White, aka "ASSASSIN" on these pages, builds rifles on the H&R that are as accurate as a very fine rifleman will ever make use of, and at a fraction of the cost of higher-end bolt guns.

My next project will be to send him an H&R frame with .223 Remington barrel and have it barrel-stubbed and rechambered to 225 Winchester.

 

[Swampman]

Why not just rechamber a .223 barrel?

 

[broom_jm]

I'm going to START with a .223 Remington barrel and have it reamed out to 225. I have a soft spot for that old, obsolete cartridge because the man who introduced me to reloading shot one and it is the parent case for the 6.5JDJ cartridge that I shoot from my Contender. Plus, the 225 is arguably one of the very best cartridges to never become popular, largely because the very good 22-250 came out shortly after the 225 and doomed it to obscurity.

 

[Rangr44]

[I'm going to START with a .223 Remington barrel and have it reamed out to 225.]

If by "reamed out", you mean rebored, it's unnecessary & contra-indicated - because a.223 Remmy bbl and a .225 Win barrel both use the same .224" bore.

As Swampy referred to, only a rechambering of the .223 chamber with a .225 Win chambering reamer is needed.

.

 

[broom_jm]

[I'm going to START with a .223 Remington barrel and have it reamed out to 225.]

If by "reamed out", you mean rebored, it's unnecessary & contra-indicated - because a.223 Remmy bbl and a .225 Win barrel both use the same .224" bore.

As Swampy referred to, only a rechambering of the .223 chamber with a .225 Win chambering reamer is needed.

.

I'm going to use a "reamer" to ream out the chamber from the smaller, rimless .223 Remington chamber to the larger, semi-rimmed 225 Winchester chamber. I used the word "ream" in the same context you are, to cut the chamber to hold a bigger cartridge. I'll start with the .223 Remington barrel because it will not need to be bored out and is readily available for that platform....or just about any other, for that matter.

 

[dpe.ahoy]

I have 3 of the 357 Handi's that I reamed out to 357 Max. All 3 shot quit good as the 357 mag and still shoot the mags good and do very good with the Max's loaded with 180 gr XTP's. So far that's all I've loaded in them since reaming. One of my boys and I both took turkeys with neck shots before I reamed them. I have 23 of the Handi's and all shoot just as good as any of the other brands, some good and others better. DP

 

[broom_jm]

I have 3 of the 357 Handi's that I reamed out to 357 Max. All 3 shot quit good as the 357 mag and still shoot the mags good and do very good with the Max's loaded with 180 gr XTP's. So far that's all I've loaded in them since reaming. One of my boys and I both took turkeys with neck shots before I reamed them. I have 23 of the Handi's and all shoot just as good as any of the other brands, some good and others better. DP

Wow, you have TWENTY-THREE H&R actions/barrels? That's pretty cool Any really interesting chamberings?