Wednesday, March 24, 2010

.30-30 Handi Rifle

Last August I began yearning for a single-shot .30-30 rifle. I really like the cartridge and I really like my Winchesters, still I wanted a single-shot .30-30 to play with spitzer bullets.

The pointed spitzer bullets available to us for the bolt action rifles don't lend themselves to lever action rifles with tube magazines. The problem is that the bullet of one round nests on the primer of the following round and in recoil the two might come together with sufficient force to ignite the round in the magazine. That would be bad juju for everyone concerned. With lever action rifles, it's best to stay with round nose or flat nosed bullets.

Don't even talk to me about Hornady's new soft plastic pointed bullet. I'm too much of a traditionalist.

I really wanted to try some pointed bullets in the .30-30, so a single shot made the most sense. An added benefit of the single shot is that I can scope it, which isn't easily possible with the old Winchesters in my collection. I will definitely mount a scope to learn about pointed bullets, but I don't know if I'll keep a scope on it. We'll see.

SO, last August, I went a-hunting for a single shot and couldn't find one anywhere. I talked to my favorite counterman and I talked to the guys over at Graybeard's Outdoors forums. I learned that H&R would make a batch of .30-30 Handi Rifles sometimes in late March 2010.

I told my counterman to keep checking and let me know when such a rifle would become available. I went in today on other business and he told me that he had just gotten off the phone with his distributor and my rifle had been at the distributor, then put on another truck heading for the dealer. It should be in early next week.

This'll make five H&R firearms in my collection. I've got a .410 Topper, a .45-70, a .308 Winchester. I have a .223 on layaway and now this .30-30 coming in. I believe this will be all the Handi-Rifles I need. All these, of course, are grandkid rifles, for when they decide to go hunting with me.

I keep telling myself that.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've written before about my old Topper .30-30. If the new Handis are anything like the old Topper 158's you're gonna love it. My Topper weighs 6 lbs. on the nut with a round in the chamber, and points like a shotgun. I tried a 2x scope on it, but it's just in the way. Someday if I can work up the ambition I may install a receiver sight on it, more likely not. One accessory I find very useful is a Limb Saver slip on recoil pad. It lengthens the pull and makes the butt non slip. Well worth the $35.

Enjoy your new rifle.

Gerry N.

Rivrdog said...

Bad Ju-Ju for levergunners UNLESS you own a Savage 99, that is...

Flintlock Tom said...

How hard would it be for H&R to make the barrels interchangeable? It looks as if the frame is, or could be, the same on all of them.
I may be mistaken, but, I seem to recall reading that the Topper could have additional barrels fitted.