Got myself a Handi Rifle in .223

I have direct hands on experience with five handi rifles. Two 223s, two 30-30s and a 308. None shot worth a darn. One of the 223s had a throat so long that a 55 gr bullet sitting against the lands had a 1/4" space between the base of the bullet and the the lip 9f the case mouth.
 
I have owned many H&R Handi Rifles over the years and most of them shot lights out! Including .223
I had a 22 Hornet that shot under 1/2" all day long. My .223 heavy barrel did the same. My 30-06 shot close to that as well.
Go to GBOOutdoors.com
They will help you.
 
I had a .243 youth that my kids killed there first several deer with I used for predator hunting with 58 grain V max for a while. Initially it shot pretty good but had a horribly hard trigger. Then for some reason it got where it opened way up almost all of a sudden. In fact I thought it was a scope problem. I put another scope on it but didn’t help.

My kids had about out grown it, so I sold it and they used my adult sized rifles, and I went to using an AR for predator hunting.
 
If it doesn't shoot and your into tinkering there's lots you can do. There is some web sites dedicated to mods for them.
Some dry graphite in the trigger area really makes them feel better.
Square up the breach face, shim the area on the fore grip where the barrel attaches to the stock, some people use springs behind it to apply pressure instead of shimming, o-rings on the front screw, recrowning if it needs it.
Sometimes it all helps sometimes not.
 
Just sold an H&R 22-250 last week that I've had for many years. It would vertically string as the barrel got hot/warm. I did put a spacer between the forend and barrel and a few other tricks I read about, but couldn't get it to pattern at all. Windage was dead on, but it would just walk right up the paper.
 
A friend and I each bought one in 1989 killed a lot of coyotes and rock chucks with ours.I used blackhills 55 grain ammo for a a year and then got me a lee reloading set up lol my friend was rich he got him a rock chucker set up.both guns shot 3/4 moa we both have our best accuracy with 50 grain nosler ballistic tips.Over 30 years later and thousands of rounds both are still under 1 moa.
 
First rounds out of it in 10+ years were dead on at 50 so we took it out to 100 and 3 shots touching! So I am happy with it.
 
Originally Posted By: Bob TobergteI'm using a sheep castration ring on forend that shows improvement!

^^THIS^^

Install the castration band to "float" the barrel, then mess with the tension on the forend screw between shot groups to find the sweet-spot. The forend might have a tad bit of wiggle at it's most accurate setting (but I do not care lol).

My gunsmith removed the forend to demonstrate something to me I already knew (barrels easy to swap) before I realized what he was doing. CRINGE! Gotta re-zero/tinker again now.

To the OP: check your twist rate, as they came in both 1:9, and 1:12.

I also performed a trigger lightening technique on mine that involved pulling the trigger while at the same time cocking the hammer hard with the thumb (or something like that) which I can't entirely recommend because of the following: don't go to far/light with this, or you will mess-up the trigger/sear to the point of the trigger getting lighter and lighter with use, thus the need to replace those parts. I got mine down to about 4.5lbs (crisp, though) from who-knows-how-heavy (it was HEAVY!).

My 30-30 Handi with 1:12 twist (most were 1:10) put two in the same hole, with another opening that hole slightly at 100yards with the Federal 125grain factory loading. Working on developing Nosler BT loads now (need more scope than 4X, which is coming up next range trip) that looked promising at 5the initial 50 yard test.
 
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