[Caleb C]

What are your thoughts on the 223 handi rifle? I'm looking for a cheap knock around rifle. I need something that's light, short, and cheap to shoot. It needs to be capable of dusting beavers that are out of 22 range and other "targets of opportunity" such as coyotes and may be the occasional deer. I'm open to other suggestions as well.

 

[JMS39339]

It sounds like a good option to me. If you wanted a little variety you could look at a Matched Set from Rossi and have you some rifle and shotgun options available in one little bag. Just a thought...

 

[bubbat]

I use to keep one in my truck on the farm. Worked great as a truck gun, light, short and cheap like you said. Killed lots of beavers and coyotes with it.

 

[GunOneDown]

go to academy and buy a Savage or Stevens Bolt gun.. 223 is pretty good priced.

 

[sigma74216]

+1 on the Stevens bolt gun. Thinking about getting one myself.

 

[Caleb C]

How are the triggers in the Stevens rifles? The handi rifles are less than satisfactory but a home trigger job is no problem. I can drop is down to about three pounds pretty easily. The Stevens my be a little more difficult. Any idea if they make the Stevens in a 16" barrel?

 

[terrybaldridge]

I bought a Savage Edge in 223 from Academy a couple of weeks ago. It was $259. Trigger pull is heavy to say the least. Midway has the Timney triggers for it for $85 this month. So I will probably pick one of those up.

Ordered a scope last Friday. picked up a box of most everything in 223 ammo they had at the last gunshow for testing purposes. Hope to be able to give more of a report soon.

terry

 

[TomBomb]

I just sold my 223 HR to a guy I work with.... excellent accuracy, short, light, etc. as you stated.... if I thought I'd have to make a follow-up shot, I'd use a bolt gun instead.....

 

[rustyc]

been thinking about the handi in a 223 also may be my next purchase

 

[Guest]

The Stevens only comes with a 22" barrel. Not very "Handi" if you ask me. (yeah the pun was a stretch) You will not be disapointed with the H&R. It is the "4x4 pickup" of rifles. Throw on a rattle can or dura coat paint job for weather proofing, scope it with one of the Nikon M-223 1-4x20's and you should be good to go for your stated purpose.

I was going to suggest giving us a range rundown but came up with another idea. Buy two set up just like I described. Send one to me and at the end of the summer the two of us would do a head-to-head comparrison and maybe competitiion. Heck the folks on here should buy them for us as they are going to reap all of the benifits of our joint article in October. To be fair you and I probably should buy our own ammo while doing the ammo test, but when it comes to the reloads Capt. could supply us both in order to minimize any variables in that part of the project. SouthDeltaHunt could run them through his shop for a fine tuning and to verify they are as near the same as it is possible to make them.

I tell you what! The more I think about this the better I like it. North Mississippi vs South Mississippi. The Ultimate MS GunOwners.com match-up. Why we could do the same thing with handguns, shotguns and slingshots. Come on MSGO members get those contributions rolling in.

 

[Caleb C]

I like the way you think. We are now accepting contributions for the MSGO 223 Handi Rifle Development Project. I don't suppose we could get some Obama money for this?

 

[Guest]

Some how this has not generated the respones I was expecting. Evidently we have a failure to communicate. Let me try again. Send money, guns, scopes or ammo to me and Caleb for testing. It's really easy folks.

Step 1. Buy two identical H&R .223 rifles.
Step 2. Send both to Precision Rifles LLC for overhaul and tune-up.
Step 3. Buy and mount a Nikon M-223 on each rifle.
Step 4. Send one rifle to Caleb and one to me.
Step 5. Step back and wait for our informative and world changing evaluation.

Alright. Who wants to be first?

 

[Caleb C]

I got $5 on it. Alright, guys. The ball is rolling............

.......Waiting on you.......

 

[Guest]

Alright! I can match that!

 

[miker84]

And when your test is complete, I'll haul them off for a reasonable fee.

 

[Guest]

Miker, we may have to pay you with left over ammo and empty brass. If that is acceptable we will pencil you in as the official Test Equipment Disposal Technician. If you are real handi, Got that pun in again didn't I, you could make tomater stakes or maybe a trellis out of them. The recyle portion might make us eligible for more oBummer Funds. We are making the most use of your tax dollars.

 

[miker84]

Miker, we may have to pay you with left over ammo and empty brass. If that is acceptable we will pencil you in as the official Test Equipment Disposal Technician. If you are real handi, Got that pun in again didn't I, you could make tomater stakes or maybe a trellis out of them. The recyle portion might make us eligible for more oBummer Funds. We are making the most use of your tax dollars.

Offer accepted.

 

[Brutus]

I've had a .223 Handi-rifle with the bull barrel for several years now.

Mine is very accurate. It's at least as accurate as *I* can shoot. I won a postal rifle match with it among some guys I know at another forum. I was shooting against a couple of guys who were shooting some very serious hardware - custom built match guns that both cost them over $2,000 each.

The only disadvantages I can see in the Handi-rifle are 1) it's only a single-shot, and 2) it's a 1 in 12 twist barrel, so the newer long and heavy .224 bullets that need at least a 1 in 9 aren't suitable for it.* (I shot the match with Black Hills 52 grain match-grade ammo.)

8)

Edit to add: * I just went and did a little searching, and apparently the newer .223 Handis are rifled 1 in 9, which is good (according to the twist rate/bullet weight chart on Shilen's site) for up to 70 grainers.

 

[Caleb C]

Good info to have Brutus. Appreciated.
I'd prefer to shoot the heavy stuff considering the 223 is a little underpowered.