I just purchased a stainless steel synth stock NEF Handi-Rifle in .223 that i'm working forward to shooting. Anyone here shoot with the Handi-Rifle? What are your thoughts? THANKS!

Give it a real good clean - they leave the factory kinda dirty . Might want a trigger job and polish the chamber to overcome ejection problems , but that all aside - you will enjoy the gun . For the price they are good value .

You'll want to try the Winchester Whitebox 45gr JHP in it, it's pretty much the gold standard of .223 Handi loads, many handloaders try to duplicate it's accuracy without success, $14 for 40 at Walmart on the mainland. Check out the Graybeardoutdoors.com NEF/H&R Centerfire forum FAQ for lots of info on trigger jobs and other accurizing help.

quote:

Originally posted by wrongtarget:
You'll want to try the Winchester Whitebox 45gr JHP in it, it's pretty much the gold standard of .223 Handi loads, many handloaders try to duplicate it's accuracy without success, $14 for 40 at Walmart on the mainland. Check out the Graybeardoutdoors.com NEF/H&R Centerfire forum FAQ for lots of info on trigger jobs and other accurizing help.

Could not agree more. I did, however, witness today a .223 NEF do a great job with Black Hills 55 gr. bullet ( Not Match ) roger

I'd be real cautious of the Black Hills .223 ammo, case separations can ruin your day!! There have been several reports of this at GBO. Not worth the hassle when there's plenty of good ammo out there that works well.

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=62507

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t...ight=black+hills+223

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t...ighlight=black+hills

My NEF shoots the 55g FMJ BH ammo pretty well also. It also shoots the 45g $16/40 Winchester Wal-Mart ammo pretty well. Out of about 15 different kinds of ammo I tested, the most accurate was, believe it or not, 62g Wolf HP. Also the least expensive BTW. My NEF also shoots the BH 52g HP Match and 70g V-Max (blue box) well.

My experience has been to test as many different brands and bullet types as you can. You might be surprised.

Thanks for the input one and all, wish Wally World here carried ammo but no. Sports Authority is just one kind at $15.00 a box of 20. My local FFL dealer does stock Wolf o will give that a try. I guess I better start reloading .223 again, haven't for 5 years since selling my Mini-14. Will stock up on eBay brass.
Hey Flippy do you know what rifling twist your barrel has? I like the idea of 70 grain SPs because I hut the small wild goats we have here and I know the 70 grains works well even on boars from my Mini-14, 2 one shot kills. Thanks again guys!

See if Wally World can ORDER ammo.

Mine has the bull barrel and I was told it is a 1-9 twist, but it is not marked and I couldn't find it anywhere on their website. I will have to do the old cleaning rod "spin test" to guesstimate. Since it shoots the 70g and 62g 1 in 9 would seem reasonable.

If anybody knows for sure, let me know.

---Mike

Hawaiin Hunter, the V-Max load is 60g NOT 70g.
After thinking about it, I went out and looked.
Sure enough 60g. Sorry for the confusion.

Originally when I bought these I wanted to try a 70g load in my .223s, but S-M did not have any.

---Mike

Thanks for the info Flippy, i'm guessing since my Handi is 2005 production and standard barrel that it is 1 in 12 twist so not ideal for 60+ grain bullets. I read in Shooting Times a few months back that there are now lighter weight .223 bullets with decent big game construction which may work well for these mini goats here, will have to do some research. Thanks again for your help.

I got a 204 H&R Ultra Varminter that just plain shoots. I can hit soda cans at 400yrds all day long as well as shoot one hole at 100yrds.

Ray

HH,
My 223 Ultra Varmint likes UMC 45gr hp real well. 3/4" at 100 yards. Probably could do better with trigger job.

Looks like the 1 in 12 twist prefers 45 grain loads. I'll look for the Winchester and UMC factory ammo as a baseline to compare my reloads to. I still have some 40 grain spitzers to play with too. Thanks again gentlemen for all your suggestions.

The 1:12" twist barrels shoot the 64gr Winchester PP real well is you handload, they would be a much better choice than any of the varmint bullets. It's also available in loaded ammo if you don't handload.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=738047