I am interested in buying a Harrington and Richardson Ultra Varmint rifle in .223 caliber and was wondering what kind of accuracy i should expect from this package.

I want to know if anyone has one of these and how well they shoot from 100 yards and beyond.

Thanx in advance for comments

SW- I have had a H&R SB2 Ultra in .223 for about 3 or 4 years. I use it for my overthedoor varmint rifle and have been well pleased. In reality I have never really wrung it out for max accuracy. I just used a load that was exceptionally accurate in one of my bolt rifles and substituted a varmint bullet. It will shoot about 3/4" per 5 at 100 yards using Win 748 and 50g Speer TNT bullets. I use it to kill maurading predators that kill my chickens and guineas on my place here in TN. I don't need long range accuracy and thus have never tried it at longer ranges. The 50g TNTs work like bunker busters in dog sized predators with rarely an exit. It is heavy but for $220 or so it is hard to go wrong. Plateau Hunter

I just happened to spend the last weekend at a match where one shooter was firing a standard Handi-Rifle in 223 with military ball ammo against several versions of "prepared" 7.62X51 (308 Win) bolt guns using match ammo.

At 500 yards the Handi-Rifle had more hits at movers than any of the others. He did pretty well at other ranges also (300-600 yds).
The shooter does make some difference at such a shoot, but then he had stopped enroute and bought the rifle just to shoot the match. He said he was going to sell the setup as soon as he got home!
I started to buy it just to get a single shot rifle base started.

Just goes to show you, ONE just never knows!

LouisB

Guess I'm tryin to say some of those rifles sure OUT SHOOT their price!

[ 04-09-2003, 05:25: Message edited by: TCLouis ]

I've had an NEF .223 varminter now for about 5 years. I had the factory (this was pre-marlin, so I don't know if they'll still do it) lighten the trigger down to 3 lbs and make it crisp. Mine puts the cheapo UMC ball ammo into a nice little 1.1" 10 shot group and just eats the Winchester XP varmint in 55gr up. My best group w/ this stuff was a 5 shot, .65 group.

I've got mine topped w/ a Leica 1.75 X 5 scope and out to 200-300 yards, whatever I point it at is getting hit.

Great little guns.

my h&r ultra.223 gives me minute of groundhog accuracy. came home for lunch today, and saw one in the neighbors backyard. he is now history.

From what I've seen and can gather from other owners online, the Handi-Rifles can vary a lot. There's lotsa tack drivers out there. But there's some stinkers, too.

I discovered that my regular grade Handi's can be a bit quirky. Mine seem to like plenty of forearm pressure (pull straight back) and don't like being rested directly on support (especially on the forearm) and don't even think of putting a bipod on it - Yikes!

But once you learn the guns ways....it gets the job done.

I purchased mine with a 26" .280 tube and sent the frame back to the factory for a $90 heavy 24" .223 the first handloads I ever worked up with W748 and 40 grain Vmax provided this:


and more recently this was with some Rl-10x(I pulled and called the flier:


Although nothing to brag about and not enough data to determine if the rifle is "accurate" and all with a white nuckle trigger I feel it was $90 well spent for what I need to do with it.....

[ 06-05-2003, 03:41: Message edited by: Dave Jenkins ]

With the Buffalo Classics in 45/70 it was a great aid to reduce the vertical stringing by placing a leather washer under the foreend screw boss. Might want to try it on the HB .223.

SP

can the .223 ultra shoot the 68-69 grain loads, or only the lighter weights? thanks

The NEF .223 is 1:12 twist so, probably 55 grain, or less, would work best.