What’s In A Name

What’s In A Name by Lyndon Combs
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What does this mean for the consumer? The shooter can have as many barrels of different calibers as he likes as long as the company makes a barrel in that caliber. They can literally have one gun- one receiver, and a set of barrels to do any job in the field during any part of the season by just changing out barrels. This is a nice feature when on a budget, or when limited in storage space.

Yes the gun is a single shot, and you can’t expect shooting the volume of ammunition that you would with an AR- 15, but if you can shoot that one single shot properly it will do the job. With the location of the release latch, reloading quickly enough to hunt is hardly a unrealistic possibility.

The latch to open the action is next to the hammer where the shooters thumb can hit it without moving, and the ejectors throw the empties further than a drunken redneck can through his empty beer cans. If you practice a little you can reload this gun surprisingly fast. In my case I was able to reload as fast as I could work a bolt action. This is more than fast enough in my book for most types of hunting. I would practice the procedure to make sure you can do it correctly every time. I hold an extra round in my left hand and work the release with my right. You really don’t even have to lower the gun from your shoulder to reload, but the cases might tap you in the head. I personally tilt the gun a Little so the cases fly over my shoulder, and not into my head.

The one I picked up used at a pawnshop is in .45-70 Government, and has a synthetic stock, adjustable sights, 22″ barrel, and was fitted with a scope. The gun comes from the factory drilled and tapped for a scope, but I decided for my needs I would not need the scope so I removed it, and the rings. I found some screws to cover the holes in the top of the barrel where the Weaver rail mount had been.

I like the fit, and feel of this rifle. I like the forearm, it is really easy to get a good hold on the gun, and push it into your shoulder. The rifle is very compact and easy to carry. I know your thinking recoil!!!!!! Ouch??? Well it isn’t that bad. I am not going to sit here and say it kicks like a .22, but it doesn’t kick like a .458 Winchester Magnum either. I would compare it to my 12 gauge Remington 870 with heavy field loads. Not too bad for the power this cartridge is capable of, and this little rifle will handle modern loads just fine. So don’t worry about the recoil.

I started out testing the gun with what ammunition the shop had on hand. Federal Classics using a .300-grain Sierra Pro Hunter bullet. I loaded up my new gun, chrony, some ammo, and headed to the range to see what the gun could do. As you can tell by the first part of the article it is a good gun, but the ammunition is expensive, and the bullets are not all suited to the modern loads available. The .300 Sierra is a soft bullet. I got it to perform well enough, but I think better bullets are available today for this cartridge. I tried several other factory brands, and the only one that performed well enough for me to recommend it is a Winchester Super X load that uses a .300 grain hollow point. I wasn’t able to try all brands on the market, and I am sure that others are available that will perform well in this rifle. I just couldn’t try them due to the cost and availability in my area. I achieved good accuracy with all the rounds. I wouldn’t say any of them had less than suitable accuracy to do the job, but bullet construction is a problem that needs to be watched.

I am now reloading for this gun, and I am only starting out, but I have one good hand-load for the rifle using IMR-3031, which is my favorite powder for this cartridge. I can only find the Sierra .300-grain hollow point to use in my loads locally, but the load works with it, and should work with any jacketed .300-grain bullet. As soon as I can, I am going to order a better bullet to use in my hand-loads. I used a Winchester large rifle primer, and Winchester cases. The load generates 2406 ft. lbs. of energy, a power factor of 570.3, and flies at 1901fps., not bad. It will handle most of what I will face, but I will continue to play around with loads to cover a number of applications. I will do that because this rifle and the .45-70 cartridge can handle deer, hogs, even grizzly basically anything walking on the North American continent when loaded properly. That is, of course, if you feel you’re good enough to take on a grizzly with a single shot rifle?? If you have the right barrels this gun can fill many niches from truck gun to tack driving varmint gun. As I stated before, and as long as you do your part the Handi Rifle will cover it’s end of the job no matter the task at hand.

Some say that the single shot rifle is a handicap, and nothing more, but I feel the single shot rifle, and shotgun have a place in the modern world we live in, not just because of cost, but these types of actions challenge a sportsman. I feel it pushes him to work hard at doing the job with just one well-placed shot. Yes many strive to do this with all types of actions, but these guns put more emphasis on making a perfect shot simply because of the nature of the action. This is a good rifle, and like the name, plain and simple. It is a good design, and well made. I think if you load it with the right round it would handle just about any hunting task as you needed it to do from pigs to bear. It will do its job, that is, if you do yours, and place the shot in the proper spot.

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