.357 Handi-Rifle First Outing

[indyjoe]

I picked up a SB1-S35 Handi-Rifle (.357 Mag 22" barrel) at Bradis recently. This is the first time I took it out to the range. What felt like an OK trigger pull, I now realize is a bit too heavy. The sharp edges of the trigger also bite into the finger after a few dozen shots.

I had read about it taking a hundred rounds or so to smooth everything out before the accuracy gets good, so I picked up some cheap Blazer.

I decided to mount a Nikon Prostaff 2-7x32mm Shotgun Hunter on it. For hunting, I'm not into too high of magnification. It seems plenty large enough when shooting with good eye relief and fits on the rifle without having to grind down the hammer. I shot until about 30 minutes after sunset and the light gathered was better than I thought. Nikon has always had efficient optics, in my experience.

I shot 20 rounds or so to get a feel for the rifle and get the scope dialed in. All were Blazer Aluminum 158 gr JHP. My first group for accuracy was about 1.5". I was using a box of ammo and a rag for the front support on the bench, so not the best benchrest technique.

My next group, I shot 10 rounds and pulled two of them. Looking at the target, I saw the two pulled shots and threw them out. Group wound up 0.673" at 65 yds. That was surprising to me with my crappy benchrest technique and Blazer ammo. I'm sure that I am the largest part of the group size.

Here we were about 20 minutes after legal sunset, so I decided to finish up with single shots at the 2" orange diamonds. The results from this were better than I expected as well.

I think I'm in love with this rifle. I can't wait to ream out to .357 Maximum and work up some loads. I'll also need to do a little trigger work on it (lightening and rounding of the actual trigger). I'll need to get some decent sand bags for shooting groups from the bench. I felt like a newborn deer trying to stand for the first time, while shooting this thing. Might be better to go Appleseed and sling up.

 

[singlesix]

I bought a 22lr Handi Rifle for my son several years back, overall fits and looks were not "really there" but mechanically it functioned well and was very accurate. Look like you got a shooter.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Wow! An almost 1-1.5 MOA .357 rifle for under 300 bucks!? Good rifle and darn good shooting.

I think folks dont give Blazer ammo it's due. The .357 is pretty consistant stuff.

 

[kludge]

I can't wait to ream out to .357 Maximum and work up some loads.

Before you do, read this: Mike Bellm TCs - .357 Rem. Max. Chamber Throats

Another article: The Great .357 Remington Maximum Revival

 

[indyjoe]

Wow! An almost 1-1.5 MOA .357 rifle for under 300 bucks!? Good rifle and darn good shooting.

I think folks dont give Blazer ammo it's due. The .357 is pretty consistant stuff.

Yeah, I'm thinking it is a better rifle than that. I'm at least worth a 1/2 MOA in bad benchrest technique.

 

[indyjoe]

Before you do, read this: Mike Bellm TCs - .357 Rem. Max. Chamber Throats

Another article: The Great .357 Remington Maximum Revival

Yep, I've read both of those. I'm going to be doing plenty of measuring on my reamer first and might chuck it in the lathe and reduce the throat portion of the reamer somewhat if needed and possible. I'll error on the side of safety (i.e. leave more throat, rather than too much restriction.) However, new barrels on the Handi-Rifle are pretty inexpensive. I'd be paying someone to do this perfectly if this was an expensive rifle. Many have used the same reamer I ordered and developed 1 MOA .357 Maximum rifles from the Handi-Rifle.

The accuracy of .357 Magnum rounds in a .357 Maximum, mean that this isn't a terribly large influence. I also have to decide if I want to shoot many shorter than .357 Max cases. Doing a proper .357 Max throat would leave an edge were .357 Mag or .38 Special bullets would hit and leave deposits.

Another good site by an Indiana hunter is this one: .357 Maximum

 

[indyjoe]

I made a cast of the .357 Mag chamber and I decided to go with the standard throat .357 Max reamer and reamed out tonight. Took about 10 minutes, going really careful and periodically removing the reamer to clean out the metal and flowing cutting oil down the barrel. Then I used patches, wire brush and more patches to clean everything up and made a cast of the finished chamber. The throats look almost exactly the same, so hopefully it will keep similar accuracy with .357 Max cases as I got with the .357 Mag blazer or better.

The chamber that was cut with the reamer is barely smaller than the existing .357 Mag chamber. Maybe 0.001", just enough to see the line between them, but I can't feel it with a wire riding down the chamber. I'm going to shoot some more of my .357 Mag rounds to polish and round the edges of the new rifling.

Now on to the trigger. What I thought was a sharp edge is actually a machining ridge on the trigger. This combined with the square bottom edges on the trigger really make your finger sore after 30 rounds.

I taped up the receiver and trigger guard, which is plastic on the modern Handi's. Then used the smallest grinding wheel I had for the Dremel and carefully removed the ridge on the sides of the trigger and rounded the bottom edges.

Finished grind

Then I switched to a buffing compound and polished the grind marks out.

It finished with a nice smooth trigger face. This feels really good.

Then sat on the couch watching some TV and cocking and firing with a leather buffer. After about 300 times, I got bored, but the who trigger mechanism is much smoother.

My bed rest bags arrived from Midway, so I'll see how it shoots with the rest of the Blazer. I can't load any .357 Max, until the new scale gets here. I broke my old balance in the move.

Is there a good cold bluing that I should do on the trigger to protect it?