NEF's biggest and baddest Handi-Rifle: yeah, it's a .50

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2007 by John Taffin

The New England Firearms Handi-Rifle is a remarkable offering in this day and age as it is not only dependable, accurate and very easy to use, it is also the premier bargain in the marketplace selling for less than $300.

NEF offers Pardner shotguns chambered in all gauges as well as .410 in full-size and youth-size versions, slug guns, screw-in choke guns, camo guns and even a long-barreled waterfowl version. On the cartridge side, NEF offers the Handi Rifle, also in several versions and calibers including .204 Ruger, .223, .22/250, .243 Winchester, .25/06, .270, .280, 7mm-08, .30/06, .308, 7.62x39, and .35 Whelen all fitted with a base for mounting a scope. NEF also offers several Handi-Rifle/Pardner combination guns with both a rifle and shotgun barrel.

Another version of the Handi-Rifle is especially handy as it comes with fiber-optic sites, a 22" barrel and is chambered in .22 Hornet, .30-30 Winchester, .44 Magnum, and .45-70. The latter three are all excellent woods and brush cartridges for deer while the Hornet makes a great close-range varmint cartridge when used with iron sights. A farmer or rancher coming upon a skunk or fox after the chickens or a rancher who finds a coyote after one of his newborn calves, can quickly dispose of the offender with the .22 Hornet Handi-Rifle. Any of these rifles carry easily in the rack of a pickup truck on farm, ranch, or simply for roaming desert, forest or mountains. The latest chambering in this version of the Handi-Rifle is the .500 S&W Magnum. When chambered in a sixgun, the .500, without using lightweight bullets at super high velocity, is the most powerful factory produced sixgun/cartridge combination. Put it in a rifle barrel and it outdistances the heaviest loads offered in the .45-70 and that is saying something!

Handy Handi-Rifles

All Handi-Rifles, except a special polymer-stocked Synthetic Model, feature walnut-finished American hardwood Monte Carlo pistol grip stocks with a generous recoil pad and sling swivel studs. The operation of the Handi-Rifle is simplicity in itself. When a lever on the top right side of the receiver is pressed, the action opens, and the barrel falls forward. The fired cartridge is extracted far enough to be grasped by the thumb and forefinger, removed, then replaced by a loaded round. The action is then closed and the hammer must be cocked before the Handi-Rifle can be fired. This whole operation takes less time than it does to describe it. The Handi-Rifle uses a transfer bar system preventing the hammer from touching the firing pin until is cocked and the transfer bar moves upwards.

Light Sights

The fixed-sighted Handi-Rifles have excellent sights very easy to pick up even by my eyes. They are fiber-optic style with a bright red front dot matched up with two brilliant green dots on the rear sight. These are not the best sights for precise paper punching especially at longer ranges, however, they are perfect for what this rifle is designed for--up close critter confrontation and, in .500, qualifies as a handler of the biggest beasts around. The front sight is mounted in a dovetail and can be adjusted for windage. The rear sight slides up and down on the base and is easily adjusted for elevation. Normally, most rifle stocks are a little long for me, however the .500 Handi-Rifle comes up very easily and quickly to the shoulder, and the sights are very fast. As a close-up rifle in heavy cover, this little rifle would be fast into action and very convincing.

This version of the Handi-Rifle has a 22" barrel, and although rated at seven pounds, it actually weighs just three ounces over six pounds on my postal scale. It breaks down into three parts for easy transporting, consisting of the forearm, barrel and the action with butt-stock attached. Remove one screw in the forearm to take it off the barrel and the barrel can then be removed from the receiver. The trigger pull measures right at five pounds and groups might be little tighter if it was taken down to somewhere in the neighborhood of three to four pounds.

First The Fun

The .500 S&W may be a handgun cartridge, however it definitely qualifies as a rifle cartridge. In fact it might be looked upon as a modernization of the old .50-70 Govt. rifle cartridge and I tried to use it with both black powder and Hodgdon's Triple-Seven. I did not have the proper bullets, which should be relatively soft and lubricated with a lube specially made for black powder use, such as SPG or Lyman's Black Powder Gold. Using the bullet I did have, the hard-cast Dry Creek 440-grain Keith bullet over 30 grains by weight of Triple-Seven, a load which fills the case right to the bottom on the bullet without compression, gives 1,120 fps but the desired accuracy is not there. Promising, but not enough, so the old-style loads will have to wait until I come up with the right bullet.

I place any load in the Fun/Hunting category with a muzzle velocity under 1,400 fps. Actually for pure fun and enjoyment, 1,250 fps would be a better ceiling as after this, the loads start to talk to the shooter in no uncertain terms. Just to see what would happen, I loaded up bullets I had on hand with 10 grains of Unique. After you've done this many, many times over many, many years, sometimes the blind pig and the acorn actually proves true. With this load under the Cast Performance Bullet Co. 440 LFNGC (long flatnose gas check) muzzle velocity is a very pleasant shooting 935 fps and the Handi-Rifle places three shots in 5/8" at 25 yards. This is simply an accurate and easy shooting combination and would certainly shoot through any deer.