Resurrecting The H&R Handy-Gun

The Handy-Gun is more compact and opens easier than the original Contender.

Original markings on the frame of the H&R Handy-Gun.

In between the two world wars Harrington & Richardson offered a very handy gun, in fact it is so handy it was named the Handy-Gun. While it’s a pistol, it operates like the first shotgun I ever owned — the H&R single-shot 12-gauge Topper. In recent years H&R offered single-shot rifles based on this same design and I have heavy barrel versions in .22 LR, .22 WMR and .223. The last one is exceptionally accurate with Black Hills’ 68-grain SP load and is good out to 200 yards for both deer and deer-sized game.

The Handy-Gun was produced as short-barreled .410 and 28-gauge shotguns and for easy handling cartridges, including .22 WRF and .32-20. While the single-shot rifle and shotgun versions continued to be produced until just recently, the Handy-Gun fell under the restrictions of the 1934 National Firearms Act and production ceased. Since the originals were considered short-barreled shotguns, a $200 tax stamp through the ATF was required.

The Winchester .44-40 JSPs, foreground, proved to be the
most accurate load for the Handy-Gun.

This custom Handy-Gun by Milt Morrison is chambered in .44-40/.44 WCF.

A Handy Resurrection

Dylan Stocker of Old Arms of Idaho specializes in old gun parts. His shop has several rooms stocked with thousands of parts. If he doesn’t have it, it probably doesn’t exist. He recently gathered several parts together and placed them in the hands of my friend, fellow Shootist, and extremely talented gunsmith, Milt Morrison of QPR. Milt has been featured several times in these pages with some of his custom sixguns; however, his latest is totally different.

Milt started with several parts from Old Arms of Idaho and brought them together with the original Handy-Gun action. The 10" barrel is a section of an original Winchester .44 WCF Model 92 barrel. This old cartridge goes back to 1873 and has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts since the arrival of Cowboy Action Shooting. It’s mostly referred to today as the .44-40. I don’t know if Dylan or Milt chose this chambering, but I consider it an excellent choice for the Handy-Gun.

The Handy-Gun is smaller, lighter and much easier to open and operate than the original single-shot Contender. For sights, they chose a Ruger #1 barrel band front sight with a gold bead matched up with a Contender Super 14 fully adjustable rear sight. I believe that was made by Williams Gun Sight company.

Milt put everything together, and the result is a very slick-handling, pure fun shooting, single-shot big bore pistol. I do not know if the action is strong enough for something such as the .44 Magnum. However, even if it is my hand would probably give out long before the action as this H&R grip was not designed for heavy recoil. It works just fine with the .44-40 and with factory loads can be shot in total comfort.

John found the one-of-a-kind .44-40 Handy-Gun to shoot just fine at 25 yards.

Shotgun? Pistol? Yes. But it’s perfectly legal as a handgun now.

John found the action smooth and ejection … positive!

Feeding & Shooting

It’s not easy to find much variety in the way of factory loads for the .44-40. Going through my stock of ammunition, I came up with CAS loads consisting of 200-grain Black Hills and HSM loads and 225-grain Mag-Tech and PMC — all with RNFP cast bullets. I also scrounged up both Remington and Winchester 200-grain Jacketed Soft Point loads.

The action of this single-shot pistol locks up tightly, opens easily when the lever on the top of the action is pushed to the right. Ejection of fired cartridges is extremely positive, which means they come out when the action is opened and are thrown quite a distance. I learned to just open the action slightly, point it at a wire basket, and then continue opening so the cartridges would go in the basket. That saved me a lot of brass chasing.

Accuracy was excellent! My eyes and bead front sights are not on intimate speaking terms as I much prefer a black flat post on pistols, however I can’t complain about the results. My best results came from JSP loads with the Remington’s clocking out at 1,040 fps with three shots in 1″ at 25 yards, while the Winchester was right at 1,000 fps and a 3/4″ group for three shots at the same distance. These would certainly work at reasonable distances for deer and deer-sized game. Dylan uses it as a varmint pistol on what we call in Idaho, Picket Pins or Squeakies. They’re also known as ground squirrels. They are about half the size of a Coke can, which makes them a challenging target for iron sights.

This Custom Handy-Gun is a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. I am so taken with it I would definitely like to see some company bring these back in such chamberings like .22 LR, .22 Magnum .25-20, .32-20, .32 H&R Magnum, .327 Federal Magnum and even .22 Hornet. They would be exceptionally enjoyable shooting pistols, which would put a lot of fun into shooting. Isn’t that what most shooting should be about?

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