H.&R."Handy Gun" Receiver Caliber? Value? Serial Number?
Seen a H&R Handy Gun Receiver for sale.
Not a gunsmith so have questions on it that owner doesn't know either.
It is complete and pretty nice condition.
Any easy way to figure out what caliber?
Any way to check if it was ever registered by the serial number?
Nice case colors and has stock bolt. Any idea on value? or is above info needed first?
Thanks.
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When you say "the owner" how long has he owned it? If he is not the original owner who registered the firearm during the November 1968 amnesty then he should have in his possession a completed Form 4 with a $5 tax stamp for an Any Other Weapon when it was transferred to him by the man who first registered it. After the close of the amnesty, there is no legal way to register an unregistered NFA firearm.
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From Wikipedia:
The H&R Handy-Gun is a single-shot, breech-loading handgun produced from 1921 to 1934 by Harrington & Richardson. Two principal variants were produced; one with a rifled barrel and one smooth-bore.[1][2]
The rifled-barrel variant was produced from 1930-1934 and it featured a 12¼" barrel. It was available in .22 WRF, .32-20 and possibly other centerfire cartridges.[1][3] Some guns were originally factory fitted with a wire stock. Production was halted with the passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA34). Rifled versions with a detachable wire stock are a short-barrel rifle under federal law and require registration. Pistols without the stock are exempt.[1]
The smooth-bore version was produced from 1921 to 1934 and sports an 8" or 12¼" barrel. The gun was available in .410-bore (most 2½") and 28-gauge.[1] After the passage of NFA34, the smooth-bore Handy-Gun was classed as an "Any Other Weapon".[1][4][5] Production halted after the passage of the act, after approximately 54,000 Handy-Guns had been produced.[1][3]
So the only one that did NOT require registration was the pistol version of a rifled Handy-gun. The stocked rifled versions did not make the barrel length/ OAL to be exempt. NONE of the shotgun versions were exempt.
IN GOOD COMPLETE CONDITION- the .410 may be around $450-500, the 28 g around $2,000- IF THEY ARE PAPERED. There may be an H&R collector that could give some info on caliber from serial number, but that is iffy. WITHOUT a barrel, they are legal to own without being registered with the ATF. And value drops a lot.
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mark christian: 31547499918619/comments/31547499981595
When you say "the owner" how long has he owned it? If he is not the original owner who registered the firearm during the November 1968 amnesty then he should have in his possession a completed Form 4 with a $5 tax stamp for an Any Other Weapon. After the close of the amnesty, there is no legal way to register an unregistered NFA firearm.
He has Just the receiver and has had it forever(many years), no barrel or stock, and has no other knowledge about it. He never seen/had a barrel or stock. From what we researched, the receiver is just a gun part without the barrel. Is that not true?
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Categorically not true. The receiver remains a firearm whether or not it has a barrel (or barrels). It sounds to me that this is a bootleg Handy-Gun which was never registered. To keep out of prison, someone many years ago tossed away the barrel and retained the receiver, which, because Handy-Guns never had a butt stock, would now be defined as a pistol. Unregistered, which I suspect it is, it is little more than a novelty. The owner can contact the ATF and request a search to see if it was in fact registered, but that will only attract undue attention from the feds; attention which even a Class 3 dealer like myself, would not want!
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You can go to GB auction site and see going prices for such. H&R has safety warnings in their manuals about installing wrong type barrels on their receivers. (it was a factory fitment when they were in business.
H&R also had several caliber specific receivers and some old receivers did not even have serial numbers and had factory recalls.
A very old H&R receiver is not worth much, most likely, only for old parts.
It's not in the category of an old Winchester or Old Colt gun.
It's more in the category of: When others are selling it's called vintage.
When I'm selling my old vintage stuff the buyers call my stuff junk.
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Okie- You may be thinking of 2 different firearms- The Handy-Gun and the Handi-Rifle. Handy-Gun was produced from 1921 to 1934. The 1934 National Firearms Act killed it.
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