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My trusty Ka-Bar Marine Fighting knife
IIRC, paid $15 for it and used the hell out of it before passing it on to my son who is using it these days.
 
I have three sets of UTG flip up AR sights, and they all have held up well and also work and take abuse just as well as my Magpul, Bobro and KAC sights. UTG bipods are also excellent.
Have some budget AR sights from Amazon, and they aren't so durable.

Have three red dots - two from the Black Friday bins at Cabelas, and one on sale at Sportsman's, that have held zero despite banging around and abuse. However, they eat batteries and there is no comparison when viewed side by side with my Surefire.

Two failures on PSA ARs, I believe due to assembly issues at PSA.
Parts from Bear Creek that were junk on arrival.

Had a Savage Axis rifle that would release the firing pin when you removed the bolt. A PITA. Worked great otherwise.

Had a Sightron SII that I bought on clearance. Its performance, and their customer service, have ruined the brand for me.
 
As far as red dot's and scopes I have 5 of these $12 red dots in use and all have been perfect so far. Even on my rapid fire 12 gauge saiga clone which is pretty hard use for a red dot.

Have a Leapers/utg 3-9x bug buster scope that has been used pretty constantly for 15 years and still holds zero despite not the kindest of treatment. It has bright clear optics. In contrast, I have a utg 4-16x scope which cost almost twice as much and it's crap.

I was planning on getting a SWFA fixed 16x scope for $300 but then saw this video which showed the optics of the $50 4-24x50 cvlife scope to be as good as the swfa. It doesn't track as true though. Not a huge fan of the reticle but if it gives bright and clear 15xish view (that's its true max) and holds zero it would be worth $50 to me. The reviewer said clarity and relief of the 6-24x cvlife is actually better than the SWFA. The 4-16x version is not as good according to the review. I ordered a 6-24x and we'll see how good it is. I have lots of rifles that could use an inexpensive but good scope. I don't know if the cvlife one fits that bill or not yet.

 
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I've owned three Handi Rifles with .223 barrels. One, which I presently own. It has a barrel constructed like a cannon, very thick on the breech end that slowly tapers toward the muzzle. The other two had the lightweight barrels, that is, they taper significantly just ahead of the chamber area. These two rifles with the lighter, thinner barrels wouldn't shoot well. At least not as well as the heavy, "normal" barrel that I kept.

There are tricks that can be done to enhance accuracy, like kind of floating the fore end with the addition of a small O-ring. Others will tell you the best shots taken with a Handi Rifle are the first few cold shots, after that they say accuracy declines. I haven't found that to be the case with my heavy bbl. .223.


Yes, those plastic small parts are an annoyance from an aesthetic standpoint. BUT: If we are comparing H&R to NEF, I can tell you that my 1966 Topper has the same plastic trigger guard and fore end spacer. I've read that H&R went to the plastic trigger guards when they changed from a lever to button barrel release. I've never seen an NEF that didn't have the plastic trigger. And, I've never seen a broken plastic trigger guard, either. But somebody, somewhere has probably done it. I've heard some noise on the Greybeard web site about metal replacements being made.

Many of the NEF guns had schnabel fore ends, which I never liked, just a personal preference. I like the traditional kind.

If I'd known that any of this was going to be of interest to anyone all these years later, I would've kept pictures of the various H&R and NEF single shots that I've owned. Mine were all mostly ordinary, no Ultras, no fancy laminated stocks (some of which I've admired), no Buffalo guns, etc. The NEF .223 that I currently have has a blued steel frame, it is NJ date (1995), my 28 ga. Partner is NG (1992) and it has the bogus case hardened look on a cast iron frame. It might be but I don't know for sure that in later production, NEF got away from the faux case hardened look on shotgun frames. Remember, Marlin bought NEF in 2000, then Remington bought Marlin in 2008. Corporate acquisitions often result in ways being sought to reduce cost of production.

When I got my first H&R in 1966, the factory was offering accessory barrels for sale. In addition to other gauges, you could get .22 LR, .22 Hornet, and .30-30. When NEF reestablished the product after H&R went bankrupt, they adopted the accessory barrel product concept and expanded the offering of chamberings. NEF required that the frame be send back to the factory for fitting; I never enquired of H&R about it, so I don't know if it was a requirement of theirs also.

Some time ago, I posted a few threads here about the late history of H&R and the history of NEF. There is a lot of inaccurate information online about these two companies. I dug around in company incorporation documents that are in the public domain, copies of old advertisements, etc., and was able to clear up some of the misconceptions. It would take me too long to find those posts now to link them to this.

End note, I just remembered something. I've said previously that I didn't have any fancy NEF's. I had one, it was a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation raffle gun. It was a beautiful Handi Rifle with walnut stock (not the usual "pallet board"), de luxe blue job, RMEF medallion embedded in the butt stock. It was chambered in .308 Win. It had a scope on it. I'm embarrassed to say I don't recall what I did with it.
My 12 gauge nef had broken plastic trigger guard, when I got it.
 
I have four BSA sweet 22/17 scopes, three of which have been wonderful on my rimfires. The forth suffered a dropped reticle early in my ownership, but BSA promptly replaced it and the replacement has been fine. I have a Bushnell Rimfire scope that has been flawless. I also have run some UTG and Osprey scopes on the bigger stuff without issue.
 
I bought my FN Hi-Power in California in 2006.
I needed a place to secure it.
Bought a 30 cal. ammo can, made a lock for it, decided to put some anchors in the concrete floor of my room.
I bought a $12 Harbor Freight 1/2" hammer drill, with a 20% off coupon, just to put 2 anchors in the floor.
I still have it, it still works great, just used it, and it will prolly be around forever

Joe
 
+ what ever to the TRS-25, have had a few and they work well above their price point.

$8 KCI glock mags...have a bunch, never had a problem with them ( with the caveat, I only carry factory glock nags )

PSA AR uppers, parts, ect......say what you will, I've had great luck with PSA stuff, not a single problem in 10 years of buying their stuf
 

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