I have been setting here thinking if I should reply or not, obviously since you are reading this, I am going to reply.
Fred you are correct on several counts. The present H&R design is with the transfer bar and is not intended for any thing that resembles not having one. On your gun as with my other H&R, the hammer spring will push the firing pin in if the transfer bar is up. I have voided any warranty. I do not recommend the gold hammer solution for anyone, because I am not going to be responsible for their actions or results of their modifications. The present H&R gun is with out a doubt less safe with out the transfer bar than it is with it.
This part is also true - The firing pin spring will and does push the hammer back on my gun, enough so the firing pin does not protrude through the breech face. I do not know if the spring will have a short life. To get this condition, I bent the spring to the point of not having much strength at the up position. I really cut the spring short on the legs rather than heat them and bend them like Tim did. When I did this the spring did not have enough tension to push the hammer up into the half cock position. So I bent it until it had just enough force to push the hammer consistently in the half cock position with out any extra force. It does have a stiff spring action as it approaches the cocked position. It gets it's power through momentum of the hammer, with not much spring action at the striking position. I have shot it maybe 100 times since the modification and have not got a light hit and the spring seems to be holding up fine. Again, it does not stick through the breech face, even when the hammer is at rest against the firing pin.
How I got where I am today
I lightened the trigger to the point of getting light primer strikes or not even a primer strike. Try as I might, I could not get it to be consistent. Some how the transfer bar was not traveling up far enough to get between the hammer and the firing pin. Did it have to do with the trigger not traveling as far to release the hammer or was the trigger so light, that I quit pulling on it? I am not sure on that. Some times I got a strike, but the transfer bar fell down and the primer would protrude through the firing pin hole so that opening the barrel was very difficult. Some times I got no indent whats so ever. Some times it fired OK. The only way I could get it to fire with any consistency was to "stab" the trigger, which forced me to follow through. I tried I really did. But it was still not 100% sure fire. There are several others that have had the same problem. I was not getting very good groups because I was thinking about follow through on the trigger and not on sight picture and the stabbing did not help any either. I do not have a problem with my other Handi, I have never had this condition, but the trigger was not that light either. I could have fixed it my getting a new trigger and not honing it down as far. I had read in the forum about removing the transfer bar. I did not want to give up my very light trigger that I carefully honed down so I thought if I could get rid of the transfer bar, it would solve my problem. I bought the gold hammer, a case hardened hammer (old style), a couple of springs (old style) and a new trigger. When I replaced the hammer and removed the transfer bar, I discovered the trigger would not engage the hammer. So I had to replace the trigger with the new one I purchased. Now I was back to ground zero as far as trigger pull is concerned. I carefully honed down the new hammer, but I did not go as light as I had it before. It has kind of negated my purpose of the gold hammer. I could hone it down some more, but after thinking about it, the Handi is not a bench gun and never will be, so why worry about an extremely light trigger pull? As long as the trigger pull is not very light, I do not think there should be a problem with the transfer bar coming up into position, unless there is some thing wrong with it. I saved all of the old parts and can reverse the process at any time. I may do that before it all over and said. It is real nice not to have the transfer bar, he trigger is extremely crisp, I do now have a low profile hammer to mount the scope lower and I do not have to worry about follow through with the hammer. If I had it to do over, I would have just gotten a new trigger and installed it, leaving the hammer and transfer bar in place. It would have been much easier.
In the recent past I have explained to folks how to fix their light strikes by using the "gold hammer". Fred and several others have voiced their disapproval. I have given this careful thought. I certainly do not want anyone to get into a situation where their gun is unsafe. I feel that mine is and I know how to handle it. I may still reverse it with the transfer bar in place. I realize that not everyone knows how to handle a gun with out a transfer bar. In retrospect, I think they are correct - It should not be done under any circumstance. If you have light primer strikes, get a new hammer or new parts that will fix the problem and leave the transfer bar in.
Sorry for the long post, I hope you read it in whole and understand I am not advocating taking the transfer bar out. I tried a solution to a problem I had, but there are much better ones.
Good Shooting and Good Luck.
