500 S&W to .22 Hornet and the forend

[PowerMac]

Hello, A New guy to the Forum and to Handi's.  I just bought a Handi Rifle in 500 S&W for Deer hunting now that it's legal in Indiana to hunt with a Handgun caliber rifle, but now that Deer season is over I was thinking of getting a .22 Hornet barrel, as a mater of fact I have my Handi all boxed up and ready to ship off to H&R per instructions on their website. I was wondering if the New Hornet barrel will fit my forend that came with the 500 S&W or do they include a new forend for the Hornet barrel, I guess what I'm worried is that the Hornet barrel is a smaller diameter than the Fat 500 barrel and wont fit properly in the forend.

Any info would be much appreciated.

Cheers, PowerMac

[quickdtoo]

Welcome! Your forend will fit fine, the hornet barrel isn't much smaller if any at the forend, there's just a bit more taper, not enough to make a difference. Although you may want to have a dedicated forend for each barrel, if you make changes to one forend for a barrel, it may not shoot good with the other when you swap it back. You can order a forend at the same time if you want, see the 2007 Retail price list in the FAQs.

While you're in there, spend some time reading, you'll find lots of answers to questions you don't even have yet!!

Tim

[LaOtto222]

Welcome to GBO. I have got a frame in right now getting a super light 22 Hornet and 444 Marlin barrels fitted for it. While I was at it, I am getting cinnamon lam butt stock and have ordered a fore end to match for each of my barrels (5 fore ends). I am planning on putting pillars in each one and then bedding each one to a particular barrel so that I have a dedicated fore end for each barrel.