Henry Rifle Forums

So today I measured my factory front sight at 0.556 inch high. That means I need a new sight that is a minimum 0.580 inch tall (0.556+0.024). BUT, this calculation only applies to the PMC ammo that I shot last week. It occurred to me today that I should have taken some other brands of ammo to the range with me, to see how much variation there is with the various loads. 0.580 inch may not be tall enough for some of the other 357mag ammo in my collection, including Aguila, Federal A.E., Magtech, S&B, Fiocchi, PPU.

Sounds like a good excuse to head out to the range again soon, to test out these other brands and determine a high/low/average. Then I can decide what new front sight to order.

I took my Henry BBS to the range today to try out a variety of commercial .357Magnum ammo. I shot 10 rounds of each at 50 yards. The results varied from 5 inches high to 0 inches high, with my factory front sight:

Federal American Eagle 5" high.
Fiocchi 3.5" high.
Aguila 3" high.
PPU 2.5" high.
PMC 2" high.
Magtech 2" high.
S&B 0" high.

So, according to my calculation, I need a new front sight that is at least 0.617 inches tall, if I want to be able to "zero" my rifle with the Federal ammo.

0.556" + 5x22/(50x3x12) = 0.617"

Or, I suppose I could just stick with the S&B and leave well enough alone ... Nah!

Assume this was all from a pretty well secured, sled type rest and the rifle itself didn't really move and throw a variable into all of this? If so, seems like a really wide spread, especially the AE @ 5".

ESquared wrote:Assume this was all from a pretty well secured, sled type rest and the rifle itself didn't really move and throw a variable into all of this? If so, seems like a really wide spread, especially the AE @ 5".

No, I have no fancy sled rest. I was shooting off of a bench with a sandbag front rest, and my shoulder (rear) rest. Some rifle movement is ENTIRELY possible!

flat_topp wrote:

ESquared wrote:Assume this was all from a pretty well secured, sled type rest and the rifle itself didn't really move and throw a variable into all of this? If so, seems like a really wide spread, especially the AE @ 5".

No, I have no fancy sled rest. I was shooting off of a bench with a sandbag front rest, and my shoulder (rear) rest. Some rifle movement is ENTIRELY possible!

Others may chime in with input, so stay tuned for that, but my $.02 is to not get too eager to jump to a taller front sight just yet. You've shown that you can land a shot, with the S&B, so it's a matter of duplicating that. That sight set-up delivered a bulls-eye, so build on it with sight hold, breathing, trigger press, etc.
And, I don't know how tall a front sight you could get from Henry, but it sounds like you may have the tallest one they have already.

ESquared wrote:And, I don't know how tall a front sight you could get from Henry, but it sounds like you may have the tallest one they have already.

Skinner makes a blued steel front sight at 0.650 inch tall that I am considering.

At the risk of revealing my lack of marksmanship skills, I'll post my targets from yesterday. I used some 2"dia white labels that my wife had in her office supply stash for extra bullseyes so that I could use a single 12" splatter target for up to three different groups at 10 rounds each. After shooting the first 5 rounds of Federal A.E. at the white bullseye on the left, I couldn't see the holes in the yellow border with my binoculars, thought I was off the paper, so I moved over to the white bullseye on the right to finish out the Federal set of 10.

It's hard to explain what's going on here without witnessing it, but a) you're still getting used to a new rifle; and b) this new rifle really seems to like Sellier & Belliot, so stick with it!

I've had great luck with Fiocchi .357 in my BBS, so it's a head-scratcher.

That S&B grouping at 50 yards is beautiful, so the simple answer is "do that more!"

In other words, I don't think it's a sight problem, but others here may have different thoughts.

Keep working and keep sharing. Eager to see how it plays out.

ESquared wrote: … this new rifle really seems to like Sellier & Belliot, so stick with it! … That S&B grouping at 50 yards is beautiful, so the simple answer is "do that more!"

I hear you! One thing I noticed about the S&B ammo was its low recoil compared to the other 6 brands I tested. I don't have a chronograph, so I can't compare bullet velocities, but I would estimate the recoil using the S&B to be only about 60 to 70 percent of the other stuff. But, I must add that my Henry shoots all of this 357 ammo very comfortably.

All of it 158 gr?

ESquared wrote:All of it 158 gr?

And, what sight picture are you using?