Henry Rifle Forums

After running about 40 rds of .357 thru the BB.357 yesterday,. I switched to some AE .38 158gr. LRN. The first tube full no problem. When I went to load the next tube, the spring rod(?) would not slide over the bullets. It was getting hung up. I emptied the tube and tried again. Same thing. About half way it would get stuck. So I reloaded with different bullets from the brick and only 4 in the tube. It worked. I then put the full load in and it would not slide over the bullets. Just for fun, I rotated the tube when it got stuck and it would slide over the bullets, sometimes, one at a time. Sometimes more until I could lock and load the tube. This has never happened in the short time I have had the rifle.

My thoughts:
Could be the ammo. Never used this ammo before. Other ammo(all Winchester) worked fine.
Could be the spring rod. Although, the end looked ok to me. Nothing bent.
Rifle was pretty hot. Maybe heat related?

Your thoughts Ladies and Gentlemen.

Sounds like the inside edge of the inner mag tube is hanging up on the rim of your .38 casings as you slide the tube down. Try filing/sanding the inside edge of your inner mag tube to smooth it out a little. Also check to make sure both the inner and outer mag tubes are perfectly straight - if either one of them has even a slight bend, it can cause a hang up while loading.

I've found that twisting the magazine tube as you are lowering it into place takes care of it sticking on a case .... take a look at this Henry video ==> https://www.henryusa.com/henry-instruct ... 010-h010b/ .... we use the same technique with our Henry 45-70, 44 Mag, and 357 Mag

I think your thoughts about the ammo is spot on; especially since you haven’t had any problems with other brands. I only have that problem with snap caps and only when it is mixed .38 special and .357 magnum. Either way I wouldn’t be too concerned with it as you have the easy fix of rotating the inner magazine tube that was mentioned in a previous post.

Thanks everyone. You put my mind ( what is left of it) at ease. I thought maybe I broke it.