357 Big Boy Steel Side Gate Pistol Grip
Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:44 pm
I wanted Big Boy Steel Side Gate 20" 357 Mag with a pistol grip stock. I couldn't find one in the catalogue. The closest was a Big Boy X 357, but those seem to be bringing a $400-600 premium over MSRP if you can find one.
So I started with a straight stock model - H012GML. Here's a list of parts I used:
- The H10-200 spare stock set ordered online
- The H012X large loop pistol grip lever ordered by phone from the Wisconsin plant
- A 2"x3"x.75" piece of oak from my scrap pile
- A 3/4" #6 wood screw
The pistol grip stock and H012x lever bolt right on, but leaves a space in the bottom of the stock. The easiest fix would have been to buy an 357 X trigger plate, but Henry was closed for the weekend. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to make a plug to fill the space.
First I used my belt sander and varying grits of sand paper to reduce the .750" width to about .520" to fit snugly in the gap. I also rounded the back and channeled the top of the plug to match the contours of the stock and trigger plate.
I cut the extra off the plug with a jig saw. I then used a dremel and more sand paper to follow the contour of the pistol grip.
Once I was satisfied with the plug's shape, I drilled a hole in it for the wood screw to hold it in place. I started with a .050" drill bit. I then increased the hole to about .100" so it would turn smoothly in the plug. I also countersunk the screw hole so the screw head would be flush. I increased the hole size in the stock to about .075" so the screw threads would grip tightly to hold the plug in place.
Here's a close up of the plug after some stain and screwed in place. The oak wood grain is in no way close the walnut stock but fortunately, it's hidden by the lever. I think I'm going to find some walnut to replace the oak piece. I didn't realize how coarse oak wood grain is compared to walnut.
Quick edit. Tried a piece of scrap walnut. Really didn't help since I couldn't match the stock's grain or color.
Finally gave up and just spray painted it black.
I did have to replace the original wood forend with the one that came with the pistol grip stock. They have different check patterns. I also had to add some small spacers to eliminate some extra play in the forend. The original piece had a small cork pad installed (on the left). I used some 1/4"and 1/2" diameter adhesive backed felt pads. Two 1/2" pads stack on top of each other in the back bottom of the forend and a pair of quarter inch pads at the top front and back corners of forend so it would fit snuggly against the barrel to eliminated the slop. Guess the forend is channeled for the larger diameter of the barrels and tube magazines of the bigger calibers. The barrel and mag tube on my 44 X Model are larger in diameter than my 357 BB.
And here's the final product on top with it's 44 Mag X Model cousin. Tip of the hat to DsGrouse for pointing me in the right direction for wood furniture on the X. It also helped me put together a pistol grip 357 with wood furniture - sort of like gunsmithing with Legos.
So I started with a straight stock model - H012GML. Here's a list of parts I used:
- The H10-200 spare stock set ordered online
- The H012X large loop pistol grip lever ordered by phone from the Wisconsin plant
- A 2"x3"x.75" piece of oak from my scrap pile
- A 3/4" #6 wood screw
The pistol grip stock and H012x lever bolt right on, but leaves a space in the bottom of the stock. The easiest fix would have been to buy an 357 X trigger plate, but Henry was closed for the weekend. Since I had nothing else to do, I decided to make a plug to fill the space.
First I used my belt sander and varying grits of sand paper to reduce the .750" width to about .520" to fit snugly in the gap. I also rounded the back and channeled the top of the plug to match the contours of the stock and trigger plate.
I cut the extra off the plug with a jig saw. I then used a dremel and more sand paper to follow the contour of the pistol grip.
Once I was satisfied with the plug's shape, I drilled a hole in it for the wood screw to hold it in place. I started with a .050" drill bit. I then increased the hole to about .100" so it would turn smoothly in the plug. I also countersunk the screw hole so the screw head would be flush. I increased the hole size in the stock to about .075" so the screw threads would grip tightly to hold the plug in place.
Here's a close up of the plug after some stain and screwed in place. The oak wood grain is in no way close the walnut stock but fortunately, it's hidden by the lever. I think I'm going to find some walnut to replace the oak piece. I didn't realize how coarse oak wood grain is compared to walnut.
Quick edit. Tried a piece of scrap walnut. Really didn't help since I couldn't match the stock's grain or color.
Finally gave up and just spray painted it black.
I did have to replace the original wood forend with the one that came with the pistol grip stock. They have different check patterns. I also had to add some small spacers to eliminate some extra play in the forend. The original piece had a small cork pad installed (on the left). I used some 1/4"and 1/2" diameter adhesive backed felt pads. Two 1/2" pads stack on top of each other in the back bottom of the forend and a pair of quarter inch pads at the top front and back corners of forend so it would fit snuggly against the barrel to eliminated the slop. Guess the forend is channeled for the larger diameter of the barrels and tube magazines of the bigger calibers. The barrel and mag tube on my 44 X Model are larger in diameter than my 357 BB.
And here's the final product on top with it's 44 Mag X Model cousin. Tip of the hat to DsGrouse for pointing me in the right direction for wood furniture on the X. It also helped me put together a pistol grip 357 with wood furniture - sort of like gunsmithing with Legos.
