Henry Rifle Forums

...and I lay partial blame at the feet of member Florida_cracker.

Let me explain.
A week or so ago I saw a thread on here asking for a new home for a Henry Big Boy butt stock.
He had one that was brand new, but would not fit his rifle. He offered it to someone who could use it for the price of shipping.

I jumped on it.
One problem, I did not own a Henry Big Boy brass receiver rifle, but I knew where there was one I MIGHT be able to lay my hands on, but I wasn't sure.
My local range/shop had a Big Boy brass in .357 on the rental counter, and it had a nasty gouge in the butt stock.

Well, I now have a new (to me) Henry Big Boy carbine with the brass receiver in .357mag/.38spl,and guess what?
It has a brand new butt stock!
Not only that, but the range has a brand new Henry to replace the one I took home.
$500 even. Didn't feel too badly hurt.

No lessons to learn here, except maybe, when you see something you want, GO FOR IT!
Thanks F_C!

congrats indeed .... I'd really enjoy seeing some range reports based on side-by-side 357 & 327 rifles

Well, I can tell you one thing right now that has me a little puzzled.
I took the .357 back to the range before I left the shop.
I put just a handful of rounds downrange, mostly to see if the rifle was particular.

The shop sold some .357mag 158gr JFP so I bought a box of that.
I also had some Hornady LEVERevolution 140gr FTX, and some Herter's .38spl 158gr JFP.

The Defender brand was the worst grouping, but shot clean enough. Groups were acceptable, but not really tight. Shots landed about 2" low of point of aim at 15 yards.
The Hornady LEVERevolution had pretty tight groups, but printed at 3"+ low of point of aim at 15 yards.
The Herter's .38spl 158gr JFP shot dead-on. 5 bulls at 15 yards with a maximum spread of only 1.25"

I just ordered 500 SJHP 158gr .358 boolits to play with.

I'm kind of disappointed in the Hornady LEVERevolution.
The same ammunition is deadly accurate in my Marlin 1894 .44mag. I thought it would be about the same in the .357, but nope.

Mgderf wrote:No lessons to learn here, except maybe, when you see something you want, GO FOR IT!
Thanks F_C!

Congratulations on your new Henry!

You are totally correct in what you say. I can't remember the number of times that I've seen something, and then gone away "to think about it". By the time I've thought, and gone back to buy it ...... it's gone. Now I'm like you. Life's too short for disappointments!

Mgderf wrote:I'm kind of disappointed in the Hornady LEVERevolution.
The same ammunition is deadly accurate in my Marlin 1894 .44mag. I thought it would be about the same in the .357, but nope.

the day we picked up our Henry 45-70 the only ammo we could find was LEVERevolution ... so, we bought 1 box, hopefully I'll never be in a position where we are forced to ever buy another .... the bullet's design is such that it requires a casing that is shorter than standard 45-70 casings .... with that being the case they aren't designed to be reloaded with standard bullets .... if we didn't reload, that wouldn't be an issue but since we do it is a major consideration

JEBar wrote:

Mgderf wrote:I'm kind of disappointed in the Hornady LEVERevolution.
The same ammunition is deadly accurate in my Marlin 1894 .44mag. I thought it would be about the same in the .357, but nope.

the day we picked up our Henry 45-70 the only ammo we could find was LEVERevolution ... so, we bought 1 box, hopefully I'll never be in a position where we are forced to ever buy another .... the bullet's design is such that it requires a casing that is shorter than standard 45-70 casings .... with that being the case they aren't designed to be reloaded with standard bullets .... if we didn't reload, that wouldn't be an issue but since we do it is a major consideration

That fact has not escaped my attention.
The LEVERevolution is not the only Hornady offering that uses shorter than average cases.
Their Critical Defense" ammunition is the same.
I guess if you use only proprietary components you hope consumers will buy only your components.

I still can't figure out why they don't preform well in the Big Boy.
Small groups, but point of impact is too far off point of aim.

Point of impact in not an Issue. Find the ammo the gun likes and sight it for that. As a general rule hotter ammo will often drop in pistol magnum calibers.

My Big Boy has POI all over the place depending on how hot the ammo is. My gun likes 44 mag 240 gr bullets. 180 gr hit 6" high and left.

It's so crazy when Hack and I hit the range together with our Big Boys. You wouldn't even think they are the same gun. Mine likes 240's and gets silly with 180's. His loves the 180's but doesn't shoot nearly as well with 240's.

I have some ammo that groups good at 50 yds but groups excellent at 100yds. Go figure?!

Don't sweat the POI. Find what groups well at the distance you'll mostly be shooting and zero on that.

Can't say I'm a fan of the Leverloution ammo in any caliber. Nice groups but doesn't feed well for me in any of my guns. Sharp recoil as well.

PMC 158 gr SJSP work very well in both my BBB , BBS .357. Also CCI Blazer Brass 158gr JHP = very nice in the BBS.

Enjoy that new BB!

HAppy SHootin !
Petey

Petey wrote:PMC 158 gr SJSP work very well in both my BBB , BBS .357. Also CCI Blazer Brass 158gr JHP = very nice in the BBS.

Enjoy that new BB!

HAppy SHootin !
Petey

My friendly UPS man just delivered 500 158gr .358" SJHP yesterday.
Now I'm waiting on Star-Line to deliver a like number of cases.

I'll find a load...