Henry Rifle Forums

New to a Big Boy Carbine 44 Mag. Can you help me with some ammo questions? (Target stuff) I have 44 Mag for my Ruger Redhawk Pistol in 180 Grain and 240 grain. When I replenish it would be nice to use the same grain in both the Big Boy and the Redhawk. First what does the Big Boy like and second any chance in using the same grain in both? Thank you.

You're likely to be getting some 44 mag ammo advice shortly, grm. Welcome to the forum and congratulations on that new Henry.

Welcome to the forum, grm.

I think you'll find that your Bigboy will do well with any just about any 240g bullet in 44Mag. The barrel and twist rate (1/38) on a Henry are kind of optimized for that round. We have had good luck with Federal 240g JHP and Winchester 240g JSP on all three of our 44Mag Henrys (including 2 carbines). We usually buy this ammo at the local Walmart. Save your brass - if you shoot 44Mag a lot you'll eventually want to get into reloading.

Use it enough and you'll know what it likes. My Bud on here has a brass Big Boy that just loves 180 gr. So that's what he shoot's. Mine doesn't print well at all with 180 gr but loves 240. Go figure. One may have been made on new tooling and one at the end of a barrel run. Hard to say. Both shoot well when fed what they like. I reload most of my ammo these days. But Mine also likes the Federal American Eagle. Winchester white box also works well. I think you will find different ammo hit's the target in different places. The fun is shooting enough to get the rifle sorted out!

The Big Boy will most likely be more finicky than your Redhawk. Whatever, works well in your Big Boy, will probably work well in the Redhawk. That has been my experience with my Big Boy and my Super Black Hawks.

Do you hand load? .44 is a fantastic caliber to hand load. I have been working on some very nice plinking loads that are inexpensive and duplicate the ballistics of the original black powder .44 WCF loads. A few tenths of a grain can make a huge difference in accuracy out of the Big Boy. Not so much with the Rugers, they are much more forgiving.

grm wrote:New to a Big Boy Carbine 44 Mag. Can you help me with some ammo questions? (Target stuff) I have 44 Mag for my Ruger Redhawk Pistol in 180 Grain and 240 grain. When I replenish it would be nice to use the same grain in both the Big Boy and the Redhawk. First what does the Big Boy like and second any chance in using the same grain in both? Thank you.

first, welcome to our forum, delighted to have you join us .... please feel free to read and post often ....

second, we also have a 44 Mag Henry and a Ruger Redhawk .... we hand load our ammo and decades ago we settled on 23.8 gr of 296 or H110 (we can find no difference in their performance) pushing a Nosler 240 gr JHP bullet as the hunting level ammo for our Redhawk .... needless to say, it performs very well and has been effective on deer, boar, and black bear .... in 2016 when we bought our Henry 44, we loaded her with same hand loads and she liked them .... historically I have been a firm advocate of practicing with the same ammo you hunt with .... a few months ago I decided to develop some practice loads using lead bullets and light powder charges .... while it has been fun, for me it has pretty much been a waste of time and money .... at short range they did well but at 75 to 100 or more yards, their trajectory required a significant sight adjustment .... for me, its not been worth the effort

third, please take a look at our How Many ? thread (link below) and add your Henry to our community's total
https://www.myrvtalk.com/forum/technica ... -condition

lastly, be sure to enter our current (it just started today) contest at this link http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3723

Welcome to the forum.

I can't help you on the Henry, but as to the 44 mag it's still my favorite after all these years. Recently got out of reloading, but I still bite the bullet and shoot some factory ammo, every now and then. Doubt I'll ever get the 44 mag out of my system. Anyway, if you can find some in your area, the 240 grain Mag-tech is a bit more affordable than most factory 44 mag ammo and its given me excellent results in the accuracy department, on a par with some of the high-priced hunting factory hunting loads.

I saw a YT video of a fellow making hundred yard shots offhand at a bucket of water. He had no problems hitting his bucket with 180 grain remingtons and 240 grain federals (I think). The 180 grainers really blew out that bucket so when I bought some ammo I bought the 180 remingtons. The shop didn't have much selection so I was lucky to get them. I think the 180s provide a little higher velocity.
Next time I'll try some 240s.

I'd stay with the 240s. That's the standard for the 44 mag and will always be easy to find. The 180 factory loads are not always easy to find. Will shoot to a different POI, too.

Lighter factory bullets are almost always loaded to faster speeds than heavier ones. I've found that often the lighter stuff can recoil worse than the heavier stuff do to the hotter load.

Thank you all. I have the information. A great Forum experience. Regards,

grm,

I would highly recommend hand loading for the 44 Magnum if you have any time to do so. It is a great round to hand load and I absolutely love loading for it. Very versatile and extremely cheap compared to factory loads. There are plenty of good powder & bullets choices available. It is easy to load accurate low power to very hot loads out of a 44 depending upon your desire and needs. If you need any help in that area there are plenty of us here that will be glad to provide any assistance you need.