Henry Rifle Forums

How many of you load one cartridge at a time by inserting a round in the ejection port? Do you have to insert the cartridge all the way in the chamber or can you simply lay the cartridge on top of the guide and close the action?

Do any of you shoot a Big Boy in Cowboy Action matches or SASS matches? What is the secret to loading a single round quickly after expending all the cartridges in the magazine tube?

I cannot speak to loading a single round quickly in Cowboy action shooting or matches. However, I did take training course for 3-Gun Competition. I had a 5-round capacity magazine on my Benelli 12ga, eventually added an extension and carried 7 rounds. 7 is still not enough to run most 3-Gun courses, e.g. the one I trained on required 11 rounds.

Part of the "secret" for me was practice-practice-practice. Since I could start with 7 rounds, I needed four more to finish the course. I bought four 12ga snap caps, and loaded & ejected them until my fingers hollered "enough!!"

The other factor was to have good access to the extra shells to load. Lots of good belt carry shell holders for a shotgun, designed for very quick access in competition shooting. I don't know what is best accessory for a centerfire cartridge. Must be something/some way to get a good handle on the additional cartridges.

I think the best reloading time I got to was around 5-6 seconds. Kinda slow for an actual 3-Gun shoot, but I was happy with it. Sorry I'm unable to hone in on the CAS. Sounds like an interesting challenge, and I'm sure there are methods out there to do it well.

Oh yes. When the fingers finished hollering, went ahead and practiced some more.
PT7

Hi Flinch,

When shooting off of a bench, I often insert a round in the ejection port of my Big Boy. I don't find it necessary to insert all the way into the chamber, just drop in into the ejection port. It rarely hangs up and almost always loads smoothly.

I do the same with my .44 steel carbine when shooting steel targets and don't want to stop for a full reload.

.
same here. just drop it in.

fortyshooter wrote:I do the same with my .44 steel carbine when shooting steel targets and don't want to stop for a full reload.

DAVIDF wrote:... just drop in into the ejection port. It rarely hangs up and almost always loads smoothly.

Flinch wrote:How many of you load one cartridge at a time by inserting a round in the ejection port? Do you have to insert the cartridge all the way in the chamber or can you simply lay the cartridge on top of the guide and close the action? ...

Hold it straight. If the round falls off the rail, it won't chamber.