Henry Rifle Forums

Hi, new member here with a question about my BB 327fed mag rifle. I picked it up used, but fired very little, from the original owner. He is not new to working on firearms but is not a certified gunsmith. He worked on the internals to slick up the action and possibly make it a cowboy gun, which did not work out to his satisfaction. I bought the gun, mostly because of the slick action.
So, the problem I have is, fired brass has a nasty looking bulge about 3/16 inch above the case head and my Hornady full length sizer, adjusted all the way down, will not take the bulge out enough for the round to be used in my Ruger revolver.
So, do these rifles chambered in 327 fed mag have a history of bulged brass ?? or did my guy possibly mess with the feed ramp and throat area ? Or, is it possibly firing without the lever all the way closed ? The hammer will drop, but I am not sure if Henry uses a safety thingy to prevent it from firing or if it was removed during the work.

Your thoughts

Welcome to the forum!

Hard to say without seeing it but it almost sounds like the bolt is somehow not locking on firing or the round is not chambering completely and creating an 'unsupported' condition.
I would seriously recommend you have this looked at by someone who knows and understands lever action operation.
The former owner may have done something in an attempt to 'speed up' the action but inadvertently created a problem.
A bulged case is evidence of it not being completely chambered and you should probably not shoot it until it is inspected.
Let's hope he did not alter the chamber dimensions for any reason.

yep, my thinking also. I think it has been altered so it will fire without the bolt being locked up/ lever not all the way closed. The why is a big question.
I will get it checked out locally if I can find anybody familiar with the Henry.
Thanks for the reply

The why is a big question.

You mentioned him possibly making it a 'cowboy' gun - so I assume for CAS competition?

Unfortunately by virtue of the design the Henry (and Marlins) for that matter do not lend themselves well to CAS competition due to the fact they are simply not designed for extremely rapid cycling - even with action and trigger jobs.

I know some Marlins are being used and I have heard of one Henry but they are not the # 1 choices for CAS.

You are right. I shoot cowboy some and have never seen a Henry and only a few Marlins. But the marlins seem to work really well. A friend of mine really knows how to make the Marlin run. Check a U tube video titled "widdermatic" He quit doing them a few years ago.
I use a Winchester 73 in 45 Colt that has been slicked up and works reasonably good. Doing it again I would use the Uberti in 357/38.
thanks for the response
Leadhead