Henry Rifle Forums

All of the 44 mag rifles on Henry's website state 1-20 twist. Not the old 1-38. When did this change?

Id call them. Seems to me this came up before and the website wasnt right.

Hey "servant824",

Will you please share what you find out?

Thank you!

A member on the Cast Bullet forum spoke with a Henry tech about this. He said the Henry tech stated they are in the process of using up all the present supply of 1-38 barrels they have and then will switch to 1-20 twist for the 44 mag. No date or serial number cutoff was mentioned.
This company listens to customers.

So is this to shoot heavier than 240-250 gr. bullets?

Wow, that is welcome news. I emailed customer support about ten days back about this and never received a reply, which bothered me. I wonder if the new fast twist guns will be marked as such on the box ID label.

I would be pissed, extremely, if I bought a 1:38 gun thinking it was 1:20 due to Henry advertising mistakes. I would feel more confident if they posted this announcement at their FB page or website.

I will hold off on my purchase of an AW for a while.... maybe by then they will offer the AW in a carbine.

John Davies
Spokane WA

I have a 1-38 .44 and wish it was a 1-20. But it shoots pretty well. Still trying out loads. I have had to push up the velocity in the 1-38 twist a bit harder for accuracy so far. But I have not shot any cast out of it yet just jacketed.. But groups are much tighter as I get near about 90% of listed max loads of AA9 or 2400.

Found Henry’s response to my questions in my spam folder..... i emailed back asking for clarification and if there will be any way to identify a 1:20 gun other than forcing a patch down the barrel. I wonder how long distributor inventory of the older guns will take to “sell down”... maybe online sellers will list the new TR, but I personally would not rely on that data when the gun might be an older version. It would be nice if it were stamped on the barrel next to the caliber markings.

“Thank you for your interest in Henry rifles.

The .44 Magnum Big Boy series rifle barrels have undergone a change from the old twist rate of 1:38” to a new twist rate of 1:20”. This was to simplify production of .44 Magnum barrels using the same twist rates for both the Big Boy series and the Single Shot series.

The changeover in the .44 Magnum rifles' twist rates was a running production change for which we have no specific date or serial # reference.

There is no functional difference in the use or operation of our .44 Mag Big Boy lever-action rifles, no matter which twist rate the gun has. Due to the nature of the lever-action mechanism, the Big Boy rifles (H006- and H012-series) still use the same ammunition as previously. They can use any reputable, good-quality brands of factory standard or +P loads of .44 Magnum or .44 Special which have standard profile bullets (lead or semi-jacketed round-nose, semi-jacketed or jacketed flat-nose and hollow-point) up to a maximum projectile weight of 260-grains.”

John Davies
Spokane WA

I really want that new twistrate, I have a Henry AW 44magnum and want to be able to shoot heavier (longer) bullets with better stability. Just inserting the data for my current bullets all from 200 to 310grain in this: https://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmstab-5.1.cgi and changing twistrate from 1:38 to 1:20 goes alot higher in the stability calculator, the longer bullet the faster twist you want. Now Henry sells 44mag with the twistrate I wanted from the start, anyway mine shoots well with cast bullet up to 290grain sized to .432 so its really no need for me to replace what I have.

But still it keeps me wondering if the accuracy will be better with the new rate of twist? Anyone has some rangereport?

You know you can check the twist rate easily. You are looking for either a 1:20 or a 1:38 twist rate which means one full turn in either 20 " or 38". Just mark your cleaning rod and, with a patch, pull the rod through the bore and watch how much the rod turns. About one full turn for the 1:20 twist and about i/2 a full turn for the 1:38 twist in a 20 inch barrel. A 16.5" barrel will have turns of about 3/4 for the 1:20 rate and about 3/8" for the 1:38 twist.

Before buying one I'd try and verify what Overall Cartridge Length the Henry can handle. That could also limit what weight bullets you can use.

MarkB wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 29, 2020 4:23 pm

You know you can check the twist rate easily. You are looking for either a 1:20 or a 1:38 twist rate which means one full turn in either 20 " or 38". Just mark your cleaning rod and, with a patch, pull the rod through the bore and watch how much the rod turns. About one full turn for the 1:20 twist and about i/2 a full turn for the 1:38 twist in a 20 inch barrel. A 16.5" barrel will have turns of about 3/4 for the 1:20 rate and about 3/8" for the 1:38 twist.

Last year I had to send my 2007 made 44 BBB back for a tube replacement, which in turn they replaced the barrel also.
They didn't even inform me, just sent it back replaced. as soon as I received it I made a call to see which they replace it with.
They had NO CLUE, which perturbed me, and that was their response.
Not very professional in my book but it is what it is, as they say.
So I assume, which we all know that meaning, they still must have still had some of the older 1:38's laying around.

RP

wjv16 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:17 pm

Before buying one I'd try and verify what Overall Cartridge Length the Henry can handle. That could also limit what weight bullets you can use.

I load a 320+ gr cast that I cast myself, it's right at 1.622 and loads with ease, but I also load a 240 gr that comes out at about same length.
Both cycle with no problem. YMMV

RP

So I may come across as unknowledgeable for asking this, but are the 1:38 barrels not able to spin the bullets fast enough for good stability? There is a bunch of talk about bullet weight factoring in. Would a 1:38 twist be fine for 240 grain projectiles? Would that twist rate not stabilize heavier bullets well? I saw where Henry said “up to 260 grain”. That’s their way of saying “it’s not our fault if your 280 grain bullets tumble”.

Redthies wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 11, 2021 12:37 am

So I may come across as unknowledgeable for asking this, but are the 1:38 barrels not able to spin the bullets fast enough for good stability? There is a bunch of talk about bullet weight factoring in. Would a 1:38 twist be fine for 240 grain projectiles? Would that twist rate not stabilize heavier bullets well? I saw where Henry said “up to 260 grain”. That’s their way of saying “it’s not our fault if your 280 grain bullets tumble”.

I’ve found it depends on how fast the bullet is traveling. For heavy bullets push them hard for success.

servant824 wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:35 pm

I have a 1-38 .44 and wish it was a 1-20. But it shoots pretty well. Still trying out loads. I have had to push up the velocity in the 1-38 twist a bit harder for accuracy so far. But I have not shot any cast out of it yet just jacketed.. But groups are much tighter as I get near about 90% of listed max loads of AA9 or 2400.

Or what he says.

Jdl447 wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 11, 2021 1:14 am

servant824 wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 16, 2020 8:35 pm

I have a 1-38 .44 and wish it was a 1-20. But it shoots pretty well. Still trying out loads. I have had to push up the velocity in the 1-38 twist a bit harder for accuracy so far. But I have not shot any cast out of it yet just jacketed.. But groups are much tighter as I get near about 90% of listed max loads of AA9 or 2400.

Or what he says.

Which is useless unless you hand load, which I don’t anymore. The info is great, just no practical benefit for me.

our Henry BBS 44 Mag is a little over 5 years old .... I do not know its twist rate but, based on the info given in this thread, I would guess 1:38 .... the target pictures below were both fired from a rest at our family range, the first in Aug 2018 shows 50 rounds fired at 50 yards .... the second shows 100 rounds fired at 100 yards in Dec 2018 .... on both occasions, the weather was pretty much perfect and my mindset was to take my time .... those two targets pretty well show the best that I can do ..... I also have no doubt that in other hands our 44 is capable of firing a smaller group .... the bullets fired were our 240 gr Nosler JHP reloads .... if a 1:20 twist is superior, I really don't care .... if I do my part, when I pull the trigger, it hits close enough for me ...

That’s awesome JEB. What color is the bottom of your receiver? I picked up a .44 BBSC today and my .357 has a blued bottom, and the new .44 has a brown color. I’ve never seen that. My .357 is serial number 0035xx and the .44 is 0008xx so obviously an earlier gun, but both were bought new at similar times. The .44 came from a podunk town with a podunk gun shop, so it might have sat there for a while.

ours has a blued receiver, the same on all sides .... looking forward to your coming range reports and use impressions .... ours has literally sent tens of thousands of rounds down range and has been back to Henry twice .... should she ever need it, I'll not hesitate to send her back again