play in handle BB 357 (Updated with video)

[RanchRoper]

My BB45C lever has a little side to side play in it but nothing really too concerning. It shoots fine. But I was glad to see this topic and read all the comments, because I expected everything to be super tight out of the box, and wondered if mine was the only one with a little lever play. I guess if it got worse I'd talk to HRA.

[Steve]

A friend of mine has a BB 44 mag generation 1. When the lever bolt is torqued to the same tightness as my BB 45 (15 inch Lbs.) the lever is very tight moving. We just tightened it with blue locktight on it to what felt good. Let it dry and called it fixed.

[Mistered]

Hard to say from the video exactly how much play there is there. I looked at mine (BB steel in .357), and it looked like a similar amount of play.

I did the same with my brass BB and have a similar amount of 'play' also. The nature of the design (with the small surface area) for the mating surfaces of the lever to pivot in will no doubt result in what might seem like a lot of movement. I would not recommend tightening the lever screw to the point where you are pulling the 'dogs' of the lever mount on the frame so tightly you have little or no movement in the lever as you may start to cause 'galling' of the frame and cause quick and excessive wear.

[Steve]

Well according to tech on phone it's perfectly normal to have that play in it.

I guess i can't tell him he's wrong lol. All functions fine. Maybe i could put a small shim in between if it becomes an annoying issue lol

I checked my Big Boy 45. It has some play in it at the unlocked position, tight in the fire position. I'm just going to enjoy mine, it's fun to shoot.

[Steve]

Hard to say from the video exactly how much play there is there. I looked at mine (BB steel in .357), and it looked like a similar amount of play.

I did the same with my brass BB and have a similar amount of 'play' also. The nature of the design (with the small surface area) for the mating surfaces of the lever to pivot in will no doubt result in what might seem like a lot of movement. I would not recommend tightening the lever screw to the point where you are pulling the 'dogs' of the lever mount on the frame so tightly you have little or no movement in the lever as you may start to cause 'galling' of the frame and cause quick and excessive wear.

I would recommend some blue lock-tight on the threads of the lever screw.

[Mistered]

I would recommend some blue lock-tight on the threads of the lever screw.

Yep - ditto on the LockTite - and nothing more than a maybe a 1/4 turn after the screw seats!

[rfkhunter]

Well Henry is tops with me. They replaced the trigger guard plate to fix the play in the handle. Had a large loop installed while it was there. Love the large loop much better.