45-70 Colour Case Hardened, Range Report

[Supaduke]

So I picked up my new Henry 45-70 with colour case hardened receiver. 22 inch octagon barrel. Matches my .22 Frontier nicely. Lovely fit and finish and generally a nicely balanced and handsome rifle.

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[Squatch]

I like it!

[Deadwood Dutch]

Beautiful rifle, thanks for posting! Let us know how it shoots with the LEVERevolution.

[PT7]

"Handsome rifle" says it quite well!
And there is especially good-looking wood checkering on your Henry, too!
All is very cool. Thanks for posting your photos.

Enjoy....enjoy.

[JEBar]

very nice indeed .... the colors on yours are more vibrant than the ones on ours, I really like it .... ours shoots really well, am sure yours will as well .... we now have 3 Henry rifles .... 1 color case hardened, 2 Big Boy Steels .... I wish they were all color case hardened .... I've spoken with a fellow who handles color case hardening rifles .... the only thing standing between me sending him our BBS 44 & 357 is $$$$

[White Squirrel]

Congratulations! Nice rifle.

[tractortad]

very nice indeed .... the colors on yours are more vibrant than the ones on ours, I really like it .... ours shoots really well, am sure yours will as well .... we now have 3 Henry rifles .... 1 color case hardened, 2 Big Boy Steels .... I wish they were all color case hardened .... I've spoken with a fellow who handles color case hardening rifles .... the only thing standing between me sending him our BBS 44 & 357 is $$$$

I agree - color case hardening + octagon barrel = beautiful rifle.

JEBar - did Henry tell you that they would "color case harden" a BB steel receiver?

[JEBar]

JEBar - did Henry tell you that they would "color case harden" a BB steel receiver?

the dealer that recently ordered our BBS 357 asked if they would, as part of a special order, Color Case Harden it .... they said that at sometime in the future they might but at this time would not do so

[CT_Shooter]

Beautiful rifle. I'm looking forward to your range reports, too.

[JCN]

Looks great. Really torn between this and the AW.

[RanchRoper]

Wow. That's incredible. Congrats!

[redbaron]

Received mine three or so months ago. Outstanding rifle (45-70). Both quality and accuracy. Handles reloaded cast and jacketed bullets extremely well. As I posted elsewhere, would like to see Henry expand the case hardened line.

[Supaduke]

Haven't had a chance to get some proper range time with it yet. But I have been able to put a few rounds through out on a back block.

Very sweet shooter. Have put some 300gr hard cast bullets through, propelled by 15-16gr of trail boss. Very soft shooting combo. Also tried some Leverloution 325gr rounds and they also shot very nicely. Fired right on dusk and got a terrific muzzle flash.

To be quite honest I was surprised how softly this gun shoots. Especially the Leverloution which I had been led to believe had quite a kick. I bought some Ftx projectiles to reload hot and see what happens. Only went through about a dozen rounds, mainly as a function test and just to see how it handles. Very easy to point and cycled flawlessly. I will do a full review and range report in a couple of weeks when I get the time to head on down to the range.

[JEBar]

glad to hear but not surprised in your initial impressions .... looking forward to your more extensive range reports

[Frank V]

Supaduke, wow that is beautiful, congratulations. Now you all have me thinking I might have to trade off or sell something to get one??? I'd probably be very happy with a blue seel one. I love the .45-70 & the Henry would make a nice cast bullet gun.
Supaduke, I'm staying tuned for your range repore, I've very interested in how it shoots. From what I've heard hey are very accurate.
When you go up to 405gr bullets the recoil will go up, but loaded to 1200 - 1400fps they are quite bearable & at 1400fps really fun to shoot.
Good shooting be sure to let us know when you get it to the range.
Thanks & again congratulations.

[DWD445]

Beauty !!! I got to fondle one the Sat at LGS. Way COOL in hand !!!! Good choice

[Supaduke]

Few more photos with a slight filter to bring out the colour a little better

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Too windy last weekend for the range , getting real itchy to get down there and give it a workout

[JEBar]

very nice indeed .... the colors on your rifle are more vibrant than the ones on ours

[Frank V]

Supaduke, when that wind lets up I'd sure like a range report.
That is a beautiful rifle.
Thanks.

[Supaduke]

Finally got down to the range today. Weather and conditions were perfect. Cool and dry and only the most gentle of breezes. I managed to get down there at a reasonable hour and set up for a full day of shooting.

The 45-70 being the latest aquistion, I was keen to try her out first up. I had a box of Hornady Leverloution and 70 reloads. Reloads were all 300gr hard cast flat nose . Powder was Trail Boss with loads from 13.5gr to 16gr.

Knowing they were all pretty soft loads I decided to start at 16gr loads and work backwards.
Started at 25 meters to work out a zero and just see how it shoots.

First couple of shots barely make paper, shooting way low. These cowboy loads sure do drop. Start dialling up the rear Buckhorns every few shots and start walking it into the bull. Buckhorns are going up and up at this point and I'm still not on target and getting nervous I'm running out of elevation. 2nd last notch and we start making centre. I'm still working out my grip at this point. The 300 grainers are also a bit erratic with 16gr of Trail Boss.

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Next step was 15gr and straight away groups began to tighten. I was learning where to actually arrange the sight picture for best effect. Once I found the closest elevation point I found having about half the target poking out above the front bead put me bang on. Elevation remained unchanged at 50m.

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About 2 inches or less. Seems the sweet spot is somewhere between 14gr and 15gr, do more load development to go. Satisfied with the accuracy I was getting so far, I didn't want to shoot for groups any more and started popping clays at 50m. I tried a few at 100 but needed more
work on elevation. They certainly start dropping off at 100m.

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The Leverloution rounds certainly pack quite a punch . Shot much flatter than the reloads. Good accuracy , about 1.5 inches at 50m, not bad for open sights. Easily popping clays at 50 and 100m. Ran out of memory on my phone so no photo of that.

Here is a short video of me popping some
clays, 4 shots, shanked one, got 3.
http://youtu.be/8pQeOEK9k4s
25m clay targets. 300gr hard cast flat nose
15gr Trail Boss
Pop.....Pop.......Pop......Pop

And here is a video of my mate shooting some Leverloution.
http://youtu.be/zjwBvHSy2_o
100m Paper Target
325gr hornady Leverloution

Boom......Boom

Overall the rifle functioned flawlessly. Shot quite accurately considering my starting point in
Load development with plenty of scope for better accuracy.

No failure to feeds or eject. The rifle handles and cycles beautifully. Looks beautiful out in the daylight too.

Overall an awesome gun, I recommend it.

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