Poor accuracy .357 BBB

[Twotone]

Have been the owner of the BBB in .357 for a few very frustrating months now. Straight out of the box the rifle was shooting way off to one side, after a great deal of messing with rear sight managed to get it shooting in a straight line but groups at 25yds were six inches, really hopeless.
Here in the UK there is not much choice of ammo, not allowed any expanding ammo at all so really limited to a couple of makes of either cowboy loads or FMJ, all were equally bad. I had the rifle re crowned as that was very jagged, Henry just referred me to UK dealer who was a six hour drive away and wanted to charge me for recrowning anyway. I had a really good local smith do it and although it is better, but still pretty poor.
I am now reloading to see ahat I can do for myself. only have hard cast lead or FMJ heads available, what would you guys and girls recommend I try powder wise, bullet wise as a start pount, plated bullets? fMJ? SWC?
Desperate to find something that will shoot even a two inch group at 25 yds. I have tried Unique and LSWC but working up through the range in tenths has achieved little so far.
Two tone

[CT_Shooter]

Welcome to the forum from CT, Twotone.

The disadvantage you have being out of the US is unfortunate. If you were here, HRC would make it right; guaranteed. My rifle sights needed to be adjusted, too. I drifted my front sight a bit to correct it.

But, to try to answer your question about bullets...Henry advises against using FMJs because of the hardness of the jacket which, in rare cases, may set off a primer in the magazine. That said, before I became aware of this advice, I hand loaded and fired hundreds of rounds of 130gr FMJs in my BBB .357 without incident using HP-38 or Unique and magnum primers. I've also used Hornady 158 gr SWCs with standard small pistol primers and those same powders without incident. Round nose hard cast lead would be fine to use, as well; even plated or coated lead bullets do fine when loaded for a slower muzzle velocity. Many of our members use a variety of these and have posted a lot of useful information regarding bullets and powders and their accuracy.

I'm sure you'll be hearing from others, as well. I'm glad you joined our conversation. We have some very helpful folks here. Keep us posted.

[Twotone]

Thanks a lot for the info, I am presuming its not the rifle now afte new crown and trying to find the right balance of powder and bullet from those available here. Recent changes in our law regarding expanding bullets is still cuasing total confusion with some folks saying it is now legal, others it is not. Rather than risk it I am sticking to what I know for certain at the moment which is very limiting, only one cast bullet available mainstream and a couple of FMJ to choose from. All powders are available , just bullet selection is very poor. Load data in the manuals all mention bullet types we cant have which is no help. I am thinking of trying some 2400 with a plated TC bullet but again no load data so not sure where to start. Many thanks again , really appreciate the reply
Trev

[JEBar]

first, welcome to the forum .... happy to have you join us .... in our 357, we use Unique in practice ammo and H110 in our hunting level ammo .... for our best ammo, we use Nosler's 158 gr JHP's .... for our paper punching we use whatever jacketed or lead bullets happen to be on sale .... thankfully, our Henry hasn't shown itself to be picky about bullets .... we just started loading 38 Special (.357 Diameter) - 158 GR JHP's from Roze Distribution ===> http://www.rozedist.com/mm5/merchant.mv ... de=ZBJ-38S .... they are doing well .... please take a look at our How Many ? thread (link below) and add your Henry to our community's total

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 718#p42718

[Twotone]

Hi JE bar
Thanks for the warm welcome, the thing is we are not allowed to use JHP here in the UK with a .357 lever rifle. The rifle is not approved for any kind of hunting here in Wales and they wont allow expanding ammo for target so I am up a creek as they say with bullet choices. I have tried 6 gn up to 7.1 gn in tenths of unique using LSWC 158 gn bullets but the accuracy has been awful across all of the loads. I know its probably being a bit over the top for .357 but I have even weighed and sized every piece of brass and bullet just trying to get some consistency.

[Hogstir]

I'd say it sounds like a bad barrel. I just went thru that with a new BBS 357 and Henry ended up replacing the rifle.
No possibility that you could ship it back to Henry for repairs?

[Twotone]

I can only take to their UK dealer and see what happens from there but not overly optimistic I must say. I really want to love this rifle, But cant help feeling its a friday afternoon one.
Trev

[Hogstir]

I can only take to their UK dealer and see what happens from there but not overly optimistic I must say. I really want to love this rifle, But cant help feeling its a friday afternoon one.
Trev

Does Henry's warranty not apply to international sales? Perhaps your U.K. dealer has the option of sending it back to Henry?

[Hogstir]

Have you tried contacting the official importer of Henry Repeating Arms in the U.K.?
Perhaps they could help.

Viking Arms
Summerbridge Harrogate
N Yorkshire HG3 4BW
Tel: 01423780810
Email: edward@vikingarms.com

[BigAl52]

What size are the LSWC you are using and have you slugged the bore on the rifle? I think I also might email Anthony and see if he can help you if you are thinking that you have a bad barrel. Al

[Twotone]

Regarding the importer, its a six hour drive for me and the suggestion following pics sent was to recrown the barrel, I therefore had this done locally by a very experienced smith and it is now at least looking like it should, from the factory it was ragged and uneven . It has made some improvement but still nowhere near the old Marlin I shot, still awful groups. It could be an ammo issue, I just dont know and the ammo choices here are so very limited.i can buy cowboy load magtech, Geco FMJ or PPU FMJ and thats about it and a lot of the time cant even get that. Thats why I am loading my own and trying to see what I can achieve but so far every thing I try is working about the same. Using Unique and .357 SWC. Now trying to get hold of some TC TMJ TO try and some .358 SWC just to see how it goes.
Thanks so much for the great info guys, really helpful and I will let you know how I get on. Back at the range on Tuesday night with some more loads ,

[Twotone]

By the way, is it worth trying a lighter bullet, currently using 158 gn ?

[JEBar]

based on your statement, your Henry will be used for punching paper and other such targets .... with that being the case, it would seem logical that you might want to consider the cheapest ammo that works well in your rifle .... it most certainly doesn't have to be 158 grain'ers

[Twotone]

Thanks all, will keep trying and let you know!

[Hogstir]

When the factory tested my replacement rifle they used 125g bullets.

[Twotone]

Thanks hogstir, i will try some lighter bullets, did wonder given the twist rate on the big boy whether a lighter bullet might be worth trying,
Trevor

[Twotone]

Had a great conversation today with the Henry importer here, Viking, who has offered to collect my gun if I still have problems with it after checking groups with a scope. Really nice guy who was very helpful . He also agreed that ammo is a possible cause but if you only have one or two options in factory ammo what can you do when neither shoots properly? at least they have agreed to take the gun back if the problem persists which is good to know.

[Hogstir]

Had a great conversation today with the Henry importer here, Viking, who has offered to collect my gun if I still have problems with it after checking groups with a scope. Really nice guy who was very helpful . He also agreed that ammo is a possible cause but if you only have one or two options in factory ammo what can you do when neither shoots properly? at least they have agreed to take the gun back if the problem persists which is good to know.

Glad to hear it.

[JEBar]

good to hear you have high quality Henry dealers on your side of the pond

[Twotone]

Yep, nice fella.