Henry 308 Single Shot, Accuracy and Misfires.

First off thanks to Mega and the other contributors for all the info on this rifle.

I thought I'd make a couple of observations about my experience with this rifle today.

I did the spring swap with the Grainger 54-44 and removed the inner spring as discussed on the long Henry single shot thread. It definitely helped lighten the trigger. It still has the slight 2 stage hitch feeling but I'm OK with that.

I fired 20 rounds of Winchester Super X 160 grain from a bench rest at 100 yards. The photo shows my last 11 rounds. The center target was my first group and pretty darned good. I tried to raise the group up an inch and you can see the result in group two (lower left). I'm attributing some of that to a hot/dirty barrel, and the rest to an average - at best - shooter.

The third group, lower right, happened after my misfires and I think I was pretty frustrated at this point. Bottom line is that I believe the first group is an accurate assessment of it's potential accuracy.

After firing about 15 rounds, I had two misfires. The picture show all my brass and I can see a difference between the two misfires (far left) and the other brass. This may well be the ammo because I fired another 3 rounds after the misfires without issue and I also tried multiple refires on the two duds after that and they still did not fire.

Comments??

Thanks, Bob

I had misfires on two of my Henrys after the spring change, went back to factory springs and no misfires, I did a trigger job on them and have between #3 and #4 crisp triggers.

Is this a new rifle to you? If so, do you think a reasonable break in might improve it much? Trigger included.

I hope you're right because it is brand new, but from what I've read on here the trigger doesn't get much better without some work. I was hoping the spring change would be the answer.

BTW, are there any post that have details/pics on a trigger job for this gun?

I haven't looked at the trigger assembly yet but I'm guessing it's very similar to the H&R. ??

https://www.texasguntalk.com/threads...ger-job.72067/

The Henry single shot rifle triggers are absolutely NOTHING like that of the H&R triggers, in any way, shape form or fashion!

My Henry in 308 Win. did not shoot worth a poot till I had a rim counterbore cut and started using 307 Winchester brass. Best loads in 308 Win. averaged a dismal 2 3/4" for my best 3-shot group, and with a lot of different loads, both factory and reloads!

After the rim counter-bore was cut, worse group so far has been 1 1/8" and the best group has been 3/8", all 100 yard 3-shot groups.

I had 3 to 4 misfires per box of factory ammo, as head space was all over the place. With the 307 Winchester brass though, head space averages .002 or less and over 200 rounds later, there has been not the first misfire!

Try cutting down the OD of a 1/4 inch washer and putting it under the Grainger spring,that worked for me.

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Originally Posted by fenderman57

Try cutting down the OD of a 1/4 inch washer and putting it under the Grainger spring,that worked for me.

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This might work. Another way to know for sure is to put your original larger spring back in. Do not add the smaller inner spring. If that fixes any problems, you can either leave it as is, or try the 42# spring part number 54MY59. I use the 42# spring in mine.

As for accuracy, it seems like some didn't get lucky, but mine is accurate. I haven't even done much as far as rifle cast, but mine shoots an average of 1.5 MOA with the first load I tried. It is a sub MOA rifle with most jacketed bullets. I don't even use anything special. I use machine gun fired 7.62 brass, size, load, shoot.

For a quick fix I'll try the washer. I was satisfied with the just 54MY44 as far as the feel but I don't want to worry about misfires in a hunting situation. I was real happy with my first group; not sure what happened with the next two, but will give it a try tomorrow or Wednesday.

Fenderman, How many rounds have you fired since trying the washer? Factory ammo?

Probably 100-150 rounds of 45-70 475 gr. cast with no misfires. The gun is more accurate than I am,but anytime I can hit 3 one gallon milk jugs at 100 yds standing offhand with 6 shots and peep sights is good enough for these 74 yr old eyes.

60 rounds the other day and no misfires after adding the washer. Still not happy with my groups but I've got some more experimenting to do.

After the washer, how do the fired primers look? Those in the "before" pic are wimpy for sure.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Don't know enough to know what right looks like. Hopefully this pic is clear enough. The top brass is the Win Super-X that the misfires came from - no washer. The bottom brass has the Fed SMK's with no misfires - with washer.

Attachment 257459

Another thought is that federal primers have a reputation for being easier to set off. Whatever works. I mostly use Federal primers myself. Not for the ignition thing, I just like them.

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Originally Posted by megasupermagnum

Another thought is that federal primers have a reputation for being easier to set off. Whatever works. I mostly use Federal primers myself. Not for the ignition thing, I just like them.

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+1 on federal primers, and mostly match grade. i don't bother with any other brands.

as to the henry s/s, what a disappointment all around. sad.

The misfires seemed to have gone away after shooting mine for a while. I don't remember a misfire after somewhere around the 50th shot. My 10 pull average is 5lb 3oz. I have the replacement springs but haven't installed them yet.
I haven't taken the gun apart yet so I don't know what is powering the rebounding hammer but there is no doubt in my mind that it is the culprit that causes misfires. So far I'm only about 200 rounds in, I'm just fire forming cases and using up a bunch of old leftover cast bullets. Next is load development