Troubles with Henry BB, 357 Mag

[Finsterino]

I acquired a new Big Boy, and am fighting accuracy issues with it. Maybe someone has been down this road before.

Accuracy is fine with store bought 125 gr conical, lead, in 38 special cases.

But when I use WW for Lee 158 SWC bullets in the mag case, it goes to he!!. Medium or high power loads. Those bullets read 358 typically. Air cooled only, tumble lubed.

I will slug the barrel this am, and see what I can learn. I know it is 6 groove, do not know the twist rate (but I assume it is much faster than the silly 1:38 in the Marlins! - what a pain that was !). Will measured the diameters after slugging.

Anybody use this lee bullet with success?

TNX
Dave

[FergusonTO35]

What load are you shooting and what are your boolits sized to? Also, if they are just tumble loobed that probably won't work. I've had excellent results dip loobing in straight LLA for both .357 and .30 WCF.

[Finsterino]

Henry BB 357: barrel twist measures 1:18" . (Data sheets imply its 1:38", which could be source of my accuracy issues)

Accuracy is Also fine with .355 hardball bullets (9 mm).


Barrel slugged at .345/.354 which seems OK.

[FergusonTO35]

.354 groove diameter? Wow, that's tight. Maybe your .38/.357 boolits are just too big.

[Jeff82]

I've been down this road with my 357 Marlin. Probably one big culprit is tumble lubing. When I switched from tumble lube to using a lubesizer, the accuracy of my rifle at 100 yards improved dramatically. The next problem may be with the alloy hardness and bullet diameter. I use the 158 RNFP Lee bullet with success.

Do you have any leading issues? I don't know how you clean your rifle, but you usually need to put it in a vise and use a really tight jag to detect leading problems. This has plagued me when shooting 357s carbines, and may or may not be a factor for you.

It's interesting that your rifle shoots well with 0.355 hardball bullets. This is not what I'd expect.