Henry Big Boy .44 Magnum boolit recommendations.

[Murphy]

A good friend of mine gifted his son with a Henry Big Boy .44 Mag/Spec as a Christmas gift.

I got my friend into reloading 6-7 ago. He isn't a caster 'yet'. So, that being the case, he has loaded a few jacketed rounds for the rifle and it functioned fine. Now to step up and get and pick a mould that will function fine in the Henry Big Boy.

The only levergun I've ever loaded for was my Winchester 1894 in 30/30. Lyman 311041 being the boolit of choice of course. I had zero issues with feeding. But I do know that when it comes to handgun rounds in a levergun, it can be tricky. Some, but not all will feed a SWC boolit. I know the #429421 is pretty much out of the question. I have the Thompson #429224 and #429215 molds. I thought about giving them a try.

I would like some input as to which mould I should try first. I own a Lee 310 RF GC. It may be a bit more than we want. I've seen it mentioned many times about the 265 Ranch Dog style mould.

Any help in getting started off on the right foot with the project would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Murphy

[Shuz]

Murphy--I have found that some .44 mag rifles will handle the 429421 well at 1.710 OAL while others won't. You have to try different OAL's perhaps and see what works for your Henry. I have found that down thru the years that the RNFP designs such as the Lee 200 or the Lyman 429667 or 427098 will function beautifully in most .44 mag rifles.

[Larry Gibson]

I suggest starting the boy off with the Lee 430-200-RF (200 gr cowboy bullet) loaded over 6.5 - 7 gr of Bullseye. That is a nice comfortable load that duplicates original 44-40 ballistics in the 44 magnum. PSI is low, accuracy should be good and recoil is pretty low. A 2 cavity Lee mould is pretty inexpensive also and at 200 gr less alloy is used and the bullets can even be TL'd in LLA and used "as cast".

Larry Gibson