Hick
06-17-2017, 05:32 PM
I bought a Henry Big Boy in 38 Special/357 magnum. Arrived yesterday and I took it out for a test drive this morning. This is a very impressive rifle. Very smooth cycling with the lever. The Henry manual says that in 38 Special you have to load 158 grain bullets because the lighter bullets won't run smoothly through the receiver, but rifle didn't seem to know about this. I tested the Lyman/Ideal 358-156 in 38 special cases with a cartridge overall length of 1.460 (standard for 38 Special) and they cycled smoothly. I then tested the Hornady 140 grain Cowboy bullet in 38 Special with cartridge overall length of 1.450 and they also cycled flawlessly. Finally, I tested some 38 specials with a Rainier 125 FP (jacketed). At 1.450 COL they would not cycle (got hung up in the cartridge lifter). At 1.500 they cycled beautifully. I also tried the Rainier bullet at 1.550, and they worked fine, but when I tested them in my 38 Special revolver they wouldn't load properly (but the 1.500 worked fine in the revolver). The rifle is very smooth and accurate. With the standard semi-buckhorn sight I had a little eye trouble (need to add a receiver peep), but I was still able to hit some 3" gongs at 100 yards with every one of the different cartridges I tried. Now I just need to load some 357 Magnums and start finding out what the Henry really likes to shoot. I haven't tested for leading yet. There was no leading, but I was using standard revolver loads. They make better velocity through the longer barrel, but I was still barely pushing 1150 fps with the hottest load-- not much of a test for leading.