Increasing OAL for Henry Big Boy

[megasupermagnum]

I bought a Henry in 327 federal, and like many report, the maximum cartridge OAL that will cycle is about 1.53". It's not the end of the world, but is incredibly short compared to every handgun except the single seven. Needless to say, I was really bummed when my favorite bullet I've been shooting in the handgun will not feed in the rifle when crimped in the groove. I have come across a thread about modifying a marlin, I'll post the link below. I was wondering if this is something anyone has attempted on a Henry. I was going to ask Henry themselves, but I can pretty well guess what they would say. If I could increase so it feeds shells just .025" longer, I would be happy. I have no interest in shooting anything but 327 in this gun, so feeding of H&R mag is no concern of mine.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?7750-Modifying-the-Marlin-1894-for-a-longer-cartridge-OAL

[john.k]

never looked in a Henry,but making the lifter take a longer round is the principle in all tube mag guns.Simply decide how much longer ,and remove that much from the stop.......you cant go wrong,because if you make the lifter space oversize,you simply adjust your OAL. to suit......Always provided the bolt has sufficient travel to pick up the round.

[John Boy]

It's worth a call to Henry ... have a Golden Boy 2LR that would not chamber the 22LR reloads I make with black powder. The bullets are a David Mos mold of the original UMC Match bullet. The nose on these bullets are not as tapered as smokeless commericals and the diameter is larger than commercials. Called and discussed this with Henry Rifles - told to send my Golden Boy and BP reload dimensions to them. They sent me a FedEx mailer. Approximately 2 weeks later I received a brand new Golden Boy - with the barrel tapped for a scope
Examined the action and mouth of the chamber. They modified the lifter, lengthen the carrier feed lever to prevent double feed of rounds to the action and cut a deeper/more angled groove in front of the chamber.
All parts were brand new - new standard modifications = ?
The BP reloads chamber perfectly with no scrapes on the noses and extract with no issues either
To be truthful, I expected Henry to say - Sorry!

[megasupermagnum]

I got a response from Henry, a nice couple of paragraphs on how they do not allow reloaded ammo in their guns, and 1.53" is plenty generous for factory ammo. No surprise there. Unless anyone can think of factory ammo longer than that, they will not do anything, or even advise how to. I did take a close look, and I don't see any obvious reasons I can't simply file off the flat part of the lifter that stops the shell. The bolt comes way back, at least 1/2" longer than it needs to, the receiver opening is also way bigger than it needs to be. I think I'll go ahead and try it.

[megasupermagnum]

215482

It looks like I hit a snag early. The shell lifter is actually hollow, and the groove has a thin spot that I need to file, and is only .070" thick. I am thinking about doing the .020" needed to feed my SWC bullets. At this point I've decided the SWC's are not that accurate in the rifle, while very accurate in the handgun, still it would be nice to be able to feed all my ammo through all my guns.

[megasupermagnum]

Well I decided to go for it, and I'm very happy I did. My gun can now easily feed cartridges 1.55" long. After filing, and polishing, I ended up taking off about .028", and I wouldn't go farther than that. As a side note, I'm not sure its even needed to file out that entire groove. The back of the shell seems to only touch that top fin, and the groove doesn't seem to play a part at all. Maybe it is there for manufacturing reasons, multiple cartridges with the same lifter? If I could buy a second shell lifter, I'd be willing to try really extending it, but I'm happy now that I can shoot my SWC bullets.