megasupermagnum
05-01-2019, 09:52 PM
Disclaimer: I will not be responsible for damage done to your own firearm. I do not claim this method is perfect, only that it works for me. Proceed at your own risk.
I spent a lot of time watching exactly how a cartridge feeds through a Henry Big Boy before I modified mine. Luckily, it's not difficult. Full disclosure, I have only ran about 50 live rounds through my gun, and a bunch of dummy's, and it does seem to work. My Henry is a steel carbine Big Boy in 327 Federal. Max OAL from the factory is a measly 1.530". I've put hundreds of rounds through my gun unmodified, and it works well enough. I'm of the opinion that the Big Boy is a fine hunting gun, but the design is not for ultimate reliability. The shell lifter does not support the cartridge well, and as a result, the Big Boy is known to jam. What I mean by this is the gun cycles 100% under good conditions. As soon as you angle the gun much past 45 degrees in any direction, including up and down, and the unsupported cartridge will turn inside the lifter and jam the nose into the barrel. It is the design of the gun, and if you wanted to fix that, you would have to chamfer the back of the barrel, and/or choose a bullet with a very rounded nose. I like flat nose bullets, and am just fine with the slight inconvenience.
Long story short, the modified lifter has not effected reliability at all.
There are good videos on how to disassemble a Henry online, so will not describe the process. I'll post two pictures below of my modified lifter, I did not take a picture beforehand. The first picture, the red is the metal that is removed. I used a file with one edge ground off. I carefully filed off that ridge, and that's all the has to be done. The blue line indicates where I had filed mine a first time about a year ago. I had taken .020" out of that valley, so that I could at least feed one of the bullets I was using at the time. I do not believe you need to remove that area at all, only the red.
The second picture just gives you a clear view on what I did.
The valley portion is a bit of a mystery to me. It must be to allow room for the rim of the cartridge, but is way deeper than it needs to be. It also doesn't seem to come into play at all, as if you watch a Henry cycle, you will see the cartridge sits in the lifter such that the rim is never in the valley at all. Just in front of the valley is a bump. What happens is when you open the lever, the cartridge goes into the lifter, and is limited only by the back ridge. As the lever is pulled back, the lifter goes up, and the bolt forward. The nose goes in first, then the rim of the cartridge his the bump, and that helps the cartridge turn up and into the chamber. The Lifter then drops off, and leaves the cartridge only supported by the bolt until it is locked up.
I filed off about .100", and have been running cartridges 1.610" long without problem. I will update if problems arise, but this is how they should have come in the first place if you ask me. I have no idea how this will effect the shorter 32 caliber cartridges, I only use 327 federal brass.
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I spent a lot of time watching exactly how a cartridge feeds through a Henry Big Boy before I modified mine. Luckily, it's not difficult. Full disclosure, I have only ran about 50 live rounds through my gun, and a bunch of dummy's, and it does seem to work. My Henry is a steel carbine Big Boy in 327 Federal. Max OAL from the factory is a measly 1.530". I've put hundreds of rounds through my gun unmodified, and it works well enough. I'm of the opinion that the Big Boy is a fine hunting gun, but the design is not for ultimate reliability. The shell lifter does not support the cartridge well, and as a result, the Big Boy is known to jam. What I mean by this is the gun cycles 100% under good conditions. As soon as you angle the gun much past 45 degrees in any direction, including up and down, and the unsupported cartridge will turn inside the lifter and jam the nose into the barrel. It is the design of the gun, and if you wanted to fix that, you would have to chamfer the back of the barrel, and/or choose a bullet with a very rounded nose. I like flat nose bullets, and am just fine with the slight inconvenience.
Long story short, the modified lifter has not effected reliability at all.
There are good videos on how to disassemble a Henry online, so will not describe the process. I'll post two pictures below of my modified lifter, I did not take a picture beforehand. The first picture, the red is the metal that is removed. I used a file with one edge ground off. I carefully filed off that ridge, and that's all the has to be done. The blue line indicates where I had filed mine a first time about a year ago. I had taken .020" out of that valley, so that I could at least feed one of the bullets I was using at the time. I do not believe you need to remove that area at all, only the red.
The second picture just gives you a clear view on what I did.
The valley portion is a bit of a mystery to me. It must be to allow room for the rim of the cartridge, but is way deeper than it needs to be. It also doesn't seem to come into play at all, as if you watch a Henry cycle, you will see the cartridge sits in the lifter such that the rim is never in the valley at all. Just in front of the valley is a bump. What happens is when you open the lever, the cartridge goes into the lifter, and is limited only by the back ridge. As the lever is pulled back, the lifter goes up, and the bolt forward. The nose goes in first, then the rim of the cartridge his the bump, and that helps the cartridge turn up and into the chamber. The Lifter then drops off, and leaves the cartridge only supported by the bolt until it is locked up.
I filed off about .100", and have been running cartridges 1.610" long without problem. I will update if problems arise, but this is how they should have come in the first place if you ask me. I have no idea how this will effect the shorter 32 caliber cartridges, I only use 327 federal brass.
240927
240928
240929