My Henry 357 Big Boy Steel and 38 special
I’m just posting this for information only in case someone with the same rifle has had issues when they have tried 38 special in it – I have seen posts and talked with a few who own one and some have luck with 38 special and some not so much.
My Henry 357 is a tube feed (pre side gate) and I haven’t had a whole lot of time to devote to it, so it is one of my goals this summer to get a bunch of candy loaded up for it and take it back to Arizona with me where we spend the winter. I’m not a serious shooter – but I am a serious plinker. My primary goal when I started was to develop a load in 357 – not a hot one – that would work decent in both the rifle and my Uberti 357 SA Bisley. When I bought the rifle, I also got a Lee 358-125-R and a 358-158-R mold which cast the flat nose boolit. I accumulated 357 brass (all I use is range brass) and the dummy rounds with either of those two boolit weights work perfect – in fact they feed and chamber like butter.
BUT . . . I also have a lot of 38 spl. range brass and I was hoping that maybe I could come up with a round that might feed decently. I tried the two Lee boolits – 125 and 158 grain in 38 spl. brass and it was a disaster. They would chamber but not without difficulty and frustration so obviously the 38 brass, those two boolits and the COAL was a “no go”.
The other day I was musing over the fact that I would like to have a lever gun that I could shoot 38 spl. out of – mainly because I think it is an excellent plinking round, I have lots of brass and all I shoot is my cast boolits. When I first started reloading 38s, my primary mold was the Ideal/Lyman 358-311 which is supposed to cast a 158 grain round nose – basically it is a traditional design that goes back to the birth of the 38 special. I also have an old Winchester mold that casts an identical boolit. Over 3.5 grains of Bulls Eye it is perfect out of my 38s and expecially my S & W M & P 5” revolver. But, I got bored with it and started using the Lee 358-158-TL SWC – and they also shoot well. I even tried dummy rounds with that boolit but it was a “no go” on my rifle for smooth feeding – you never know until you try though.
So as I was thinking about it the other day and all of the various 358 molds I have, I thought of the Ideal/Lyman 358-311. Was it worth a try in 38 special brass in the rifle? Nothing ventured, nothing gained and as I had a jar full of the boolits sitting on the shelf, I grabbed a half a dozn 38 special casings out of my large tub where I keep my 38 range brass and I loaded up dummy rounds - all the time thinking that it was not going to work. I checked the overall length to compare it to the COAL shown in the 3rd edition of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook (one of my “Bibles” for reloading). Hmmm . . . they show the COAL as being 1.550 but mine measure 1.520 with that boolit. Well, not all brass is equal in length and neither are bullet molds necessarily “equal”. When I saw what mine measured out to, I was sure that they were too short and would be a “no go”.
I loaded the dummy rounds into the Henry and “WALLA”! Was I ever pleasantly surprised! They feed like butter and I couldn’t tell the difference with them as compared with my 357 dummy rounds with the Lee flat nose boolits. I figured it must be a fluke – so I repeated it a half a dozen times and they feed like they were made special for the rifle!
Now I have always been a believer in using flat nose bullets in a tube feed centerfire rifle. So I go pull up the Henry manual for the rifle and there is nothing that I see in reference to flat nose bullets only – and I know others have used a variety of round nose 38s and 357s in their Henrys – so I’m not really concerned with that at all. The lead is soft and the round nose is pretty gentle.
Maybe it is just my rifle – but the 358-311 in a 38 spl. casing may work well in other 357s and feed well so that you can have that option without struggling to feed a round that gives you problems. I’m happy as I now know that I have a 38 special round that will work well in the rifle – plus it gives me the option of carrying that round to use in both my Uberti 357 Bisley or my old S & W when I also have the rifle with me.
Yea . . . I know . . . it’s a 357 so why shoot a 38 . . . . but I do that all the time and I also shoot a lot of 38 Colt Shorts and Longs out of my 38s – it doesn’t take much to clean a gun when you're done.
I added a Skinner peep to the rifle which I like very much – works much better than the stock sight with my old eyes. Now looking forward to continuing on and getting the loads tuned for both 38 spl and 357 loadings that will work decent in both the rifle and pistol.
In using the Lee round nose flat point rounds in 38 special brass, I think the hang-up in my rifle was when they were chambering, the point where the flat point meets the round portion of the slug was causing the feeding issues. The dummy rounds showed distortion at that point after being fed and ejected' so I'm guessing that it was hitting the chamber mouth and when fussing with the lever to chamber the round, it was distorting the lead just enough to where it would enter and finally chamber. They wouldn't chamber smoothly. It may just be the combination of the bullet and the brass that I’m using, but the profile of the 358-311 seems to have eliminated any catches on chambering and they feed and flow into the chamber like greased lightening.
Just wanted to pass my experience with this on and if someone has a 357 rifle that they want to use 38 special in, but they don’t feed well - you might give the 358-311 a try whether it’s a Henry or another make. I’m still shaking my head over the fact that they feed so well as I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I would be limited to 357 brass in the rifle. Sometimes you get lucky.
Others may already have had the same luck and I just haven’t run across the information. I know there are a variety of boolits that can be seated in 38 special brass out to 357 lengths – and I had considered going that route as well – this little discovery with the 358-311 eliminates me having to do that.
