Henry Rifle Forums

Hello,
Does the Henry BB 30/30 with a brass receiver have any strength issues or thing to be aware of? There’s one for sale locally and I want to make sure it will last. I would reload for it; no hotter than factory specs. Thanks

concretus wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 03, 2023 8:05 pm

Hello,
Does the Henry BB 30/30 with a brass receiver have any strength issues or thing to be aware of? There’s one for sale locally and I want to make sure it will last. I would reload for it; no hotter than factory specs. Thanks

It's a brass alloy that Henry claims to be a strong as steel.

As a former machinist, I used to machine some brass and brass alloys for Boeing Commercial Aircraft. There are some brass alloys that are really tough *for their application* for aerospace parts. I will admit that I'm not as "up to speed" on my metallurgy as I was many moons ago, and not knowing exactly what alloy Henry uses, makes it tough to offer an opinon on the receiver's durability from that standpoint.

But the chamber machined into the rifle and the bolt would seem (to me; but I'm no Engineer) to take most of the stresses from touching off a round. And ultimately, I have to look at it like this: If Henry feels their receiver is durable enough to withstand the thumping, stresses, and pressures of a .45-70 round with their brass alloy, I doubt I'd worry about what a .30-30 could do to one.

Hope this helps some!

Well, they also make a "Brass" model 45-70,
Not sure about pressures of either, just saying...
https://www.henryusa.com/rifles/brass-l ... ion-45-70/

RP

...The receiver of the rifle utilizes Henry’s signature hardened brass, which has the same tensile and yield strength as steel...

https://www.henryusa.com/news/the-side- ... for-henry/

Most of the pressures when a round is fired is mostly contained by steel; the bolt and the barrel’s chamber. An engineer or those smarter than me (including the squash that grew in my garden), would probably agree that the brass part really ain’t under much stress, and kinda just gives the bolt, lever, trigger & such a platform to work from.

Thanks everyone for making those great points. It helps me make a decision.

Either way I would not worry about it. Like said they claim it is strong as steel. If it did stretch or break I would figure Henry would replace it or fix it. They back what they sell pretty well.

Haven't ever heard of the brass reciever on a Henry weakening being fired in any caliber. I would[and do] believe you have nothing to worry about.
My .357 Henry BB brass has no sighns of stress whats so ever. You're good.

Having shot break barrels a la Contenders and Encores for decades, break barrel frames can stretch if you use cartridges that develop pressures or loads in excess of what the frame can handle. First generation Contenders were notorious for this when shooters would hot rod them and use cartridges not endorsed by TC. Was not a problem when shooters stayed with cartridges TC endorsed for the Contender as long as reloaders stayed within specs for the cartridge.

Not to worry, though. The 30-30 is not a high pressure cartridge relative to more modern cartridges. Runs at far less pressure than a 30-06, 270, 308, 243 and so on. In fact, you'd have a hard time finding a bottleneck rifle cartridge that runs at a lower pressure. The properly engineered brass alloy frame that Henry uses can easily handle it. In fact, BFR even chambers the 30-30 in one of their revolvers.

This is not a put down of the 30-30, by the way. I love the 30-30 for that very reason. More than one hundred years after it was introduced, it's still doing an amazing job of bringing home the meat.