BBS, .357 Has Landed!

[ESquared]

Yep, cleaning the bore today after 20 rounds was much easier/quicker than it was dealing with whatever "test firing" they did at the factory. A little ongoing care and regular oil in the bore does make things better over time, no doubt about it.
Should I not fret about the feeding issues on the first round out of the magazine tube? Break-in issue?

[GFK]

Hum. That doesn't seem good to me. If you are loading to Henry's stated limit (10 is max I think), I would contact Henry. You have already cleaned and inspected it. So, all should be clear; I suspect. I guess you could double check your work. But, I would still consider contacting Henry.

[ESquared]

Hum. That doesn't seem good to me. If you are loading to Henry's stated limit (10 is max I think), I would contact Henry. You have already cleaned and inspected it. So, all should be clear; I suspect. I guess you could double check your work. But, I would still consider contacting Henry.

Good point of distinction, as all my issues this morning were after loading just 5 rounds, as that was the set of groupings I was tracking. If I'd loaded all 10, I'd have lost track for sure!

So, maybe I'll go back to square one and load up all 10 and see what happens...

[Mags]

That first round issue, I think is somewhat common to Henry's lever action. When I have issues, its always been with the first round after working the inner mag tube into place while loading it. Mine appears to be caused by the inner mag tube getting stuck on the rim of shell casings that then forces the first round part way into the receiver and kicking the lever open. My lever sometimes pops out a half inch or even sometimes all the way open. When I close the lever it sometimes jams on the first round and I can't close the lever fully until I open it and fish out that first round. At other times, after finally working the inner mag tube into place, when I go to shoot I can get a soft strike of the firing pin on the first round without the round going off. I didn't initially notice the lever popping open as my focus was on the mag tube. Anyway, check and see what your lever does while pressing in the inner mag tube. All that aside, as GFK suggests consider contacting Henry. I haven't done so, I'm kinda hoping my experience is a break-in thing.

[PT7]

The Henry BBS Carbine I got just last month chambers and operates quite well. But the first Henry Carbine I had purchased in July 2017 had a lot of problems when trying to chamber the first and even subsequent rounds.

Henry @ Rice Lake shop repaired the rifle twice for me, all on their dime. They did some deburring and replaced several parts, and the chambering improved. Unfortunately, there were some significant problems with the bore itself. Although Henry never outlined the problem specifically, there was possibly some damage that had happened to the bore size and rifling. My son-in-law has some pretty good skills and gunsmith knowledge/experience, and thought that when the bullet was fired it was not even touching the rifling, rather "bouncing" near the crown and shooting erratically. Neither of us could get POIs accurately on a silhouette target at fairly short yardage. I could understand it to be the shooter in my case; but my son-in-law was a Marine sniper during his military service. If he had trouble with accurate bullet placement, I'd say the rifle was the culprit.

Eventually Henry @ Rice Lake took back that Big Boy and refunded the purchase price. The accuracy problem was not resolved. The Carbine I have now is my "recovery" from the first one. From my experience, the best place to go with any Henry rifle problem is to Henry. They will work with a person until he is a satisfied customer as President Imperato promised in his guarantee.

I'd hope your problem, ESquared, might just be a "breaking-it-in" experience. That would be the easiest path for sure.
PT7

[ESquared]

Well, I'll be calling Henry in the AM. Maybe they have phone fix idea, but I doubt it. I think I'll load it up again before I call and take a pic of the situation so I can email it to someone, just as a first step in the conversation.
Bob, when you were shipping yours back and forth, was it just in the original factory box or did they want you to put it in the "plain brown wrapper" of an extra carton on the outside? That box is a "steal me" billboard if there ever was one.

[CT_Shooter]

...when you were shipping yours back and forth, was it just in the original factory box or did they want you to put it in the "plain brown wrapper" of an extra carton on the outside? That box is a "steal me" billboard if there ever was one.

Wrap it or put it another box. They'll likely advice the same. Also, you'll need to be available to sign for the return, and ( from experience ) they will likely not give you a "heads up" when it has shipped, so contact CS regularly while it's away so you'll know when to expect it.

[PT7]

Henry didn't require me to ship the rifle in any specific way, Evan. I've used the Henry box along with the larger carton cardboard box. I liked the double protection to help the Henry safely through the journey! Always got my original box back with serial number, etc., on the labels. Shipping was never a problem for me working with Henry.

Well, I'll be calling Henry in the AM. Maybe they have phone fix idea, but I doubt it. I think I'll load it up again before I call and take a pic of the situation so I can email it to someone, just as a first step in the conversation.
Bob, when you were shipping yours back and forth, was it just in the original factory box or did they want you to put it in the "plain brown wrapper" of an extra carton on the outside? That box is a "steal me" billboard if there ever was one.

[ESquared]

Wrap it or put it another box. They'll likely advice the same. Also, you'll need to be available to sign for the return, and ( from experience ) they will likely not give you a "heads up" when it has shipped, so contact CS regularly while it's away so you'll know when to expect it.[/quote]

I'm familiar with the "Adult Signature Required" routine, having had pistols back and forth to Sig for mostly elective services and upgrades. Sorry to head I won't get a heads up. Yikes.

[GFK]

Hum. That doesn't seem good to me. If you are loading to Henry's stated limit (10 is max I think), I would contact Henry. You have already cleaned and inspected it. So, all should be clear; I suspect. I guess you could double check your work. But, I would still consider contacting Henry.

Good point of distinction, as all my issues this morning were after loading just 5 rounds, as that was the set of groupings I was tracking. If I'd loaded all 10, I'd have lost track for sure!

So, maybe I'll go back to square one and load up all 10 and see what happens...

I assume the answer is yes. But, I will mention it. My Marlin seemed to jam when I first got it. It was my first lever action. Since then, I have learned that lever actions like to be cycled with purpose. No babying allowed. So, no more jamming after I started to cycle the lever fully and like I meant it (firmly). Just a thought.