Big Boy .44 ejection

[ESquared]

I've been wondering about barrel heat, as the last couple of outings with my 30-30 have really heated up that barrel, even with only shooting 3 or 5 shot groups, separated by target marking, reloading, etc., between groups.

I've heard that over-heated barrels lead to all kinds of accuracy issues, mostly just random spreading of the groups (as I've been told), but I've never really heard how hot it has to get for that to occur. Sounds like maybe never, or do you think it's just your 44 Henry that's unaffected?

I have to say, I've heated up my BBS 357, the 30-30 and the 308 LR, but never to the tune of hundreds of rounds in a range session. I don't believe I've ever noticed much deviation that I could attribute to barrel heat. Shooter/eye fatigue, maybe, but not barrel heat.

Just curious, what dies are you using for your 44 reloads in you Hornady LnL?

[CurtZHP]

I've recently had a similar issue with my .45LC BBB. You can read that thread here...
http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5378

Basically going to give it a good, thorough cleaning and see if that puts a little more "BOING" in the ejector spring.

[JEBar]

do hope that helps .... looking forward to your assessment

[Omegaspeedy]

As addressed above, if you've come from the world of AR's like myself, Henry's ejections look like there's something wrong. My new .357 ejects like in the video too and it's great if you reload. My AR smacked the brass so hard against walls etc that the brass was always dented and beaten up. The Henry is a breath of fresh air .

[JEBar]

I've been wondering about barrel heat, as the last couple of outings with my 30-30 have really heated up that barrel, even with only shooting 3 or 5 shot groups, separated by target marking, reloading, etc., between groups.

that's understandable .... for the most part, Henry rifles are hunters .... hunting rifles are seldom required to fire several rounds in a hurry so they aren't usually designed for the volume of rapid fire common to AR type rifles .... consider the fact that bullets out of our 26 year old Remington 700 BDL chambered in 300 WBY Mag are pushed by 84.5 gr of IMR7828 and bullets out of our Henry 45-70 are loaded with 51.5 gr IMR 4198 .... the heat generated by each round has to be significantly higher than bullets our Henry 44 Mag loaded with 21 gr W296 .... presumably, each is designed with that in mind .... the barrels in all three get hot but for the task I expect them to perform, I couldn't be happier

I've heard that over-heated barrels lead to all kinds of accuracy issues, mostly just random spreading of the groups (as I've been told), but I've never really heard how hot it has to get for that to occur. Sounds like maybe never, or do you think it's just your 44 Henry that's unaffected?

no clue .... we have long range rifles but all of our local ranges are limited to 100 or so yards .... from decades of experience with our Browning BLR 308 I do know that its 100 yard groups will expand a bit when the barrel gets hot .... when its too hot to comfortably touch, it will string to the up and right .... as with Henry, its a hunting rifle and for that use its performance is exceptional .... because I really enjoy firing our 44 it gets a good deal of use .... the magazine of our BLR holds 4 rounds, the magazine tube of our Henry holds 10 .... consequently, the 44's barrel usually has less time between shots to cool .... as a matter of appearance, the diameter of 44 bullets can create interlocking holes that would be separate holes with 30 caliber bullets ....

Just curious, what dies are you using for your 44 reloads in you Hornady LnL?

we only use RCBS dies .... that is purely a matter of preference .... the first dies (38/357, 44 Mag, 30-30, 308) I purchased back in the early 60's were all made by RCBS .... we still use them today .... not to say that other brands wouldn't deliver equal service but if it ain't broke, I seldom change what works

[JEBar]

we have run somewhere between 500 and 1,000 rounds through our H010 BB Steel 44 .... no ejection failures .... I have noticed that just how far the spent shell is ejected is heavily dependent on how I work the lever .... not being into speed shooting I make no effort to work it at top speed .... in thinking about how to describe it, the best I can come up with is making a smooth all the way down and immediately all the way back up motion .... not all casings eject the same distance but I've considered that to be caused by me working the lever

the above comment was posted on Jul 10, 2016 .... fast forward to yesterday and literally untold thousands of (probably well over 10,000) rounds later, zero ejection issues .... yesterday at a family range, empty casings stopped totally ejecting .... rather, they would hangup partly sticking out of the ejection port .... this morning I pulled the bolt and found that the broken ejection spring (shown below) .... following a less than 5 minute call to Henry, a free replacement is on the way ....

update :

replacement ejector spring (shown below in first picture) arrived today .... pictures 2 & 3 show it installed inside of the receiver .... picture 4 shows the anchor pin In the hole in the side of the receiver that holds it in place .... now I need to go out and fire a few hundred rounds to properly break it in ..

[JEBar]

I took our Henry 44 Mag to a family range for a little while this morning to test the new ejector spring .... I'm happy to report that 100 rounds later, it worked .. ..