Big Boy .44 ejection

[clovishound]

The more you shoot the smoother they get.

I was watching a couple videos of Clovispup at the range with the Henrys. The vid of her when she was new to the BB in .357 was an eye opener. Her operation of the lever was awkward, and she was wanting to tilt the receiver to the side to eject the case. Now she operates smoothly, and keeps the rifle upright all the time. She didn't have much in the way of feed/ejection issues early on, but experience does make a difference.

The guns themselves smooth up as well, with use.

[steelersfan97]

Shoot more and work the action in a consistent smooth controlled manner.

[Hack]

As stated above, the BB does not throw brass like semi automatics. The only FTF that I have experienced with mine have been the result of short stroking or tilting the rifle to the left (so the case fall back into the ejection port).

[critter]

Well, I finally had a little chance to play with the rifle a little more today. I removed the lever and the bolt and using a 600 grit stone I lightly stoned the corners of the recess in the inside of the receiver where the ejector lays and also did the same to the recess in the side of the bolt where the ejector rides. With my fingernail it seemed I could feel a slight bit of roughness on these corners, probably feathers/roughness left over from when the grooves were machined. I was encouraged by the results, ejection seemed to be a little more positive. I think maybe by doing so I sped up the process of break in that would probably would be the end result of following the advice from those of you that suggested just shooting the rifle some more. The movement of the ejector as it springs out as the bolt comes back may have been retarded somewhat by these burrs.
Thanks so much to all of you that offered advice/suggestions! I appreciate it much-
Lee

[DWD445]

FWIW mine was "sticky" the first time out, touchy to eject and reload, 30 rounds that day,was better. I got home and just wiped the bolt down good and put some choke grease lightly all around the bolt and dropped a little oil in ejector area. Worked in good and yesterday.. FLAWLESS !! I hold muzzle up some [45deg?] and stock vertical. OH TAY

[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 ....

[The Wiz]

Will you quit breaking that .44. I mean, if you can't be nice to it, I will give it a nice home.

[JEBar]

Will you quit breaking that .44. I mean, if you can't be nice to it, I will give it a nice home.

I'll sure try to do so ....

[ESquared]

10,000+ round ejector failure?!?!?! Off with their heads!

[JEBar]

10,000+ round ejector failure?!?!?! Off with their heads!

in October I was fortunate enough to be able to take her out 4 times .... fired 300+ rounds twice, 200+ rounds once, and 150+ rounds once .... one of the things that continues to impress me about our 44 Henry is barrel heat doesn't seem to affect accuracy anywhere near as much as it does with other rifles I've owned .... its truly fun to fire .... so much so that I'm really glad that not too long ago we purchased a Hornady Lock-N-Load press .... having it makes it possible for us to keep her well fed

[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 .. ..

[ruhler]

I know its an old thread but I just wanted to give an alternative solution if you dont have a spare laying around.

I also had a ejector spring break some years ago, I ordered a new spare part, but with a little redneck engineering I made a new one of a spring from a piece of chainsaw recall starter spring. Just a little cutting/sanding, bending and working it with a hammer (took like 15minutes) i fitted the new spring. And it actually works better than the original one, the original was very brittle compared to this and it still works after several years and I have a new complete ejector as a spare, and have a endless chainsaw recall starter spring supplier (closest chainsaw service/reseller) from their "junkpile".