My story? Well, Ive owned my Henry BigBoy 44mag for about two years now, bought it used on of GB during the height of the madness of 2020. I honestly knew better but I paid the premium like a fool. Mine is one of the 20" Octagonal barrel and the CCH parts on it, really nice gun and Id have to say that the previous owner did try to take decent care of it, but not like me, Im a fanatic. So, off to the range with some decent handloads and immediately, cant extract the case. OK, this is troubling, and no good. Packed it up and took it home. Got out my stuck case tool, a wooden dowel and tapped it out. Wow! A perfect "cast" of the chamber was imprinted onto the case. Id say the brass had flowed into grooves around the chamber about 1 to 2 thousands thick and it just locked the case into the chamber. I think the guy used a screwdriver to clean the chamber or something. Good news though is Henry took good care of me and replaced the barrel (1:38
) and even put nice new wood on it, new bolt as well, basically gave me back a new gun. Wow I thought, until I tried to cycle it, it was like a siezed piston. Did they even try to cycle the action before sending it back? I hope they didnt actually. So back to Henry a second time. Im starting to regret my purchase. Gun comes back and it feels like its been lapped inside. Why? Because it has. Its literally glass smooth now. Its kinda freaky how slick a lever gun can be, its my first one, ever.
So when I got it back the second time, telling myself it was basically a new gun I should be enjoying it, and I do, more each time I shoot it. I love reloading also, one of its favorite loads pops out a 200gr bullet over some H800x at a screaming 2200+fps and is laser accurate at 100yds and very very respectable at 200yds, with factory buckhorn sights, I refuse to put a RDS or a scope on my lever gun. A very enjoyable rifle so.....
I figured hey, Im a member of the 68forum, the S&W forum, the Ruger forum, 1911addicts, Snipers Hide and a few others, why not look for a Henry forum and guess what, I found it. Im having so much of a good time finally with my Henry I knew there had to be enough people doing the same to form a forum and I was right. Honestly the only thing, well, two things I dont like about the Henry, the biggest is the 1:38 twist in MY barrel (glad to see they FINALLY wised up) and the sights. I dont necessarily hate buckhorn type sights but Henrys are pretty bad, at least through my eyeballs. Of course my eyeballs are getting pretty old and have never been the best anyway.
Yep, glad I found this place, Ive learned alot of stuff already, some bad, some good, some just handy stuff to know. The best news Ive gleaned from here so far is the fact that the new 44mag twist rate is 1:20!! Ill have me one please.
Im afraid though that not many will be able to learn much from me about Henry rifles as Im a newbie in that area but its nice to have knowledgeable people to go to when I have a question.
By the way. Im a WV boy who, Heaven help me, has landed behind the lines in mary-land.