Henry Rifle Forums

Hello Everyone

I just bought my first Henry . I picked up the new side gate in 38-55 . I had a 38-55 years ago and sold it . I was looking for the last six months for one and came across the New side gate Henry. So I picked one up .
Took it to the range and well lets say it did not shoot very well . I bought a couple of boxes of Bulleye 38-55 245gr lead RNFP . I also installed a Skinner Alaskan peep sight . Shooting at 25 yards to check sights my average groups were 7 inches I only shot 20 rounds. I got home to clean the rifle so I could slug the bore and found it was severely leaded . I spent a couple of hours cleaning the lead out and slugged the bore which measured .376. I then pulled a bullet from the second box I bought and the bullet measured .375. So my thinking is this ammunition is the problem not enough to upset the bullet to seal. I could not find any specs on line about this ammunition
I do like the rifle and it is very well made . I will have to research ammunition to find what this likes so far Bulleye is not one of them

Welcome from Nebraska. Sorry your first shooting let you down. Better ammo may be the answer. I know nothing about the 38-55, but, Big Al is our regular pro on it. You will certainly get some help. Enjoy your Henry!

Welcome to the forum Alchris658, glad to have you here!
I have no experience personally with the 38-55, so can't help on that one. I'm sure many on here will follow that can provide some insight.

Welcome to the forum from CT. Please keep us posted about how it shoots and what ammo works best. Glad you joined us.

Alchris658 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:28 am

I just bought my first Henry . I picked up the new side gate in 38-55 .

Welcome to the forum Alchris658. Thanks for the complement CoFisher but Im no 38-55 pro. Alchris please take a look at our how many thread and add your new Henry to our running total. http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... start=1090

Ive shot mine a few times but havent ever shot any factory through mine. Mine shoots very well with a Lyman gas check I get from Montana Bullet Works.
https://www.montanabulletworks.com/prod ... 4gr-fn-gc/. I get these sized in 377. and load them with reloader 7. Ive had the best luck in 38-55 with reloader 7. I also have a Marlin 336 cowboy that likes the same powder with different bullets. Here is a target I shot at 50 yards off bags with the stock irons.

Thanks BigAl nice shooting . I am hoping for similar results I figured at 25 I would have gotten close to a one hole that wasn't my case I will have to order some bullets now that I pulled all 20 of the bulleye they were built using starline brass haven't measured them yet but most likely shorts

Welcome from Alberta.

Alchris658 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 26, 2020 11:39 am

Thanks BigAl nice shooting . I am hoping for similar results I figured at 25 I would have gotten close to a one hole that wasn't my case I will have to order some bullets now that I pulled all 20 of the bulleye they were built using starline brass haven't measured them yet but most likely shorts

Yes all of my brass is the shorter brass. I have Starline and Winchester. Starline has a thinner wall than the Winchester. The Starline brass is the one I used in the Henry. I also use it in the Winchesters I have. When I load for my Winchesters they shoot a fatter .380 bullet. The Starline will work with the 380 and the Winchester is tight. I mainly keep the Winchester brass for the Marlin.

.
Hello and welcome from the TV, Oregon! Sorry to hear about your new out of the box shooting experience. Henry sometimes does quite a bit of test firing and they don't clean the bore afterwards. So hearing about your bore being dirty is not uncommon. If interested here is a site where you can at least see a partial list of factory ammo manufactures who make .38-55 ammo.
https://ammoseek.com/ammo/38-55-winchester sorted by price/rnd
https://ammoseek.com/ammo/38-55-winchester?sort=mfg sorted by factory.
Also, here is a list of other online factory ammo sources.
http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 44#p110763

Alchris658 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:28 am

I just bought my first Henry . I picked up the new side gate in 38-55 ...

Welcome, Alchris658 !
BruniX

Welcome & Hello from W TN.

RP

Welcome!!!!

Welcome........

Evening A quick update . I got the all the lead out of the barrel . I ended up using Bronze wool wrapped around my cleaning brush . I ordered a Lyman 264 two cavity mold and gas checks . I should have them by tomorrow . Saturday I will cast up a bunch . I have two 5 gallon pails full of linotype and two 5 gallons full of pure lead .I just weigh up 5 pounds of each . I am going to mix 1-1 which should be close to Lyman # 2 . Last time I casted for the 45 colt I using that mix and was running 14.3 BHN and zero leading shooting 300 rounds . I have 3031 and just picked up some Reloder 7 I have both long and short cases so will do some of both . I will size to .377 as mine slugged at .376 . I will keep everyone updated on the progress and fingers crossed a good range report . I should have done this to start but the ammunition I got seemed like a very good deal to start I was WRONG