Henry Rifle Forums

Hi everyone,
My son just gave me a brand new Big Boy Steel 20" in 44 mag for my 70th birthday. After little fiddling with a dremel and files I was able to get a Warne Marlin 336 base mounted. I then attached a Leupold 1.5x5 scope using Weaver top mount rings. I had to remove the rear sight because the scope mounting is to low. Here are some velocities of different factory ammo I chronographed: Hornady 240 XTP 1760fps; WWB 240 SP 1776fps; Barnes Vortex 225 1483fps; American Eagle 240 1665fps; Black Hills 240 1515fps; Herters 240 1546 fps.
At 100 yards the Hornady 240 XTP 3 shot groups were 1.4", 1.5" and 1.75". The first 3 shot WWB 240 SP group was 1.0" and the second group was 2.5". All the ammo shot well but I will be sticking with Hornady 240 XTP's. I am amazed at the accuracy of this rifle.
The gun cycles great slow or fast, ejection works fine, it has low recoil, my trigger is heavy at 5 lbs, and you can reload the rifle by sliding a cartridge into the open action without worrying that it will get hung up.

Fran

Nice review. Glad you like your rifle. You are in good company.
I shoot the 357 steel carbine. I love this little rifle. I have not yet started reloading, but will soon.

congrats on your BBS 44 Mag .... ours has quickly become one of our favorite rifles .... looking forward to reading your future use and range reports .... please take a look at our How Many ? thread (link below) and add yours to our community's total

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 634#p50634

First off, HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY! So far my BBS .44 mag. carbine liked the Fusion 240gr. ammo best and didn't like the Barnes 225gr.at all. I did try some 270gr Speer bullet reloads and they showed promise. I'm taking my .45/70 out for it's first trip to the range tomorrow.

Happy birthday! Nice present.

Great call on the cycling. So many think you have to work the lever hard. You do not. Just work it for a full fore and aft cycle.

At the bench I often shoot mine one round at a time loaded through the ejection port.

[quote="Squatch"]Happy birthday! Nice present.

Great call on the cycling. So many think you have to work the lever hard. You do not. Just work it for a full fore and aft cycle.

At the bench I often shoot mine one round at a time loaded through the ejection port.[/quote

There are videos on you tube where the action is being worked hard which of course is not necessary. You can work the action super slow and it still works 100%. I was able to create a jam by not running the lever all the way forward but that is not a fault of the action. I also was loading one at a time through the ejection port as it is so easy to do.

Happy Birthday. Nice gift from a son. Hope you enjoy the rifle. I have a steel in 41 mag. Al

Happy birthday! Great present. Enjoy.

Squatch wrote:Great call on the cycling. So many think you have to work the lever hard. You do not. Just work it for a full fore and aft cycle.

I think that was something many got used to with Marlin rifles. I know the Marlin 1895s and the 1894P that I owned required you to be somewhat energetic with the lever. Coming from a Marlin background, I found it amazing that the Henry rifles cycle so smoothly.