Henry Rifle Forums

Today was the first day shooting the Carbine and I have to say I was impressed considering the type of firearm it is, that it shoots pistol ammo from a shortish barrel, and has semi-buckhorn sights which I've never used before (Had to Google to work out the correct sight picture and there's very little if no info readily available!!).

It was a cool 14 degree C day with 10-15kts quartering headwind and the sun right behind me. Targets were very bright and almost washed out when viewed with the naked eye. I rested the carbine on a leather rice bag and shouldered the stock.

I started at 25m to get her on paper. When I bought the carbine I only picked up a box of 50 American Eagle 158gr Jacketed soft points (these bad boys have a big flat lead nose and I wouldn't expect them to fly that well out at 75-100m). The first 5 were on an A4 target, 8" low and 2" to the right on average. I was trying to establish a reliable and consistent sight picture with the buckhorn sights, so the group wasn't great. I should also mention my 46year old eyes don't work like they did when I was younger and the trough of the buckhorn was mostly blurry though the bead was clear enough.

I adjusted the windage with the brass punch and set the elevation which nearly got the next 5 closer to the bull. Another small adjustment and now it was time to get some groups. I moved the target out to 50m, shot 5 off the bag and it was good enough but I though better could be achieved. Being very conscious of repeating the same sight picture another 5 gave a group of 2 1/2". Still not impressed, I decided to shoot the carbine with fore-grip in hand, hand rested on bag, elbow on bench and stock in shoulder for some faster shooting still focussing on sight picture. BINGO! 1" group.

I repeated again and this is a winner. I then moved the target to 75m, this time that target appeared very small (for my eyes) and a lot harder to pick up, so a bit of lateral and vertical interpolation was required around the A4 paper. I wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised to see a 1.9-2.2" group on two targets! Smiling from ear to ear, I set up the target at 100m. I could not even see the ink on the paper, probably due to how bright the paper was. I fired the last 10 rounds not expecting anything special. I wasn't disappoint, I got nothing special The group was about 6" but on paper, so I guess considering it was guess work, it was ok.

The carbine operated flawlessly, very smooth and a joy to shoot. Soft recoil similar or slightly more to my AR. Can't wait to reload a few 100 and really get to know this gun with some off hand fast 25-50m and more bench rest. I do believe that with a magnified optic, this would be capable of sub 2" MOA. I really like the carbine, its a keeper!!

Great report and even better shooting, so thanks for sharing. Going from Googling Buckhorn sights to figuring them out, to adjusting them, to getting 6" groups at 100m is fantastic work, congrats!

A simple 1.5-4X scope is great on that rifle, and just right for the kind of distances you'd typically be shooting.

Good shooting. And welcome to the forum.

Good shooting for the first time out, Omegaspeedy! You've just become another "keeper" member of the .357 Big Boy...lots of Henry Folk really like this caliber rifle. Glad you are pleased with your new Carbine.....Enjoy!

PT7

Thanks guys, it was a fun day out. I'm really looking forward to have a lot more ammo next time so I can get a real feel for this great gun. Once I get to know it well, I might alternate between the buckhorns and a scope as mentioned by ESquared. Also what do you reckon about the peep sights like a Skiiner? Is there an advantage for old eyes or will I have the same issue and just struggle out to distance?

Omegaspeedy wrote: Also what do you reckon about the peep sights like a Skiiner? Is there an advantage for old eyes or will I have the same issue and just struggle out to distance?

Peep sights are highly recommended by many with older vision. Receiver peeps and progressive lenses let me hit the 300 yard gong.
Many here like Skinners

Thats great to know! I need to find one here in NZ. If not, hopefully they can be shipped here.

.
With my eyes I can't use a receiver mounted sight. Too close to my face to use/see. Close in I could use my barrel mounted buckhorn fairly well. Not so much approaching 50-60yds. I ended up going with a scope and much happy that I did.

Omegaspeedy wrote:Thanks guys, it was a fun day out. I'm really looking forward to have a lot more ammo next time so I can get a real feel for this great gun. Once I get to know it well, I might alternate between the buckhorns and a scope as mentioned by ESquared. Also what do you reckon about the peep sights like a Skiiner? Is there an advantage for old eyes or will I have the same issue and just struggle out to distance?

Omegaspeedy wrote:. I do believe that with a magnified optic, this would be capable of sub 2" MOA. I really like the carbine, its a keeper!!

I will let you in on a little secret, most levers will shoot 2moa or better with a scope. I think the inaccurate reputation they have is due people comparing them to a scoped rifles.
I have 5 levers 3 marlins 1 Erma & 1 Henry, they all shoot in fact one of the Marlins is a genuine moa rifle and by that I mean if you sit down and fire 5 groups it will average less than moa across all groups.

Is there an advantage for old eyes or will I have the same issue and just struggle out to distance?

Most anyone will benefit from a peep regardless of age but as previously mentioned some may have an issue with the peep close to the eye but as bad as the stock rear buckhorn is on the Henry almost anything is an improvement.
I had cataract surgery at a relatively 'young' age (for as bad as the cataract was) and am still working on close to the eye sight issues but even with this I can shoot pretty well with a receiver peep sight and recently discovered going to a smaller diameter aperture helps a lot.
The Skinner is certainly one option but look at my previous post with a pic of a Williams mounted on my BBB .357.
There are also barrel mounted options other than a buckhorn and one is the 'Bullseye' style from Marbles Sights. These offer a 'peep' style view - but mount in the location of the stock buckhorn and this can help with those who have issues with receiver mounted peeps. I may still give one of these a try just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Nice shooting with those less than eye friendly buckhorns. I'm now at an age where it gets tougher with each passing year to go with iron sights, though I love shooting iron sights too much to ever completely stop using them. Ye, it's that rear sight that gets too fuzzy to use for a lot of us, because it is too close to our eyes. A peep is a great way to solve that problem. Even so, most of my carbines now wear a low power scope, just like Esquared's. In fact, I have the same scope on a couple of carbines. Those low powered Leupold Freedom scopes will spoil you.

Good for you on using your offhand to make the carbine a bit better behaved when shooting off the rest. I use that technique with all my light guns, now. It does help with consistency.

Hi North Country Gal,

Yes totally agree that the buck horns are very difficult for not so young eyes and the more I read here, the more I think I'll enjoy this awesome carbine with a nice little low power scope on it. I've been playing around with a few scopes I have and my thinking is even to purchase a vintage scope so it fit with the style of the carbine. I have a Freedom range 4-12 x 40 which would be great out to +100m but I think it's over kill and not useful at closer ranges. Theres a Freedom at 2-7x33 and a similar from Weaver which look good and light weight. I've put an old Tasco on with vintage steel rings and it look pretty good but I'll still seek a smaller unit.

nice looking combo .... what (if any) impact does adding the scope make in the carbine's balance

Dont know if you have thot about it but a red dot is another option. Nice shooting and your carbine has some nice looking wood on it. Al

Hi JEBar, the balance is not affected in this case. It just adds a little weight and this scope ring combo is very lightweight.

BigAI52, yes was was really considering this and I really like red dots and have used them a heap on my rifles. My only issue is most red dots now look like a star due to stigmatism's with exception of the EXPS-2 with G33. I don't think my gun would suit this combo

I put the Leo VX Freedom 2-7X33 on my Henry 30-30 and it's fantastic for even 100yds+! These are the Talley rings made for the Henry hole-spacing (Medium height).

ESquared, yes thats the one I reckon! The glass is the clearest and brightest I've seen for any scope under 1K. I don't know how Leupold do it but I love this range of scopes.

Omegaspeedy wrote:What do you reckon about the peep sights like a Skiiner? Is there an advantage for old eyes or will I have the same issue and just struggle out to distance?

Skinners are a game changer if you don’t want to stick to a scope. I have Andy’s sights on both my Henrys. He does a barrel mount, and receiver mount option, but I opted for receiver as with the shorter carbine it increases your sight length. Ranger Point Precision is another maker of peep sights, and offer some really cool options. I’m not sure if either of those companies can directly export to NZ. And how come you’re flying the Aussie flag if you’re from NZ?

"And how come you’re flying the Aussie flag if you’re from NZ?"

Better double-check. They're very close in appearance...

ESquared, PM inbound.