Henry Rifle Forums

New member here. Howdy all.
One of the main reasons I joined is, I just purchased a Henry Big Boy in .44mag. The main reason I wanted it was I have loaded and inherited around 4-500 rounds of .44 mag. First time I took it out and tried it, it wouldn't cycle probably because of OAL of some of the rounds.
So! What is the max OAL that will cycle?
Here are the loads I have 240gr. LSWCHPGC 1.650. 257gr. LSWC 1.710. 240gr. JHP 1.592. 180gr. LTC 1.596. 180gr. JHP 1.580.
The Jacketed bullets seem OK as does the trunticated cone.
Thanks in advance.
I'm thinking some of the heavier bullets need the case shortened to work.

Welcome to the Forums from the Show-Me-State!

Congrats on getting your Henry .44 Magnum BB. Some of the Henry folk, who have larger centerfire Henrys, should soon be along to answer your questions. Have a great day.

Welcome to the forum from CT and congratulations on your new Henry.

Hornady's 9th manual says the 44 Remington Magnum C.O.L. should be a maximum of 1.610 and the trimmed case should be no longer than 1.285 and no shorter than 1.275. I'm sure some of our members that own that caliber will be along to answer this question, as well.

CT_Shooter wrote:Welcome to the forum from CT and congratulations on your new Henry.

Hornady's 9th manual says the 44 Remington Magnum C.O.L. should be a maximum of 1.610 and the trimmed case should be no longer than 1.285 and no shorter than 1.275. I'm sure some of our members that own that caliber will be along to answer this question, as well.

we have long chosen to follow the recommendations given by Nosler .... they recommend the same dimensions as shown above in bold print .... once in a while you will find a case a bit shorter (as in .01") and we haven't found it makes any difference ... we do recommend a solid crimp

FWIW, My new BBS 44 was difficult to cycle at best for the 1st 30 or so rounds. May not be ammo, but break in. I cleaned bolt and put a little choke grease on it and a few drops of oil in ejector area. All is great now JHP, JSP. actually fly out about 18" ir so !!

Welcome to the forum!

I the longest length cartridges I have fed through my loading tube without problem is 1.63". I have some true 250 grain Elmer Keith style LSWC bullets that I handloaded and they are 1.70" - 1.71" OAL. They will work in my Ruger Super Blackhawk but they will not feed using the loading tube on my Henry Big Boy. I can shoot them in the Big Boy without problem but I load them one at a time (not through the loading tube).

Solved my problem. Trimmed .020 of my cases now the bullet I wanted to load works perfect.
Thanks for the info.

Welcome from Michigan!
Glad to hear you got it worked out!

My Henry 45 colt is sensitive to COAL as well. Lyman Keith SWC (452424) seats longer than the recommended 1.60 in 45 colt if crimped in the crimp groove. Lyman recommends this bullet be crimped to 1.575 which means in front of the forward driving band. Of course this is a bad idea in a tube fed lever gun, as recoil will push the bullets deeper in the case and a roll crimp in front of the driving band won't stop this. I've started crimping them right at the front edge of the crimp groove, and this works, but I've purchased a Lee Power Trim and am going to shorten the cases a bit as well, just to help out with this problem. Interestingly my Rossi 92 has no problem with COAL length in the 1.63 range, but this will lock up the Henry solid. Rossi makes the 92 in 454 casull (which has a recommended COAL of 1.770), I'm wondering if they don't just use the same cartridge stop in both the casull and the 45 colt. I also wonder why Lyman makes a bullet mold which clearly is designed for COAL greater than 1.60, although I suppose that's what the original Keith bullet design called for.

I took it out and fired it with the trimmed cases. Everything went well. I was shooting a 240 gr. SWCHP w/GC. three different loads and powders. They went from 1650 fps. up to 2200 fps. No pressure signs or jams.