Henry Rifle Forums

even when I was decades younger, I think I've always been old school .... one example is, I've always believed that its best for me to practice with the same ammo that I hunt with .... I still believe that applies in most cases .... as examples, I still enjoy and have no problem with hunting loads fired from our Henry 357 & 44 Mag .... the reality is, my remaining big game hunting days are most certainly numbered (if not over) .... the reality also is, even though I've spent some serious money upgrading them to reduce felt recoil, I can no longer take the pounding from full power loads from rifles like our 45-70 and 300 WBY Mag .... with the 300 that is less of an issue because I no longer have access to a location with 300+ yard ranges .... I do have easy access to a couple of places with 100+ yard shooting ranges which lend themselves to firing the 45-70 .... consequently, if I want to continue to fire it, I'm going to have reduce the power of the ammo to Cowboy Action or sub Cowboy Action levels .... other limitations have also reached the point where they can't be ignored .... age related physical conditions have pretty well limited my off hand shooting of heavy rifles like our 45-70 to an occasional round or two .... my enjoyment of punching big holes remains so, since we can't stop the march of time, accommodations have to be made

You have spoken the truth my friend. I hope you still get to enjoy those large guns on occasion with the reduced loads.

I totally agree with you, JEBar. I have sold my .308's and .303 for much the same reason that you are experiencing. I can shoot once a month on military ranges, but the days of lying down in mud with the rain running down my neck are well and truly behind me. I now stick to .22 rimfire, either indoors at 25 yards or under covered firing points at 50 and 100 yards.

The joys of getting old, eh!

Les wrote:I now stick to .22 rimfire,

what I need is a .22 rimfire that makes a 45 caliber hole ...

As a somewhat reformed recoil addict, I still shoot some hard kicking rounds, every now and then, but those every now and thens are not as frequent, these days. I'm now at a point where I can no longer justify owning a rifle or revolver in the hard kickers for a few shots a year. Those have been purged from the collection and used to finance sweeter shooting calibers.

I can, however, justify owning a few of the hard kicking chamberings in a Contender, because in a Contender, the only investment I have to make is another barrel, not a whole new gun. A good example is my 45-70 Contender barrel or my 44 mag barrels or a 30-30 and so on. These I shoot for old time's sake, once or twice a year. Otherwise, the biggest I go on a regular basis now, is a 357.

Time surely is lassoing a number of us, isn't it? I'm there also. My remaining firearms' calibers are listed in my signature line. One of the harder times to say "adios" was when the 12ga rode into the sunset... But glad the 20ga is still hanging in.

Onward-ho. One step at a time down that dusty trail...

North Country Gal wrote:I'm now at a point where I can no longer justify owning a rifle or revolver in the hard kickers for a few shots a year.

in thinking back, of all the firearms I've ever purchased, I've only ended up selling or trading a few .... as a rule, for me to turn one loose, I have to have found that I have reached a point where I they simply didn't work well for me .... in the last 40 years I've let go of 1 shotgun (a 16 ga FOX), no rifles, no handguns .... back in the late '60's I sold a Ruger Blackhawk 44 Mag and its companion a Ruger semi auto 44 Mag carbine .... still regret letting go of the carbine .... the ones that no longer see much, if any, time out of the vault work their way to the back and there they will stay until our sons divvy them up after I'm out of the picture ..

Check out a 45 Colt rifle....great big round and hardly any recoil.

RanchRoper wrote:Check out a 45 Colt rifle....great big round and hardly any recoil.

of that I have no doubt .... if I didn't already have a 44 Mag, I'd give it serious consideration

you could give that 44 to Grandson and buy another Henry in 45. Dont forget to add it to the how many thread. Sorry Jim just couldnt resist.

.... I'm holding out to see if Henry comes out with a 30-30 in their Long Ranger series .... if they do, I'll most certainly up the community total by 1

Good plan!

Getting old isn't for the young at heart.

It sure isn't Sir H.

This song says it all..................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UNuG-Chwg

Henry88 wrote:This song says it all..................

Totally enjoyed it, Henry88. Thanks.

I wish Ruger would make those 44 semi-autos again. Sure seems like it would be fun to shoot.

I wouldn't think it would be wise for H.R.A. to make a 30-30 Long Ranger when they have it in .308

Travlin wrote:I wouldn't think it would be wise for H.R.A. to make a 30-30 Long Ranger when they have it in .308

if they would make a 30-30 Long Ranger, they would have the only lever action 30-30 in production, that I know of, that isn't tube fed .... they are fully aware that many of their customers load their own ammo .... understandably, their lawyers will not a allow them to endorse doing so .... per RCBS 30-30 dies have consistently been in their top 10 sellers for decades .... having a clip fed option would allow use of all of the other 30 caliber bullets on the market .... my belief is, they could sell all they can produce

Rimmed cartridges can sometimes be a problem in a box magazine. The Savage 99 was chambered in 30-30 for a few years. I think that the cartridge is popular because of the handy lever action carbines and rifles that are chambered for it . The Remington 788 came in 30-30 and 44 magnum among other choices. That action had the locking lugs on the rear of the bolt so rimmed cartridges weren't a problem. The gummy tipped ammo has solved the pointed bullet in the tube mag problem and lets face it the 308 is a lot more than the 30 WCF.Why would anyone pay the price of the new H.R.A. Long Ranger when they can get a 336 , 94 Winchester or a Henry 30-30 for less? If H.R.A. wants a good surprise an easy fix to make the Ranger in .358 Win.

once again .... the interest would come from folks who like 30-30 caliber and would like to reload using spitzer bullets .... the clip fed Long Ranger line would offer them such an opportunity .... I know people who hunt with tube fed 30-30's who load a spitzer round in the chamber, followed by standard round / flat nose bullets in their rifle's tube magazine