Henry Rifle Forums

What diameter of cast bullets for my Henry 44 mag, without slugging my bore?

we have never slugged any of our rifles .... all of the lead bullets we have fired have been .431's

JEBar wrote:we have never slugged any of our rifles .... all of the lead bullets we have fired have been .431's

What grain of bullet are you using ? Would a 200grn,18 brinell be a good choice? Thinking of using MBC Stalker bullet sized at .431? thanks

with lead, I only fire 240 gr RNFP bullets .... it would be better for folks with much more knowledge about lead bullets to make the recommendations you have asked for .... I used to buy Oregon Trail and Missouri Bullet Company 240 gr RNFP by boxes of 500 .... I've literally fired tens of thousands of their lead 44's but I've never hunted with one .... my intent is to move exclusively to jacketed bullets .... with jacketed, I only use Nosler 240 gr JHP or JSP .... I do have a few boxes of Nosler 300 gr JHP's that I might pull off the shelf somewhere down the line and develop a load for .... I simply hate to change something that works really well .... I have been hunting since the mid 60's and, to date, not a single black bear, deer or boar has ever fought off a Nosler JHP ..

Slugging the bore is always a good answer.

Accepting that, It is highly unlikely that the bore would be so large that .431 would not work.

Talked to Henry rep. today said bore size is .429.

Have you considered the copper plated bullets at all. With a 200 gr bullet it doesnt sound to me like your loading for hunting more for plinking. I have gotten away from leadcast bullets as much as I can myself and gone to the copper plated. I like them alot better. Try Xtreme, Rainier, or Berrys. Al

Groove diameter is what you need to know. SAAMI and Henry's specs are a .431 groove diameter, .424 bore diameter. I slugged my barrel (.431) on my Big Boy and it matched what Henry told me. Cast bullets should be 0.001" over groove diameter for best accuracy and gas sealing. Therefore, cast bullets sized at .432 will work best. Missouri Bullet company will size them at .432 for you. Penn Bullets as well. I have had great results with Missouri's 240gr RNFP cast coated bullets. They have been accurate out to 200 yards even when driven at only 860fps out of my Big Boy.

I haven't tried MBC's 200gr bullet. But, from my experience with Penn's sized at .432, MBC's sized at .432 will give excellent results. And, even if hunting with it, the 200gr can give excellent penetration.

I have used 200gr and 240gr RNFP plated from XTreme. I have gotten good results with the 200gr, xtreme fliers with the 240gr (pun intended). I prefer the cast. I can get almost 100fps faster with a light 7.2gr charge of Red Dot with the 200 gr cast vs the 200gr plated (1139fps av for plated, 1227fps av for cast).