Henry Rifle Forums

Scored a nice one at a good price on GunJoker, and took delivery today! As some of you may know, I've been fretting about the sights situation, and I can tell (95%) already that a Peep sight is in my future. I'll attempt the factory set-up tomorrow and report back, but PT7 gave me a sneak peek at his Skinner arrangement, and it planted a seed that seems to have sprouted in my brain.
The furniture is very nice, if not something that jumps out at you, and the fitment is, I think, VERY good.
My other first lesson is that, compared to pistols, rifles are very hard to photograph! What I've got so far is a couple of nice shots with my kitchen in the background. Will attempt PhotoShoot #2 tomorrow after range time and see if I can get something a bit more fitting.
Already posted to "How Many." #647, just for the record.
Thanks again to many of you who have welcomed me in such a short time and have shared some great learnings. I look forward to learning even more and giving back when I can!

Another Henry Big Boy has arrived in Kansas City......very cool!
Have a great first-time range visit, and enjoy.

congrats indeed .... looking forward to your coming reports and pictures

Did a basic field strip/inspection/cleaning. Don't know how many test shots are fired at the factory, but the bore was filthy. Must have taken 20 patches, different combinations of Hoppes No. 9, Ballistol and EWG Oil to get a clean patch to come out.

I added the Skinner peeps to my 357 Carbine and never regretted it. I knew from my Golden Boy .22 that the factory sights and my old eyes weren't going to get it. I ordered the Brass and blue combo to accent the brass and blue of my carbine. Looked great and shot the same. This is off the sandbags. Once I checked the sights, I shot the rest of the box at the reactive steel, and the wife even came over and got in on the action. She loved it and commented on how easy it was to get hits on the steel.

I used a six O'clock hold at 25 yards on the target, and floated the 8" plates on the bead for shooting the steel. Didn't have to change the front sight.

Back from the range, and my suspicions have been confirmed. At 25 yards, I had a decent picture of the buckhorn, the front sight and the target, and was able to line things up pretty well of the sandbag (seated), but when it came time to pull the trigger, I knew I was just giving it my best guess. Did 4 rounds of 5 shots per round. There was some warming up involved, no doubt, and some "brand new gun" stuff to get used to (she seemed reluctant to chamber the first round almost every time, but got it to go eventually), and I eventually moved the rear sight up one notch, as I was consistently low. Even with "splatter targets," I couldn't tell anything from 25 yds away.
Peep sights, here we come!
And, here are some decent pics from the bench after cleaning today. Rear stock wood is a bit more robust than I gave it credit for last night. The front stock, not so much, but still loving the fit and finish. Also liking the sling I found.
More to come and thanks for looking!

Cleans up very nicely. Good looking rifle and sling. Nice shooting.

Nice looking rifle, ESquared. I bet a rear peep will really tighten up that group at 25yds...

Hurrah, ESquared. Great first-outing POIs, and using buckhorn sights, too! I'm impressed.

You'll notice fairly quickly that my "biggie" about any Henry rifle is the wood....I really love how Henry selects and builds their firearm furniture. To me, most all I see look great, and are quite well-fitted. Your change of viewpoint of your Big Boy to "robust" is spot-on.

I like the darker and rich appearance your stock displays...very nice.
Pretty cool grain pattern there, too.

Again, congrats on the very good shooting and the new Henry!
PT7

ESquared wrote:Did a basic field strip/inspection/cleaning. Don't know how many test shots are fired at the factory, but the bore was filthy. Must have taken 20 patches, different combinations of Hoppes No. 9, Ballistol and EWG Oil to get a clean patch to come out.

Yes, I experienced a similar thing with my 30-30. But, it seems to clean up easier the more I shoot it. I ran about 80 rounds through it so far. I hoping to get a few more through within the next week or so if weather and honey do's list permits. However, I do like how it shoots and looks now.

Yep, cleaning the bore today after 20 rounds was much easier/quicker than it was dealing with whatever "test firing" they did at the factory. A little ongoing care and regular oil in the bore does make things better over time, no doubt about it.
Should I not fret about the feeding issues on the first round out of the magazine tube? Break-in issue?

Hum. That doesn't seem good to me. If you are loading to Henry's stated limit (10 is max I think), I would contact Henry. You have already cleaned and inspected it. So, all should be clear; I suspect. I guess you could double check your work. But, I would still consider contacting Henry.

GFK wrote:Hum. That doesn't seem good to me. If you are loading to Henry's stated limit (10 is max I think), I would contact Henry. You have already cleaned and inspected it. So, all should be clear; I suspect. I guess you could double check your work. But, I would still consider contacting Henry.

Good point of distinction, as all my issues this morning were after loading just 5 rounds, as that was the set of groupings I was tracking. If I'd loaded all 10, I'd have lost track for sure!

So, maybe I'll go back to square one and load up all 10 and see what happens...

That first round issue, I think is somewhat common to Henry's lever action. When I have issues, its always been with the first round after working the inner mag tube into place while loading it. Mine appears to be caused by the inner mag tube getting stuck on the rim of shell casings that then forces the first round part way into the receiver and kicking the lever open. My lever sometimes pops out a half inch or even sometimes all the way open. When I close the lever it sometimes jams on the first round and I can't close the lever fully until I open it and fish out that first round. At other times, after finally working the inner mag tube into place, when I go to shoot I can get a soft strike of the firing pin on the first round without the round going off. I didn't initially notice the lever popping open as my focus was on the mag tube. Anyway, check and see what your lever does while pressing in the inner mag tube. All that aside, as GFK suggests consider contacting Henry. I haven't done so, I'm kinda hoping my experience is a break-in thing.

The Henry BBS Carbine I got just last month chambers and operates quite well. But the first Henry Carbine I had purchased in July 2017 had a lot of problems when trying to chamber the first and even subsequent rounds.

Henry @ Rice Lake shop repaired the rifle twice for me, all on their dime. They did some deburring and replaced several parts, and the chambering improved. Unfortunately, there were some significant problems with the bore itself. Although Henry never outlined the problem specifically, there was possibly some damage that had happened to the bore size and rifling. My son-in-law has some pretty good skills and gunsmith knowledge/experience, and thought that when the bullet was fired it was not even touching the rifling, rather "bouncing" near the crown and shooting erratically. Neither of us could get POIs accurately on a silhouette target at fairly short yardage. I could understand it to be the shooter in my case; but my son-in-law was a Marine sniper during his military service. If he had trouble with accurate bullet placement, I'd say the rifle was the culprit.

Eventually Henry @ Rice Lake took back that Big Boy and refunded the purchase price. The accuracy problem was not resolved. The Carbine I have now is my "recovery" from the first one. From my experience, the best place to go with any Henry rifle problem is to Henry. They will work with a person until he is a satisfied customer as President Imperato promised in his guarantee.

I'd hope your problem, ESquared, might just be a "breaking-it-in" experience. That would be the easiest path for sure.
PT7

Well, I'll be calling Henry in the AM. Maybe they have phone fix idea, but I doubt it. I think I'll load it up again before I call and take a pic of the situation so I can email it to someone, just as a first step in the conversation.
Bob, when you were shipping yours back and forth, was it just in the original factory box or did they want you to put it in the "plain brown wrapper" of an extra carton on the outside? That box is a "steal me" billboard if there ever was one.

ESquared wrote:...when you were shipping yours back and forth, was it just in the original factory box or did they want you to put it in the "plain brown wrapper" of an extra carton on the outside? That box is a "steal me" billboard if there ever was one.

Wrap it or put it another box. They'll likely advice the same. Also, you'll need to be available to sign for the return, and ( from experience ) they will likely not give you a "heads up" when it has shipped, so contact CS regularly while it's away so you'll know when to expect it.

Henry didn't require me to ship the rifle in any specific way, Evan. I've used the Henry box along with the larger carton cardboard box. I liked the double protection to help the Henry safely through the journey! Always got my original box back with serial number, etc., on the labels. Shipping was never a problem for me working with Henry.

ESquared wrote:Well, I'll be calling Henry in the AM. Maybe they have phone fix idea, but I doubt it. I think I'll load it up again before I call and take a pic of the situation so I can email it to someone, just as a first step in the conversation.
Bob, when you were shipping yours back and forth, was it just in the original factory box or did they want you to put it in the "plain brown wrapper" of an extra carton on the outside? That box is a "steal me" billboard if there ever was one.

Wrap it or put it another box. They'll likely advice the same. Also, you'll need to be available to sign for the return, and ( from experience ) they will likely not give you a "heads up" when it has shipped, so contact CS regularly while it's away so you'll know when to expect it.[/quote]

I'm familiar with the "Adult Signature Required" routine, having had pistols back and forth to Sig for mostly elective services and upgrades. Sorry to head I won't get a heads up. Yikes.

ESquared wrote:

GFK wrote:Hum. That doesn't seem good to me. If you are loading to Henry's stated limit (10 is max I think), I would contact Henry. You have already cleaned and inspected it. So, all should be clear; I suspect. I guess you could double check your work. But, I would still consider contacting Henry.

Good point of distinction, as all my issues this morning were after loading just 5 rounds, as that was the set of groupings I was tracking. If I'd loaded all 10, I'd have lost track for sure!

So, maybe I'll go back to square one and load up all 10 and see what happens...

I assume the answer is yes. But, I will mention it. My Marlin seemed to jam when I first got it. It was my first lever action. Since then, I have learned that lever actions like to be cycled with purpose. No babying allowed. So, no more jamming after I started to cycle the lever fully and like I meant it (firmly). Just a thought.