Henry Rifle Forums

Good evening all.

I have a question about how ammo feeds in a lever action. This is based on having more experience with semi autos than lever actions. I shot my Big Boy yesterday for the first time, and if the rifle was not held upright, it would not feed reliably. Does the bolt simply push the round into the chamber when it moves forward, or does the extractor grab it before the round is chambered?

Thanks.

Lever action rifles by in large don't work so good when your holding it side ways watching yourself work the action.
How ever your holding the rifle work the lever "with athourity " and you will do alright.

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Same experience. Works better with the rifle held upright, but I've noticed the larger the caliber rifle it's less of a problem. For example, in my Long Ranger .223 the breech is very roomy. Lots of room for a round to bounce around in there. Where as in my .30-30, the round takes up a good deal of space in the breech and more easily aligns going into the chamber.

As for the ejector, I believe it rides on the edge of the butt of the round. As the round seats in the chamber the extractor snaps over the rim.

monadh wrote:Good evening all.

I have a question about how ammo feeds in a lever action. This is based on having more experience with semi autos than lever actions. I shot my Big Boy yesterday for the first time, and if the rifle was not held upright, it would not feed reliably. Does the bolt simply push the round into the chamber when it moves forward, or does the extractor grab it before the round is chambered?

Thanks.

This brings up another question. I agree with Ojaileveraction and Mags. But, have anyone tried factory .357/180gr castcore rounds in their Henry? I've tried a few and they have a dickens of a time coming up to chamber. Not all, but some.
Thinking it could be the wide "metplat"? monadh's question sparked this, thus the question.

Rifletom wrote:This brings up another question. I agree with Ojaileveraction and Mags. But, have anyone tried factory .357/180gr castcore rounds in their Henry? I've tried a few and they have a dickens of a time coming up to chamber. Not all, but some.
Thinking it could be the wide "metplat"? monadh's question sparked this, thus the question.

I have reloaded Sierra 180 JFP and Spreer 180 FMJ not had a problem.

Ok, may have to look at those. Thanks.

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Can't speak directly to your .357/180gr question. With my LR .223, I've shot spearpoint, hollow point, and soft round nose. Had intermittent hard jams with any of them. Bolt would not fully close or retract. My theory there is that the ejector got stuck behind the rim of the rounds preventing bolt closure and then the ratcheting mechanism in the LR gearing wouldn't allow the bolt to be retracted because it hadn't gone all the way forward. I've also had crosswise jams in the breech where the round didn't even enter the chamber. These when not holding the rifle upright. Fortunately the bolt is still retractable, but in doing that another round comes up into the breech for a double round jam.

Rifletom wrote:This brings up another question. I agree with Ojaileveraction and Mags. But, have anyone tried factory .357/180gr castcore rounds in their Henry? I've tried a few and they have a dickens of a time coming up to chamber. Not all, but some.
Thinking it could be the wide "metplat"? monadh's question sparked this, thus the question.

With regard to Henry (and rifles with similar actions) the round is not 'captured' when cycled and is essentially loose in the action until pushed into the chamber. This requires dang near vertical orientation of the rifle to cycle.
A rifle such as a Winchester Mod 94 'captures' the round between the cartridge lift and guides and will cycle with the rifle at 90 degrees.
Differences in design is all.

"Swiftly and with authority," while holding the receiver upright, are the keys to success. I babied my first Henry when I first got it and thought for sure it was defective.

"Operator error," as it turned out!

Actually I just tried my Henry at 90 degrees (ejection port up of course!) and it chambered a round just fine.

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My .30-30 would almost always too chamber fine.
My LR would 50/50 of the time when not upright. Point of the bullet wouldn't enter the chamber. But its on its way to Ricelake because of bolt jamming issues with a round entering the chamber.

Mistered wrote:Actually I just tried my Henry at 90 degrees (ejection port up of course!) and it chambered a round just fine.

I measured four different .357 bullet metplat.
180gr Castcore--.295"
158 Fed 158 JSP--.265"
158 RNFP plated--.255"
158 swc/l--.245"
I'm only having a bit of difficulty with the 180's. OAL's are between 1.560"-1.570" on all factory or handloads.
Oh well. If I want some 180's to work in the Henry, I'll load some Missouri 180 coated, RNFP. Those will work.

monadh wrote:Does the bolt simply push the round into the chamber when it moves forward, or does the extractor grab it before the round is chambered?

Thanks.

The bolt pushes the round into the chamber at a pretty good angle. As the cartridge starts to “straighten up”, the rim of the case has to slide up the bolt face and under the extractor.

If you are reloaded Cartridge Overall length has huge impact on feeding other than that run the lever like you own it and all will go well.