Henry Rifle Forums

I’m thinking about purchasing either a Henry steel receiver 45LC or Marlin 1894 45LC. I read that Henry uses a faster twist rifling than Marlin and other makers which favors heavier bullets.

I want a 45 cal to go along with my Blackhawk 45LC and have settled on a very mild load using a 200gn RNFP running around 800fps. I’m using HP-38/231 and found my load to be very accurate in my Blackhawk. I have arthritis in my hands and wrists and just can’t take the recoil I once did.

My question is, will this load perform well in the Henry? How is accuracy at say 50-100 yds? As I mentioned it’s very accurate in the revolver but that’s a totally different animal.

If it turns out to not be a good performer I can go to a heavier bullet like a 250 or buy a Marlin. I’m a little partial to the Henry since I currently have a Henry 22 carbine that’s one of my favorites.

Thanks in advance.

I shoot lots of 200 gr lead. Like it quite a lot. My rifle is not a BB but still 45 Colt. Little to no recoil.

50 yds.

My Marlin Cowboy cyckes and shoots them well.
Sorry my Henry's are 41 and 44's.

RP

Thanks for the info. I really favor the round barrel and I think the only option is in the steel receiver. The octagonal barrel just feels too front heavy. I bought a Henry pump 22 a couple of years ago and sold it for the same reason. The balance just wasn’t right. In the end I wound up buying a really clean Winchester 62A that feels just right.

I forgot to mention I’m only plinking with it. I’m too lazy to hunt.

My .45 Colt BBS shoots 200 grain "cowboy action loads" very accurately and as has been said, recoil is practically non-existant!

Tomorrow I’m going to call my local dealers and see if I can locate one.

Thanks again! Exactly the info I was looking for.

If you reload, try 7 gn of Universal with 200 gr lead. Fun load to shoot. That's what I shot today. Lots of punch.

Never used Universal.

I initially did a series of loads with 231/ HP38, HS-6 and Unique with my Blackhawk. Each powder I did several different weights of each powder and chronographed each and from a rest determined best accuracy. It came down to two loads. One load with 231 was very mild recoil and very accurate and one with HS-6 had equal accuracy but was very stout. I don’t remember velocities and will have to look them up.

Took a little drive to Buds Guns and Smoky Mountain Guns & Ammo this afternoon and looked at a Marlin 1894, Rossi 92, Henry big boy octagonal barrel carbine and steel carbine in 45 colt and came home with the Big Boy. The brass, wood, bluing and overall fit and finish plus how smooth it cycles made it a no brainer.

I really thought I’d wind up with either the Marlin or Henry steel carbine but when I handled the BB carbine it just felt right. I expected the barrel to make it front heavy like the 22 pump I had but it balanced just right.

Tuesday I’m taking it to the range and will report back. It makes the perfect companion for the Ruger Blackhawk 4-5/8 my wife gave me for Christmas.

.45 Colt is a great one to shoot! I have a Uberti/Winchester 1873 in 45 Colt 24 inch octagon barrel and with the 250 gr. bullets and 8 gr. Unique
there is little recoil and great accurate shooting.
Your Henry BB will go great with the Blackhawk! I have the Henry/Blackhawk combo in .44 Magnum.

Got out today and only had time to shoot 23 rounds. I shot from a rest at 25 yds and placed 10 shots in a 1-1/4 in group. Very pleased!

Tomorrow I should have a lot more time and will shoot 50 &100 yds.

I’ve never been into rifles much other than collecting vintage military rifles and shooting a few matches with an M1A but this has me excited now.

sounds like you are homing in on a good load .... looking forward to your ongoing reports

What loads were/are you using? Sounds like a shooter. I run the same load as fortyshooter. Very accurate. Keep us posted.

I’m using 6.8gr 231/HP-38 under a RNFP 200gr that I get from Summers enterprises in Mississippi. In my 4-5/8” Blackhawk it’s running 671fps. I need to take the chrono tomorrow and see how it’s running. I’d guess around 725-750FPS.

I did a test with HS-6, Unique and 231 behind 200 and 250gn RNFP bullets. The 231/HP-38 behind the 200gn bullet was the most accurate and softest shooting. A very close second was a much hotter load with HS-6 and the 200gn. All were shot in my Blackhawk and not the Henry.

I’ve only tried the 231 / 200gn combo in the Henry so far. I was trying to come up with a combo that worked well in both rather than keeping two weight of bullets and doing two different loads. I want to keep it simple.

I shot a lot of 45 acp in both my 1911’s and Smith 625. I’m really partial to 200gn swc’s but I’m planning on trying the 200gn RNFP in the acp cartridges. I’ve read a lot of people have good results with them.

I went out Saturday and chronographed my loads and shot a couple more targets at 25-30yds. My load using 6.8gn of HP38/231 with a lead or polymer coated 200gn rnfp bullet shot from my carbine with the 16.5” barrel clocked at 896.38 FPS. It’s a bit faster than I thought.

Accuracy from a rest was great with 8 shots in just over 1”.

I had some Bayou 250gn coated rnfp bullets and loaded up 20 rounds. I used 8gn of Unique and had an average velocity of 1097.4fps out of the 16.5 barrel. Accuracy was good but the 200gn with 231 is better in my gun.

Ive never had very good luck with a 250 and 8 grains of Unique in 45 colt

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:50 pm

Ive never had very good luck with a 250 and 8 grains of Unique in 45 colt

realizing its a different world but I've had really good luck with 240 gr JHP pushed by 7.7 gr of Unique in a 44 revolver load

Agree on the different world made that comment because that 8 gr load comes up quite frequently when Ive read about discussions of using Unique in the 45 Colt

its a load I haven't fired in our Henry .... don't have any reason to believe it won't be OK because of the way it performs in our Redhawk

Seems to me I read where you are retired so what are you waiting for shoot that in the rifle