Lever a bit sticky on my BB 357 ...UPDATE

[fortyshooter]

Could be it will loosen up after more use but I notice it takes a bit of hand effort to break the lever loose from it's lock up position.
Also the hammer spring seems to have a little more tension when fully cocked as the bolt tries to slide over. It just has a bit of notchyness to it's
operation...all as compared to my BBS 44 Carbine.
Lever and bolt action is smooth if you depress the hammer to clear bolt of course.
Anyone lighten up the hammer spring for a smoother action?

On my Rossi Ranch Hand I radiused and polished up the part of hammer that contacts the bolt.

[Vaquero]

I've never had any issues with mine sorry that you are.

RP

[krunchnik]

Mine also is pretty smooth-you can however feel the hitch when the bolt pushes the hammer-
I have not messed with any of the springs-would be nice to get a trigger pull that is a little less-but it breaks nice.

[MarkB]

I've not had any problems with my .357 CCB. I did use 8 .357 snap caps and cycled the action a couple hundred times or so (the specs say 7 rounds but the my .357 takes 8 rounds). I did make sure that the action was oiled properly. This also helped to make the trigger a little smoother (it was already very nice). Give it a try.

[markiver54]

Forty, for what it's worth, mine has cycled like glass right out of the box.

[GunnyGene]

I don't like to mess around with trying figure out which little bitty part is causing a "sticky". So I'll just strip the gun down (Henry or any other), and polish every surface that is rubbing on something else during any movement.

[fortyshooter]

Cycles fine when you are running it. Just needs a bunch more 180's run thru it!
I've never been inside of the Henry but a little looking,cleaning and polish wouldn't hurt.

On my Rossi I took it completely apart and deburred everything.polished and lubed. This IS required on most Rossi's.

[Vaquero]

The Henry is much easier and similar to a Marlin 336.

RP

[MarkB]

There is a video on the Henry website that shows how to completely disassemble/reassemble a brass Big Boy .44 mag rifle. This should be the same for the CCB (steel) .357 rifle except for the color of the receiver. Actually, the lighter color of the brass receiver makes it easy to see the different parts and how to correctly reassemble the rifle.

https://www.henryusa.com/own-a-henry/he ... -boy-h006/

[fortyshooter]

Found the lever opening stickieness… The spring loaded plunger that locks the lever in closed position seems to be really strong...just a bit stronger than the one on my Henry BBS Carbine and much stronger than on my Marlin 1895 Guide Gun which uses same setup.
Now if I can swap out the spring to the Marlin or similar pressure new spring that would be the fix.

Looks like you need to compress plugger in a fixture and drive out that small pin.

Also a question about all types of the lever rifles... why does the bolt have to depress the already cocked hammer that little amount more to glide over it? If the hammer was locked back just a bit more the bolt would easily slide by. Maybe lever rifle experts here could further explain.
You can add weaker hammer springs that help in that but no need if there was just that bit of extra clearance.

The Henry bolt itself slides nice and easy.

[JEBar]

Henry recommends forcefully working their levers .... for me that's always been the norm and I honestly don't feel the resistance from the bolt cocking the hammer .... its all just part of the process .... the next time I get one of our out, I'm going to have to try and see I can isolate the feel of the resistance between the hammer and bolt

[markiver54]

Personally, I never knew this was happening till I saw it...didn't feel it at all.

[fortyshooter]

Made up my fixture to depress plunger and knock out retaining pin. Pin tapped out easy.
First thing is to polish contact side of angle cut on the downward lever stroke side only and see if it breaks free smoother.
Was following mods like this on the Marlin rifles. Won't take much to help smooth it out.

[JEBar]

fascinating .... way above my level .... looking forward to following your work on this

[BigAl52]

I knew after seeing one picture that Forty posted that he would be at this project like a beaver is on a tree he needs for his dam. When Forty was makin those speed loaders that picture of his shop was telling a story about Forty.

[GunnyGene]

Made up my fixture to depress plunger and knock out retaining pin. Pin tapped out easy.
First thing is to polish contact side of angle cut on the downward lever stroke side only and see if it breaks free smoother.
Was following mods like this on the Marlin rifles. Won't take much to help smooth it out.

Saw this coming, but didn't want to steal your thunder. While you've got it apart you might as well do a little something with the locking bolt also.

[fortyshooter]

SUCCESS!
I polished up the plunger and after looking at the factory spring went looking thru my spring drawer.
Found a spring that measured exact .160 diameter as stock but was made of slightly thinner wire but with a few more coils.
It is actually an industrial die spring used to work under a shedder pin inside a die punch. I am a retired Tool&Die Maker you know!

Anyway I also polished a few wear areas on the upper part of lever with 800 grit paper that were showing contact and lubed it up
with my Moly Graph grease...great stuff. Installed the lever and man what a difference!!! The breakaway force of cycling the lever is much less with no stickiness just smooth and enough plunger spring tension to hold lever in place with just a bit of finger pressure to break lever loose and cycle!!!
Can't wait to get back down to range and run it some more!

Here you can compare the stock spring on far left and next is my custom spring. Polished plunger leaning against my left over spring material.

Now time for a beer!

[markiver54]

Congratulation on a job well done! You have a lot more patience and know how than me. Good going Forty!

[BigAl52]

I bet a tool and die maker from the era of the quality went in before the name went on.

[JEBar]

Yep, way beyond my pay grade .... nicely done ..