Back to the mothership

[BigAl52]

Thanks folks! Still waiting for warranty claim to be approved. If memory serves me correctly, a couple years ago it was simply a matter of talking to the nice lady in Rice Lake and shortly thereafter a shipping label appeared in the e-mail. Now it's filling out a form and reading..."Warranty claims are processed in the order they are received." Maybe Monday.

I have a buddy that does gun shows frequently and I'll be sharing a table with him next month but there's no way I could peddle this without full disclosure. I'm all too familiar with the roller coaster ride of going from "New gun buzz" to "Major league letdown."

parson 48. If they send this rifle back shooting the way it left I'll probably jump ship as a Henry fanboy (geriatric version ) and look at a Ruger/ Marlin or the new Smith. I much prefer Henry's safety setup to a crossbolt though.

Im pretty sure you will anyway but check out the new Ruger Marlin at the show 5Shot. Id buy one they are nice

[leverjc]

Henry should have someone else make their barrels. I have bought two Henry's and had a total of six different barrels. They finally got the one on my Frontier good, but after refunding the purchase price and sending me a new BBS in .357 it still would not group well. I used the refund to have a Shilen barrel put on it. Shoots great now. Good Luck.

[Redthies]

This is disappointing to hear, as I was going to send my .44mag in for a re-barrel as it’s all over the place too (1:40 twist), but if the new barrels are that bad, I might just sell the damn thing…

[Redthies]

I spent a few hours scanning the gun sales websites. Aside from anew Marlin 1894, there is nothing I want. Maybe I’ll try some of the other hand loads and basic factory ammo I have and see if any of them shoot better. I really want to shoot copper out of it, but if it’s a cheap date, I can go that way too.

[Richd]

I have a Marlin SBL in .44 mag and ran into the same problem. I reload and had to use .431 bullet diameter I think is the size. I found some lead ammo keyholes. I use jacketed soft point 240 gr. I’ve also seen a friends Henry 45-70 key hole with some ammunition. Not sure why they bore the barrels on the large end of the specification.

[Redthies]

How old is your SBL? I’m actually looking at a 70s era JM 1894 in .44 Mag. I wonder if .44 is just a crap cartridge for rifles, cause it sounds like nobody does it well…

[parson48]

How old is your SBL? I’m actually looking at a 70s era JM 1894 in .44 Mag. I wonder if .44 is just a crap cartridge for rifles, cause it sounds like nobody does it well…

I'm wondering the same about the 44 mag in a rifle. Even though I had a CVA single shot, years ago, that shot them pretty well.

If Henry would replace mine with a 357, or 36 Buckkammer, I'd certainly accept that!

[Richd]

It’s 3 or 4 years old. I’m not sure why the make them to the wide end of the spectrum. WWB 44 mag is fine. It likes 240 gr JSP.

[Redthies]

I’m going to hit the range and run some 240 grain Federals through mine and see what it does…

Once the snow stops that is

[Hatchdog]

How old is your SBL? I’m actually looking at a 70s era JM 1894 in .44 Mag. I wonder if .44 is just a crap cartridge for rifles, cause it sounds like nobody does it well…

I used to have a Marlin in 44 mag and it shot lights out with my reloads using the Hornady 240 XTP-HP. 44 mag shoots great in most rifles it just seems like the Henrys have a problem. Saw a 44mag Big Boy X for sale here locally and my first thought was Big Boy in any other caliber but 44.

[Redthies]

Tom Kotz has stepped up and says he will personally expedite shipping a barrel if there isn’t one at the Arctic warranty depot. I got a bit of a “sure, we’ll look after you” previously, and I’m sure they would have, but by writing Anthony, it seems to have lit a fire….

[Redthies]

Barrel is in stock. They say a 5-10 day turnaround. I guess it’s go-time…

[BigAl52]

Good luck Red. I hope the new barrel fixes your problems

[Vaquero]

Good luck Red. What Al said.

RP

[Hatchdog]

Yep, looking forward to positive results.

[Redthies]

Well, “The Saga Continues “. Turns out Tom was paying attention and the part number quoted by the Canadian guy was wrong, so he doesn’t have the correct barrel. Tom has had a correct barrel, along with mag tube and retainer sent priority courier. He said he’d feel better if Henry sent “a matched set”. I Sid he would feel even better still if he sent a matching receiver and furniture along too. He didn’t comment on that. Some people have no sense of humor.

So I won’t ship until the warranty depot has the parts in hand. I’m nervous it may be problematic like some other recent .44s, but it doesn’t group now, so I don’t have much to lose I guess.

[leverjc]

A matched set? I would think that massed produced parts should fit or at least a good tech could make them fit. Oh well if they had good QC the original barrel would have been good. Uhggg

[Redthies]

A matched set? I would think that massed produced parts should fit or at least a good tech could make them fit. Oh well if they had good QC the original barrel would have been good. Uhggg

The original barrel is fine, if 1:38 twist were proper for .44 Mag. It’s not. SAAMI spec is 1:20. By matched set, I think he means sending ALL the parts needed in one pack so there is no issue with one thing not fitting the other. Mine is the original style, and parts have been “updated” since.

[5shot]

Going to the range tomorrow.

X-repair.jpg

[5shot]

Well, the new barrel is either twice as good or half as bad as the old one. I was struggling with clearly seeing the red dot in the bright sun today so these groups would have been tighter with a scope. But at 50 yards it was shooting round sub 2" groups without the maddening flyers. With a low power scope and a little load development I think this rifle will be just fine for deepwoods deer hunting and I plan to keep it.

Top load is the 310 gr. Lee at 1440 fps, next is 260 gr. Lyman hollow point in .44 spl. brass at 1354 fps avg. and bottom is 240 XTP at 1582 fps. None of those would bounce off a whitetail inside of 100 yards and the Lee would probably shoot through two deer. The standard deviation on the 310 Lee load was 5.4 fps! With a scope and a little tinkering I think the X will prove to be a consistent 1" to 1 1/2" 50 yard performer and that is all I reasonably expect from it. I'm getting to the point of being a little too old and creaky to be climbing lofty tree stands but if I do the chance of scratching the stock won't be a concern.

New barrel.jpg