Trigger Guard Plate Screw Fell Out

[rickhem]

My Henry BBS in .357 with the side gate has been the subject of many of my posts on here. I got that rifle shooting really well and hoped to use it, as part of a kind of a rotation, along with a couple other rifles for deer season this year. It was going to be my go-to for filling the doe tag if/when I shot a buck.

So about a couple weeks before the season, back in early/mid October, I was giving each of my rifles a little cold bore shot thing I do. If I'm going to hunt with a rifle, I take that rifle and the ammo I plan to hunt with, and take a shot at 100 yards.....just one shot. I've even left two of the bolt guns out in the garage, along with the ammo, so everything would get cold, like being out hunting. I hunt in the woods, so I want the confidence that if I have to pick a hole through trees, and sticks, and branches, and twigs, that it'll go where I want. I have 1½ inch orange dot stickers, and I really want the hit to touch that. With those two rifles, it did every day I checked it. Side note, I can shoot on my property, so I leave the targets up and will end up with a group of cold bore shots after a few days. I do the same with the Henry, but at 50 yards, and I use the 10 meter pistol target, which has a black that is about 2¼" diameter. I usually fire two shots with the Henry, and if they're touching, sometimes a third.

So I'm shooting with the Henry, getting great results, I move the lever to open the action, and a screw falls out. It's the Trigger Guard Plate Screw, which is #47 on every drawing I found for this rifle. Hey, stuff happens, no big deal. I was done for that day, so I screwed it back in and snugged it up good so it wouldn't fall out in the woods. From that point on, my groups were nowhere near as tight as they were before. Took a little while to connect those dots, I'm sometimes not the sharpest tool, and it was a different day when I shot it again. So now I'm wondering if that screw should have been reinstalled with a lower torque than me bulling it down. I can use some blue loctite and just snug it in, if that gets me better groups.

This went from a solid 1½ to 2" groups at 50 yards, to over 3" now, and the worst is that the point of impact has dropped about 5" at 50 yards. I'm in the middle of the season now, so not the time to experiment, but I may loosen it up a bit and see what happens. My confidence is gone for this right now, and I will have to figure it out.

Does anyone have any thoughts or input on this?

[Mags]

Weird. Wouldn't think that screw would have that kind of effect. When was the last time you cleaned the rifle?

[BigAl52]

Wouldnt think a trigger guard plate screw would effect accuracy unless it threads into the receiver then possibly it would.

[5shot]

rickhem

I've got a pair of X-models, a BBS .45 Colt and a BBS carbine in .357 and that steenking screw won't stay tight in any of them. Neither will the large receiver screw just above the trigger (too lazy to look up the number). I was going over my .44 X-model last night to make sure it's ready for Saturday, opening day of our Wisconsin gun season. Sure nuff, #47 was loose by a full turn. We open our range to the public for sight-in every year as a club money maker and in between my supervising the flinching of the unwashed masses I checked the .44X and she's right on. Since Henry replaced the barrel this gun is really a shooter. I really don't think that the loose screw would be the cause of your issue. I admit to wondering about that possibility myself before this one got sent in though.

[rickhem]

Thanks for the responses.

Rifle was cleaned earlier this year, and there has been less than 60 rounds through it since then, all jacketed ammo. It seems to take a little to settle back to consistency after cleaning, so I wasn't going to clean before hunting season.

I also don't quite get the connection on this screw's impact on accuracy, but it's all I have right now. It definitely threads into the receiver, as this screw holds the trigger plate in place on the receiver. But the barrel/receiver connection is not altered or anything....as far as I know anyway.

My rifle has also had the barrel replaced %shot, and it's been great after that. I've read about others having this same screw loosen up or fall out, and it's really not a big deal when it happens on the bench, but it'll be getting loctite so I don't lose it any of the other paces that I'll be bringing the rifle.

It's going to have to wait a bit since I don't want to be shooting a lot during hunting season. I'll get back to this though, and I'll post up what I learn.

[leverjc]

I do not see how the screw could affect the accuracy of your rifle but strange things happen. I have two Henry's and Henry has put six different barrels on them. Four of the barrels were very rough and would start losing accuracy well before I had shot 20 rounds through them. I would clean the bore then look at it with a bore scope. One other thing that stands out to me is that it takes several rounds before accuracy is back after cleaning it. In my experience with good bores it only takes two or three rounds to shoot the lube out of it.

Looking forward to hearing about your solution after hunting season. Good luck with your hunt.

[Mags]

Thanks for the responses.

Rifle was cleaned earlier this year, and there has been less than 60 rounds through it since then, all jacketed ammo. It seems to take a little to settle back to consistency after cleaning, so I wasn't going to clean before hunting season.
....

With 60 rounds of jacketed ammo, I would suspect there is a good bit of copper fouling going on.