Magazine Tube Failure

[JEBar]

earlier today Mike (The Wiz) (first picture) joined me at a local private range during a really nice day in our part of the country .... he brought his beautiful Henry 357 Golden Boy & a 22 LR both equipped with rear peep sights .... early on I ran about 20 rounds through our 45-70, 7 through the chrony and the rest testing grouping (results posted in another ongoing thread) .... after firing at 20 yards (first picture), we moved back to 50 yards and finally to 100 yards .... at 100 we were both firing my Henry 44 Mag with it's Nikon scope at skeet mounted on the range's backstop .... the last time Mike fired it he was on his way to put up more skeet when I noticed a split in outer magazine tube .... I've already called Henry .... first thing in the morning a return label will be emailed to me .... this the rifle I plan to take with us on our coming trip to Texas .... they have promised to expedite the repair so as to make that possible

[GFK]

Sorry about your situation. Glad you got a return slip. I guess the 45-70 has a kick! About how many rounds have you ran through it so far? From your posts, I gather it is a lot.

[CT_Shooter]

.... at 100 we were both firing my Henry 44 Mag with it's Nikon scope at skeet mounted on the range's backstop .... the last time Mike fired it he was on his way to put up more skeet when I noticed a split in outer magazine tube .... I've already called Henry .... first thing in the morning a return label will be emailed to me .... this the rifle I plan to take with us on our coming trip to Texas .... they have promised to expedite the repair so as to make that possible

Keep us posted, JEBar.

[JEBar]

Sorry about your situation. Glad you got a return slip. I guess the 45-70 has a kick! About how many rounds have you ran through it so far? From your posts, I gather it is a lot.

the tube issue is on our Henry 44 Mag that has literally had 10's if thousands of rounds fired through it .... I seem to remember the same type of issue with the early 45-70's but so far it hasn't been one with ours .... I know she's fired well over a thousand rounds, probably closer to a couple of thousand

[shootinthecinders]

JEBar, I hope that Henry can rectify the mag tube split and return your rifle before you leave for Texas. Were there rounds in the magazine tube that pushed the inner mag tube out or did you pull it out after noticing the split?

[GFK]

Sorry about your situation. Glad you got a return slip. I guess the 45-70 has a kick! About how many rounds have you ran through it so far? From your posts, I gather it is a lot.

the tube issue is on our Henry 44 Mag that has literally had 10's if thousands of rounds fired through it ....

Oh. Sorry. Thanks!

[ESquared]

Seems like an odd failure, but must just be metal fatigue from all that shootin'!

Here's hoping you get it back in time for your trip!

[JEBar]

JEBar, I hope that Henry can rectify the mag tube split and return your rifle before you leave for Texas. Were there rounds in the magazine tube that pushed the inner mag tube out or did you pull it out after noticing the split?

Mike said the inner mage tube came out a few inches when he fired his last round .... when I walked over to it with the intent of loading 10 more rounds I immediately noticed the inner tube sticking out and the split in the outer tube .... as an interesting side note, when I first called Henry, I spoke with the same fellow who handled shipping our 44 back for the ejection problem .... his first question was, "How far did it launch the tube?" .. .. tomorrow morning I'll pull the scope, give hear a good cleaning, box her up and wait on the return label .... less than an hour after it does, she'll be handed over to UPS

[JEBar]

Seems like an odd failure, but must just be metal fatigue from all that shootin'!

Here's hoping you get it back in time for your trip!

in thinking back, I believe it had been failing for a while... I'd noticed that it had gotten very easy to lock the inner tube .... I thought the O-ring probably needed to be replaced .... never considered the outer tube was failing

[Mags]

I go with metal fatigue as well. But there is also a design contribution to the failure. The outer mag tube is not a solid tube. It's a curled piece of metal formed into tube with an open seam that runs the length of tube. The open seam is facing the barrel making it nearly unnoticeable. One can see the open seem by looking through the loading port of the outer mag tube. Because of this the weakest part of the mag tube metal is between the locking notch on one side of the tube and the open seam on the other side. The outer mag tube would be more durable in this area if the mag tube seam opposite the notch had been spot welded (then machined smooth).

[JEBar]

metal fatigue makes sense to me and having it take place at weak spot in the outer tube seems like a logical probability .... as to the design, I can see where a solid tube or one welded at strategic spots would be stronger .... I remember when they had to completely redesign the outer tube for the 45-70's .... in thinking back, I believe it was for much the same type of failures .... I suspect that if/when it should be warranted, they would reengineer as needed .... given, ours has most probably fired as many or more than most and I fully intend to keep up the pace .... having a lifetime warranty sure ain't a bad thing

[Mags]

.
it's the best!

.... having a lifetime warranty sure ain't a bad thing

[mrguvna]

Hey I will bet they will get this done and you will be happy. I sent mine back a few weeks ago for a problem with the mag tueb and within 7 days back good as new, maybe better, with a thank you note, and a follow up to see if I was satisfied.

good luck and let us know how it works out

[JEBar]

Hey I will bet they will get this done and you will be happy. I sent mine back a few weeks ago for a problem with the mag tueb and within 7 days back good as new, maybe better, with a thank you note, and a follow up to see if I was satisfied.

good luck and let us know how it works out

of that there I have absolutely no doubt .... this is the second time I've had to send it back .... coverage of doing so is being posted in the following link :

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 1&start=50

I most certainly plat to keep that thread updated .... in answer to how I feel about a rifle that has had to be sent back twice, I'm perfectly content with it .... its a machine and like any machine, if used hard enough and often enough it will eventually need some work .... our rifle has literally been fired tens of thousands of rounds .... there has to be some but I'd bet that there aren't many privately owned big bore rifles that have have fired more full power loads .... this weekend we plan to load another 1,000 or more rounds for it .... when it gets back, she'll quickly be back on the range again

[JEBar]

UPDATE :

earlier today I took our Henry 44 back to the same range shown in the picture in Post 1.... since Dec when this thread was started, I've had to remove and reinstall the scope twice .... after bore sighting it with our Wheeler Laser Magnetic Bore Sighter ===> http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... ter#p93149 my goal for today was to fine tune the sights to where the impact point is 1.6" high at 25 yds ,,,, realistically having the center of the 44 caliber hole be exactly 1.6" high ain't likely so further refinements are anticipated when I get a chance to fire it at a 100 yards I should need to make a few small adjustments .... per our ballistics calculator that will give us a trajectory dead sighted at 125 yards and 3" low at 150 yards .... mission accomplished for today .... 150 rounds down range later, is it clear that if I do my part, she will now consistently take out dime to nickle size pieces of broken skeet

[ESquared]

Nice work! Sounds like you have it tuned up just fine. Would love to shoot that one in KC later this summer.

[JEBar]

Nice work! Sounds like you have it tuned up just fine. Would love to shoot that one in KC later this summer.

it and several hundred rounds will be there ..

[Firefly]

My BBB in .44 mag has just done the same thing, split in exactly the same place as the photo, problem for me is I am in UK so returning the gun is impossible, have to try a local gunsmith and see what he can do

[Firefly]

Update

I contacted Henry who replied in minutes with the UK importers details, contacted them and was given the part number for my gunship to order, so information given very quickly. Don't know what the part and work is going to cost but at least I can get it fixed.

[JEBar]

no surprise but always really good to hear