Henry Lever Rifle .38 Special/.357 Magnum

Picked up a Henry Lever Rifle in .38 Special/.357 Magnum.

I have been putting off this purchase for about two years now...and finally made the jump.


It is a 16.5 inch barrel length and has some kind of oversized lever than I have seen on most of them.

They are called Big Boy Steel rifles.


I did not want anything to do with those brass type rifles..to much bling for my taste...and would show up brightly out in the woods..not for me thanks,


https://www.henryusa.com/rifles/henry-big-boy-steel/


I have not had time to go through it but plan this weekend to punch out the barrel and wipe down the metal parts on it with a slightly oiled cloth.

Also plan to apply to the metal parts a very thin coat of this Dow Corning M55 silicon O ring grease and particularly down the barrel. A moisture barrier...

Will be getting a rifle case for it as well.

Had a Rossi years ago and enjoyed just knocking around at the range using .38 Specials...but let that rifle get away from me.


Gotta shove off now..

Catch up with the board over the weekend,

Watcherchris

 

I bought a Henry in .22 mag. Works great. Is accurate.

I have a Winchester Trapper in .357. Great handy-rifle.

Only downside of the Henry product I know of is that it is without a side loading gate. I have tube speed loaders for .22 LR/Mag. I wonder if such speed-loaders exist for .38/.357. For the .22 mag tube fed rifles I own I can zip! drop in 11 rounds, poof! In .22 LR, 15rnds plus go down the tube in one swallow; 20 rnds in .22 short. But finding a speed loader for the Henry center fire tube feed would be dynamite.

I'm gonna hit the web and see if anything pops up. Search engines are now blocking inquiries related to firearms. People into firearms are now being kept on lists of potential terrorists. "Constitutionalist" is now a moniker for one kind of terrorist, I kiddest thou not. Having strong beliefs about following Constitutional rules is now considered a psychological problem by politically correct perpetual government workers embedded in the U.S. government. With their illegally obtained power, they track people who believe in small government so that post-SHTF they can be arrested and their properties confiscated. Lord knows I've got a file on me. Actually, I'm kinda glad they are wasting money following an old geezer and his antiques collection. Let them watch me go find some shootin' stuff for my 130+ year old "assault rifles".

http://www.spee-d-loader.net/spee-d-loader/





http://www.alpharubicon.com/leo/rubiconspeedloader.htm

I've not found a solution to speed-loading the .357 tube (sans loading port).

I've read that the Henry can be sensitive to the overall length of cartridges due to the angle at which the cartridge enters the chamber. ??? - maybe, maybe not, something to look into.

Surely a speed-loader can be jerry-rigged for this rifle type.

 

LOL LOL LOL...I've not even thought of speed loading this rifle as of yet....

Not even all that familiar with it.

Going out to my garage here soon and clean my GP 100 pistol...my lady friends .357 snub nose and then this lever rifle.

Been doing the last of putting up yard furniture from the Hurricane Florence preps. Cooling off here so I wanted to put out the deck table and the umbrella. With the cooler weather more time will be spent out on the deck than in the steaming hot humid days.

Time to do an Op Check on the grill now as well...it too is stored in the garage for the hurricane.

Again ..not sure when I will get a chance to try it out but looking forward to it.

Thanks for the video links.


Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

I like my Henry 22LR that I won in a raffle last summer.

 

Cleaned my Ruger GP 100 and also my lady friend's Taurus snub nose .357. I punched out the barrels and cylinders with #9 Hoppes and then ran patches through them until clean. Then took a clean patch and applied a thin amount of this Dow Corning M55 Silicone O ring grease to the inside of the barrel and the cylinders. Then finally a very thin coat to the outside of the guns.
My lady friends .357 is loaded with .38 Specials +P' s



Same thing with this Henry Rifle in cleaning it.

I loaded some of my .357 Magnum reloads to it and cycled the action and no hang ups.

Then tried it with some of my reloaded .38 Specials and again no hang ups.

I did detect a slight bit of stiffness..but expect that will go away with some usage...breaking in so to speak.

But overall ..so far am pleased. The wood work on it is fine...nice wood.


Not sure when I will have time to fire it as the range but looking forward to it.


Thanks,
Watcherchris

Not an Ishmaelite

 

I love lever action rifles. I have a henry 22lr carbine that is great, A Winchester 38/357 Trapper, A Winchester 250 22lr, A Marlin 30-30 and a Savage 99F in 300 Savage. I REALLY want a Marlin in 45-70 but can't really justify it since we don't have any of the really big game animals here. You are going to love your 357 carbine. They are light and handy and have good stopping power for small animals 175 pounds and under. I had an old friend that killed several deer every year with an old winchester in 38-40 and that isn't much better, if any than a 357 mag.

 

38- 40 Wow...!! That looks like an olde black powder designation...sort of like .38-55 which I believe is also an olde black powder designation. Can you still get ammo for those or do you have to go to special places to get it or roll your own??

But as I understand it...if you were not making long shots ...those calibrations were just fine.

Thanks,
Watcherchris

Not an Ishmaelite

 

Ammo is still available especially in the Cowboy loadings for the Cowboy shooting competitions. Winchester also loads heavier loads for the newer rifle and handguns but it is pretty pricey. The 38-40 is actually a 40 caliber and the power is similar to 40 S&W. It was based on the older 44-40 case and necked down. At one time it was available in the N frame S&W revolvers but the creation of the 357 mag and later the 44 mag pretty well eliminated it from modern use.

I wish that the 357 maximum had survived as a rifle round. It wasn't good in revolvers because the high pressure cause it to flame cut into the top strap over time. Just think though how handy a 357 max/357mag/38 special lever action rifle would be!

 

You might find this interesting.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/05/chris-dumm/lever-action-ballistics-30-30-vs-357-magnum/