Holy Frijoles - Henry Big Boy 357 Magnum

Cornmastah wrote:Amen to the nostalgia effect.  I believe the fascination I have with revolvers and lever guns stems from all the old John Wayne, Bonanza, Magnificent Seven, etc... shows and reruns I used to watch growing up.

Me, too. Heck, if some nostalgia doesn't come into play, then where's the fun in shooting? All that's left is whatever is on the front cover of Recoil magazine or whatever Caleb Giddings has decided today really really really this time for sure really really is the best defensive handgun to own/fire/carry. And that sucks.

That's why my very first centerfire handgun purchase was a 6 inch barrel S&W 29. Yes, I was (and still am) a huge "Dirty Harry" fan.

Certainly not the best choice for a new handgunner. But, I will say that after I got used to it, shooting full power 240 jhps, recoil was never much of an issue for me with other guns.

Awesome thread! Any updates on the .357 Henry leeever action? I've looked at the carbine, and that's one of the prettiest long guns available. If I run into one at a great price, it may follow me home. Otherwise, I'd really like a stainless R92 16-inch in .357, as an alternative to the ARs and AKs that I'm just not fond of.

Respectfully,
Bob

Dirty Bob wrote:Awesome thread! Any updates on the .357 Henry leeever action? I've looked at the carbine, and that's one of the prettiest long guns available. If I run into one at a great price, it may follow me home. Otherwise, I'd really like a stainless R92 16-inch in .357, as an alternative to the ARs and AKs that I'm just not fond of.

Respectfully,
Bob

No updates to speak of. Still love that Henry. Am starting to shoot it more at 50 yards off-hand. I have the lofty goal of regularly putting every round in a 3 inch circle at that range, but I think with practice I'll get there. The Henry is certainly capable of it.

I've decided to make it the primary long gun for my home. Attached a flashlight to the front of the handguard with a piece of bicycle inner tube. Looks silly but works great. Action is getting even smoother. It's going to be impossible to reload under stress, but I figure that after using up the 10 rounds in the mag, either my problem will be solved, or I'll just make a transition over to a shotgun at that point. The most important part is, my kids love shooting it, and I want the home gun to be something that everyone in the house is very comfortable shooting.

One of the things I like best about it for a home gun is that it's not overly loud, and the recoil is very soft. It's nowhere near as ear-busting as an AR or AK. I couldn't imagine what an AR or AK inside a home would do to the ears. It's gotta be very disorienting unless you're wearing hearing protection.

I've looked at some ballistic gel tests of 357 mag 158 grain soft points out of a rifle on You Tube and the results are very impressive. One round in particular, the American Eagle 158 grain soft points, sent the big block of ballistic gel up into the air. That's the kind of stopping power I like to see.

In another thread, I talked about a little Rossi 92 357 with 16 inch barrel I'm also very fond of and shooting a lot. On that one I added a TRS-25 red dot. Being so compact, it's my truck gun now. It's not as smooth and easy on the shoulder as the Henry, but it's not far from it. I expect it will do very well if I ever need it to defend myself, or take out some of the 4 legged varmints starting to show up around my home.

Bottom line is, I recommend either rifle VERY highly.

Tennessee Jed wrote:Bottom line is, I recommend either rifle VERY highly.

I second this. The Henry is a very smooth, well finished, accurate, beautiful gun and hard not to love. On the other hand, the Rossi has a side loading gate, shoots good enough, not finished quite as well as the Henry but is very handy, tough, and quick on target (the 16" barreled model). I love both of mine--but the Rossi gets more range time from me.

You guys are talking about the Henry Rifle Co. Lever action.

Myself, I would love to have an original Henry - or rather the Italian copy that you see from time to time in a SASS match. No front forearm, but neat loading system, and generally a kool rifle. I gather one ought to cut the spring in the loading tube a turn or two - can't remember just why.

This is kind of in the class of owning a Gatling Gun - which I would love to own, but don't really know what I would do with it. Including such mundane things like where I would keep it.

?How do you take a Gatling Gun to the range.

A gatling gun... now that would sure turn some heads at the range.

There was some guy who brought a working Gatling to a cowboy match. He did a demo. It was AWESOME! I think it was in .45 Colt. It used a stick magazine to load the rounds into the gun, and it was just incredible to watch it fire.

But it DOES chew up ammo. Rather like the demo I saw of a Maxim that was used by the Germans in WWI and was stationed at one of the watch towers at Auschwitz (you know the Krauts - they keep paper on everything forever).

Cornmastah wrote:Has anyone actually reloaded .357 sig yet, or anybody you know?

In the interest of minimizing threat-jack, I have moved my response here. https://gunnation.forumotion.com/t311-the-secret-to-successfully-reloading-357-sig#2869.

For some reason Montana Bullet and I have website issues. BUT - after repeated attempts, I FINALLY got an order in for 1,000 bullets. So we shall see how they turn out. I am not sure I have dies, but will have to look when I get home. Meanwhile, the shipping was free, which was nice. If this works nearly as well as you have noted, I will probably buy the case they note, which apparently is 3750.

Thanks for the info.

Incidently, I have had ogive issues with other bullets. I use a Black Bullet for .45, which I get from Texas. I have used the 230 gr bullet and found that the ogive made it have loading problems in my USP, and occasionally in some of my 1911's. Interestingly, it NEVER had an issue in a Nighthawk I used for about a year, on load from a friend. Anyway, I ended up shortening the OAL to finally make the thing work. Then I got a supply of 200 gr bullets. They have the same ogive, but are shorter so loading to the same OAL was easy and I suspect they are some quicker due to the lighter bullet. But neither showed any signs of pressure. I expect that was because I didn't load to any high velocities. I had aimed for about 850, and any increase in pressure from the shortened OAL was still in the acceptable range. One of these days I will have to chrono the things.

I think you will like the Montana Golds, Dev.  They are the cat's PJ's!

I've purchased two of their 3,750 cases, good stuff.