Big Boy Steel Carbine!

The official announcement went out by email today. Here is the Big Boy Steel Carbine and other new rifles from Henry.

https://www.henryrifles.com/new-rifles

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Having the tube a little shorter than the barrel makes me wonder about capacity and I'm not sure how I feel about the large loop, but I'm sure I'll end up finding out...
 
If you ever want to shoot your pistol caliber lever action rifle in a cowboy action match (and you should try it), you need a ten round capacity. The carbine version of the HBB doesn't hold ten.
 
The recoil pad is great. These rifles can fire heavy .45 Colt rounds that will pound your shoulder.

With my Rossi I have to put a limbsaver on the back to keep my arm from bruising.
 
A recoil pad might be good for 454. I'm glad my 45-70 Marlin guide gun has one.

How does 454 stack up against 45-70?
Smaller lighter bullets for OAL but I'm sure its still going to leave a mark.
 
I picked up a .357 carbine this morning, very smooth cycling, feeds fine and shoots very well... ordered a scope base for it and will likely mount a short low power scope down the road.

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kcub: It's there any benefit to big loops other than gloves?
9x19: Not that I know of... thought it might bug me, but it didn't, so I'll likely leave it as is.
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Two things that rubbed me about this release were:

  1. the large loop lever,
  2. the shortness of the tubular magazine relative to the barrel and the low capacity relative to other lever-action carbines.

I think the large-loop lever looks funny on a carbine. Since I never actually used one, I had wondered about how it handles. Hearing from others who had reservations is a good thing.

The shortness of the tubular magazine versus the barrel also looks funny to me. I feel like a larger difference looks alright but closer to flush is better. It might seem a trivial complaint in line with 1 but as I stated in 2, the round count is a little light. This one holds 7 rounds while the comparable Taurus/Rossi holds 8 and the venerable Trapper holds 9. Why so low here?

BTW, notice that the original Big Boy Carbine, which has the same capacity, seems to have less of a length difference...
 
My steel big boy 357 has about 1/2" overbite, the same as my 1947 Marlin model 36, a predecessor of the Marlin model 336 which was the inspiration of the Henry big boy.

It holds 11 158 grain Blazer 38 Special or 10 357 magnum 200 grain Double Tap. It also holds 10 158 or 180 grain 357 which seem to have similar overall length. I haven't tried lighter 357 bullets.

My Henry 357 will cycle all the above as well as 38 Long Colt. It will not cycle 38 special 148 grain target full wadcutters.

My brass Henry big bore 44 will hold 10 305 grain flat nose Bear loads and it is close to the limit of overall length it will hold 10.
 
My Henry .357 will also not cycle 148 grain wad cutters, but I reached a favorite "other" load: 125 grain Hornady's over 4.6 grains of Unique. Still very quiet (less crack than a .22 LR) and a real nice wallop when it hits the steel gong.

Next order at Midway or wherever (LGS did not have 'em) I'm getting some 125 grain lead round nose bullets, and try to get Unique down to around 4.3 grains (or so).

Fun gun and there ain't a thing I would change about it!
 
I like the heft of the brass big boy which is a pound heavier than the steel big boy because it has an octagon barrel. But the lighter round barrel of the steel big boy is better for carrying around a lot.
 
The short tube and set-back front sight would make the carbine a great candidate for threading (silencer use)... :D

I think part of the lower capacity is due to the removable inner mag tube as opposed to the gate loading style of most others... but I bought the Henry in part because I can unload it without having to cycle the rounds thru the action. That was the one thing I always disliked with the Marlin.

The minor loss of style points just weren't enough to make me choose an import over this USA made carbine... and the overall quality (fit, finish etc.) of the Henry is just so much better than any of the Rossis I've handled.

I think the Henry is well worth the $615 I paid.
 
Perhaps I should clarify that my two-point criticism is of the Big Boy Steel Carbine. It doesn't apply to the original 20" Big Boy Steel. The carbine is brand new. Coincidentally, it looks like I was the first to break public news of this gun, right here in this thread on TFL. :cool:
 
What negative is there to a recoil pad?
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Hate them. Utterly useless from 30-06 on down at least and fugly on top of it. I can see a really thin one on something like a .450 Marlin. When I was growing up we had steel, checkered steel, checkered plastic and ribbed plastic. :D
 
Hawg, I'm also not a fan of the recoil pad-way out of place, as well as the checking. But otherwise, I love the gun-may have to restock, with a nice steel butt plate!

I do have a Henry .45 Colt Golden Boy (or Big Boy). I would be curious if the butt stock from the .357 Henry Golden Boy would fit the steel. Of course the forestock would need inletting for the round barrel.
 
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