lever gun, accuracy expectations?

[stagpanther]

I think you'll find the Henry is capable of great accuracy even with a pistol cartridge. My early production Henrys weren't that great--but they've become better over the recent years, and no matter what you can never gone wrong with their guarantee--nobody but nobody stands behind their rifles like Henry does.

Just for grins I loaded up a random load in my 45-70 just to get some lead into the wind--or more accurately some brass and copper. I chose VV 130 powder and Lehigh's 300 gr extreme penatrator--neither of which I've had any previous experience with in the 45-70. I think the stringing is mostly me.

I'm not an expert on Henry's but I've had a few of em. To me, they are kinda like BLR's--they have a narrow foreend and stock as well as a pretty stiff trigger pull (my BLRs' is 8 lbs). Put all that together and I believe the consistency of the hold is one of the biggest factors in repeatable consistency. I'm not much on lead cast though I do shoot a lot of it in 22's. My 22 rifles generally don't like a mix of both jacketed and all-lead bullets--and usually the lands and grooves will favor one or the other. I don't know what the Henry 44 mag chamber is like--but the free-bore on my 45-70 is quite long and the ejection port width limits me to COLs with a long jump for the bullet to engage the lands (unless you don't mind field stripping your lever and bolt).

 

[WyMark]

My Henry .38/.357 carbine with Skinner peep busts clay pigeons at 100 yards, and that's all I really need to call it a good time.

 

[stagpanther]

Same combo at 209 yds this morning. What was surprising was the bullet drop between 100 and 200 yds wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although I have no chrono data. I expected something between 12" to 20" for a 100 yd zero--I'd say it was closer to 6 to 8 inches.

I know I at least slightly pulled a couple of the shots and I suspect a Henry with a good trigger job and better hold technique could easily improve on this.

The only real drawback to this model IMO is the masochistic buttplate--I normally have no problem shooting big magnums but this 45-70 swings way out of its league in terms of shoulder pounding. My brain gets rattled pretty good too.

 

[musicmatty]

I use factory ammunition for both of my lever action 3030’s. The results can clearly be viewed from the pictures below.

My Winchester 30-30 shoots tight groups with open sights at 50 yards. If you zoom in on the target you can see a 8 of the 12 shots are practically overlapping.

My Henry 30-30 side gate with a 4x power 7 shots @ 100 yards. I consider this to be more than adequate.

 

[stagpanther]

Of the factory 30-30 ammo, winchester's always comes out on top in my 336, but then it's a battle between the 150 and 170 gr which are best, in mine I give the nod to the 170 gr bullets. They work so well I bought the winchester bullets as my bullet of choice for hand-loading.

 

[Plainsman]

I have two JM Marlins in .44 and .444 both with Microgroove 1-38” rifling. With moderate loads for each using Hornady 265gr bullets, I am able to regularly shoot cloverleaf groups at 50 yards supported, standing using Williams peep sights and factory gold bead fronts.

I know things open up at 100, but Ive never had to use them that far! LOL! (The last deer I shot with one was at 8 yards!)

 

[bamaranger]

stability

Note that the OP is having not just an accuracy problem.....in post #20 he states his bullets are "yawing and tumbling" which I suspect indicates he is getting ovals and keyholes at 50 yds on paper.

The 1:20" barrel is certainly capable of stabilizing his projectiles, but is not. I would agree his bullets are not obturating at the pressure to which he is loading, not engaging the rifling consistently and thus are unstable in flight. I'd suggest this is a bullet problem, not a load problem. A 280/1000fps+ is not a powderpuff load, and is in the region of the velocity one might expect from a 4" revolver, and handguns stabilize the 280gr (reportedly, I don't load them) routinely. I'd suggest the OP is on the right track by reducing the amount of sizing and predicting that his carbine will shoot better (at the 1000 fps range) with bullets of a larger diameter.

I am not a bullet caster, but another issue here might be bullet hardness. I wonder if the bullets are not bumping up at his pressure/velocity because they are seriously hard, as in high Brinnel numbers?

 

[bamaranger]

jacketed

I also wonder how factory ammo at his testing distance will print as a baseline.

 

[44 AMP]

I slugged my barrel and came up with .430, which is what we have been sizing out bullets to.

This might be the root of his problem...

Generally speaking, cast bullets perform better when sized .001-.002" OVER groove diameter.

He said he's ordered larger sizer dies, lets see what results he gets when he uses bullets sized a little larger....

 

[Shadow9mm]

Results were, multiple bullets were starting to yaw at 25yds. While shooting at 100yds bullets were tumbling so badly they were hitting the ground at 75-100yds and as much as 6ft to either side of the target. Jacketed and solid copper bullets would not shoot better than 4moa if i remember correctly.

Then i had issues with failures to fire, the hammer re-cocking itself, and the lever popping loose every round.

It went back to henry, who tightened up the lockup/actionand lever and said they could not replicate the other issues.

It was not fun anymore, and i couldn't bring myself to fight with it anymore. It got sold to a shop.

 

[44 AMP]

Since the gun has been sold, all issues are now someone else's worries, so this thread is done.

Thanks for playing...

closed.