I had the Skinner Sights installed...

Hey Bob, just wanted to let you know that I had the Skinner Sights installed on both my Golden Boy and Big Boy rifles...what a beautiful accent they added. I had a chance to shoot them at the range recently with the factory front Henry sights. I couldn't have been happier with their performance. At 25 yrds, the Golden Boy shot like an inch to an inch and a half low at the lowest position on the sight. Three half turns and it was dead on. Similarly, the Big Boy needed two half turns from the lowest position at 25 yrds. I adjusted it up one half turn for 50 yrds which shot great with my 240 gr Speer JSP loaded with 18.7gr of 2400. The 200gr cast 10gr Unique loads shot slightly high at 50 but were still in the ballpark. Just wanted to let you know Bob that the Skinners do work well with the factory fronts.~Joseph D.

.357 Magnum Shoulder Holster

Here's another shot of that Triple-K holster for the Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum. It does a nice job of making that heavy piece of stainless steel easy to carry. It's also an excellent holster for hunting and fishing. For hunting because it makes the gun easy to get your hands on if you're sitting on the ground or in a stand, and fishing because the gun is held high, away from the water. Go down a couple of posts for more information on it.

Skinner Peep Sight for the Henry .357 Magnum

 .44 Mag. (Top), .357 Mag. (Bottom)

You've got to see this sight system! I had my gunsmith remove the iron sights and install a Skinner peep sight into the holes that come pre-drilled and hidden under the rear sight. These brass and black sights are really beautiful and blend perfectly with the rifles. I thought the rear sight might be too far forward, but it's perfect. Shoulder the rifle and you have a big, clear view of the new front sight that comes in the package. I'll post again when I sight the rifle in at the range. Until then, I'll use my laser to get the Henry on paper.

Here's a few photos. I now have color-coded rifles. These Henry's are almost identical, and the sights work as a color system to easily differentiate one rifle from the other. Brass is .44 Mag., Black is .357 Mag. The camera doesn't do these sights justice. CLICK HERE to see Skinner Sights' Henry page.

One last note: If you're a gun hacker like I am, you might want to have your sights installed by a gunsmith. Though no holes need to be drilled, I noticed that my gunsmith did a bit of filing and tapping to get the sights seated properly in the dovetails. I was only charged $15 for the job, and in my opinion that's money well spent. Thanks Jody!

 

 .44 Mag. (L), .357 Mag (R)

SKINNER SIGHTS

Andy Larsson

PO Box 404, St. Ignatius, MT 59865

406.531.5113

parson@blackfoot.net

www.skinnersights.com

How to carry a Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum

Since my Ruger SP101 w/3" barrel was returned from Ruger fully repaired and shooting great, I've been thinking about carrying this revolver concealed from time to time. It's by no means an airweight revolver. Rather, it's like carrying a big chunk of steel in your pants. The handgun is made out of solid stainless steel, and it weighs a ton. No way did I want this thing on my belt pulling my pants down. Instead, I began investigating shoulder holsters.

Triple-K in San Diego makes very well made products at a reasonable price, so I decided to get in touch with them for assistance. They suggested the following shoulder holster:

Style 275 Shoulder Holster, Single Harness, Brown-Plain (it's also available in black). Style 276 Ultra Holster Tan-Plain Group 71 for Ruger SP101. You can purchase the strap and holster separately, or as a set.

Unlike some shoulder holsters, this one is very easy to put on and take off. You simply put your left arm through the leather loop with attached holster, then bring the elastic loop around your back and put the opposite arm through it. Nothing appears across the chest and the weight is very evenly distributed. Amazingly, once on, this heavy revolver seems to almost disappear.

If you are conceal carrying, you need to wear something over the rig, like a vest or a jacket. A sweater won't work because you can see the imprint. The revolver and holster is just too big to hide that way. On the positive side, it will work nicely under a vest, so if I was fishing and needed protection, this would work nicely under a fishing vest and will keep the gun high above the water. It would also be a nice backup should a squirrel hunter carrying a .22 comes face to face with a big cat. If you're in T-shirt and shorts, you'd better think about a .380 or 9mm and leave the big Ruger at home. As soon as Fall arrives, this revolver/holster combo should be a perfect concealed carry option. Latter in the year I'll be posting more reports as I begin to carry the Ruger on a regular basis.

For more info, contact: Triple K manufacturing Co., San Diego, CA 92113  www.triplek.com

"The Big Boy is a one piece solid receiver made of hardened brass, with same tensile and yield strength as steel" 

Anthony Imperato, President, Henry Repeating Arms

Effective Range (According to Henry)

Calibers 44MAG, 45COLT & 357MAG 125 yards

.357 Magnum Twist Rate

.357 ROT = 1/38

Dry Fire

From Henry Repeating Arms

Q. Is it okay to dry fire my Henry rifle?

A. You can dry fire any lever action, Golden Boy or Big Boy without any issues. We do recommend that you use Snapcaps anyway, but the dry firing of the lever action will not cause a problem.

Kris Littledale's Henrys

Check out these deer hunting photos sent to me by Kris Littledale. The first is a Henry .357 Magnum, and the photo below it is a Henry H009 30-30. Kris got rid of that rifle by giving it to his brother once he "tested it out". Nice brother! He also had an H001 22LR, but he gave that one to his nephew last Christmas. He then bought himself the H001T, which is the 22LR with the octagon barrel. If you decide to give away that 30-30, I'll send you my address. What a guy! Thanks for the photos. What kind of ammo do you use for deer hunting in your Henrys?

Polishing a Big Boy

Someone one the facebook Henry group asked what to use to polish the brass on a Big Boy. I wrote Anthony Imperato and he supplied us with this information:

"There is no coating on a Big Boy. He can use Flitz Metal Polish or Peek Metal Polish. "

http://www.flitz-polish.com/

http://peekusa.com/order.shtml

Daniel "Red Bear" Bosques shooting .357 Magnum

I'm sure you're tired of seeing me shoot, so I'm happy to post this clip of Daniel "Red Bear" Bosques, a Native American having fun shooting my Henry at the range. Visit my homepage for more on Dan, his flintlock and our shoot at Blue Trail Range.

Nailed down a great load for the .357 Magnum

I took both the .357 Magnum Henry and the .38 Special S&W to the range today. It was miserably hot and humid, but I had a great time shooting for a couple hours. I couldn't have been happier with the results of today's shoot. Everything shot today was a reload, and what a difference from commercial ammo! CLICK HERE to see the results.

The .357 magnum has arrived

Yesterday was my first opportunity to shoot the Henry .357 magnum, and I was very pleased with the rifle. The trigger pull was smoother than the .44 magnum (which I've always considered to be quite smooth). It was accurate right out of the box, just shooting a few inches off the bulls-eye prior to making any adjustments. Before going to the range I put my bore laser into it and the dot told me the same story. The factory sighted in the rifle prior to shipping. It was so close to the green dot that I didn't bother making any adjustments. Maybe next time out I'll give it a few taps to zero it in.

I tried three types of reloads and I consider the groups to be excellent for a lever gun. Recoil was almost non-existent when shooting .38 Specials and just enough to be fun when the .357 Magnums were loaded. This rifle isn't going to give you a black and blue shoulder, even if you shoot it all day.

I was surprised that the magnums heated up the barrel so quickly. That's when you'll be glad that it's a heavy octagon. The feel of the .357 is exactly the same as the .44 mag. If you like the feel of that one, you'll like this one as well.

The action is silky smooth, as you would expect from any Henry, and I already started getting compliments on the look of the rifle, including the beautiful stock. Even though everyone seems to be into black plastic rifles, there's nothing like the brass and walnut Henry.

Check out my 2010 range page for a video of my first shoot with it yesterday. More to come soon, so keep checking back.

Good news!

I'm happy to report that the .357 Magnum Big Boy from Henry has arrived today. It looks almost exactly like the 44 Magnum, but the wood on this one is a bit darker, which I like. It really is a beautiful rifle. Before it was shipped I sent Anthony Imperato, the President of Henry an email asking him to have someone break lose the tiny rear sight elevation screw, because the one on the 44 Mag was so tight I was never able to free it. The peep sight I had installed solved that problem, but I didn't want to have to deal with it again. I'll check tomorrow to see if they followed up on my request. Henry Customer Service can't be beat, so I'm sure they took care of it.

The next step is to get my LaserLyte green bore laser and get the the rifle on paper. The way I usually do that is to wait till dark, then open the basement door. While still in the house and under a bright light, I point the laser at a group of trees that are about 50 yards out. As you would expect, at night the green (or red) laser dot is extremely bright and easy to see. I stay in the basement under a light so I can clearly see my iron sights. If I remember correctly, the last rifle I tested needed little or no adjustment. I hope it's the same with this one. If not, I use a rubber mallet and tap the sights with a wooden dowel. If it's too tight and won't budge, I replace the wood with a brass screw. Brass won't mar the finish, but delivers a lot more energy to a single point on the sight.

I was so swamped at work Monday that I totally forgot to reserve a spot at the state range for this weekend. By Tuesday afternoon, the entire weekend was booked solid. I may take a run to the range anyway because sometimes there's a no show or someone will let me shoot at their table. I'm itching to shoot some of the new loads I've been working up over the past month; both in 38 Special and .357 Magnum. I'll likely load some more before the weekend gets here since I still have about 50 .357 Magnum cases free. I have a feeling that unless I'm shooting +P or Magnums, the 38 Special rounds will feel very light. Heck, if I can handle them in my S&W J-frame AirWeight snubby, there should be very little recoil from a rifle as heavy as the Big Boy. I'm expecting this to be a real fun shooter!

I'll add to this post tomorrow if I get the opportunity to bore sight the rifle after work. See you then, and I'll have some photos posted soon.

.357 Magnum Reloading

Learn with me as I start to reload for the Henry .357 Magnum by visiting my .38 Special / .357 Magnum Reloading Page. I am currently loading Hornady XPT 100 grain bullets, and in recent weeks have also reloaded various lead .38 Special rounds that can also be shot through the .357 Magnum. Reloading adds an entirely new dimension to shooting. I relate it to the difference between driving an automatic and a 5-speed. The manual transmission gives you added control of your vehicle, and loading your own cartridges opens up endless possibilities for various bullet / powder / load combinations that will improve accuracy, fine tune your shooting and greatly reduce the expense of shooting. If you're not yet reloading, I recommend that you take the time to watch my videos and read the posts. I'm sure it will wet your appetite to learn more and get personally involved in the activity. If you think shooting your Henry is fun now, just wait until you start firing your own loads! Feel free to become an active participant in this site by adding comments to the posts and asking questions.

HENRY Big Boy .357 Magnum - MODEL H006M

Today was my first opportunity to shoot the Henry Big Boy .357 Magnum. If you follow this blog you know that I recently started loading for .38 Special and .357 Magnum, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Though I've been loading this ammo for months, I've never had the opportunity to fire a single round. A standard load for the .44 Magnum is around 19 grains, and all of a sudden I'm loading 2.7 grains into .38 Special cases. Can this be right?! How could that possibly be enough powder? It's like the cases are almost empty! That's what the reloading manual said, so it must be right. Then I began loading for the .357 magnum, which is basically the same case, a bit stretched out, and all of a sudden I'm up to 14 grains which almost fills the case. It has to be right, but I have to admit that I had to see it shoot to believe it. That's all I need is a squib in my new barrel. So here I was with a never fired rifle and a bunch of loads I was a bit unsure of. Last week my 44 Magnum wadcutters jammed, which didn't make me feel any better about shooting today. No matter, I still was itching to rip off some rounds with that beautiful brass rifle.

I started shooting the very light .38 Special 150 grain roundnose bullets that Dirk had cast. The 3.5 grain Bullseye load gave me a group of 4.5" and they felt like 22LR rounds through the Henry. These were so light that they weren't a lot of fun to shoot. I still have 40 rounds plus another 50 rounds loaded .5 grains lighter. I think I'll save them to shoot through the S&W AirWeight snubby. I'm sure that revolver will send a lot more feedback to the shooter.

Next I decided to skip the other .38 Specials I had loaded and switch to the .357 Magnum rounds. The first were 110 gr Hornady 35700 HP-XTP hollow point w/ 16gr 2400 powder. First I shot 8 rounds at the top right 'Shoot 'n See' chipping target, then 8 at a similar target below. Those groups were down to under 2". I was VERY happy with that. Finally, I shot at the lower plate with the same 110gr bullet loaded with 13.6gr of Accurate #9. 9 rounds went into a group 1.5", with 2 fliers which made the group 2.25". That was not bad at all.

Welcome to the new Henry Big Boy .357 Magnum Page

I'm pleased to announce that I'll soon be field testing a Henry Big Boy H006M .357 Magnum lever action rifle. This Big Boy is similar to the .44 Magnum, but I like the fact that the ammo for my .38 Special revolver is interchangeable with this rifle. The .357 Magnum rifle is a favorite of Cowboy Action Shooting due to its low recoil.

Today I spoke to Mr. JP Reno, Henry Repeating's resident Cowboy Action Shooter and reloading expert. We discussed load data, as well as do's and don't's for this rifle.

Bullet types to use:

• Round nose
• Flat Point
• Truncated Cone

Bullet types to avoid:

• Wadcutters
• Semi-wadcutters
• Blazer with aluminum cases

JP told me that the bullets he said to avoid jam, but I told him that wadcutters have been shooting flawlessly through my 44 Magnum. JP said it's a .357 magnum issue, so that's something I'll have to remember when I start reloading for the rifle. I'm hoping to get some Hornady Cowboy bullets to reload and test through the rifle. He recommended using Winchester 231 powder with a 3.4 grain load, and said that anything between 3.0 and 4.0 is safe. Federal is his recommended primer.

That's it for now. I expect the rifle to arrive sometime within the next two weeks and testing will begin soon after. I'll post photos and more info as I pull things together. Henry isn't showing a spec difference between the 44 Magnum and the 357 Magnum, so for now you can look at my 44 Magnum page for a glimpse of the rifle. I you are a .375 Mag owner, I'd like to hear from you.