Henry 45-70 Colour Case Hardened, Range Report

[sandgroperbill]

45-70 does interest me, as does the henry. Looks like a fun and purdy rifle

[Tank]

Any ideas how hot you can push a cast projectile before you need gas checks bigpete? (Not interested in stuffing around with gas checks). Or is it different for each rifle and you just have to check for lead fouling and find your own limit?

It will depend on the projectile. I've used Hawkesbury's 350's (Silverhawks and Blackhawks) over 57gn 2208 and not had any issues with leading in my H&R, Marlin and Ruger.
Preference is for nearly a case full (15gr) of Trailboss with the 405's though!
Awesome fun.....and my kids can use it loaded this way.
Enjoy the new toy!

[wrenchman]

i have been thinking of getting a henry steel boy in 357 henrys look good i cant find a marlin

[Wm.Traynor]

I feel like I am missing something in my gun safe.

Me Too He's got me looking at my LGS

[juststarting]

I've decided on a lever action 44mag few hours before I saw the post, this just committed me to it, lol.

[Supaduke]

Something undeniably cool about wielding and cycling a lever gun. And they just look so balanced and beautiful. Every man should own a lever gun (or two or three or.........)

[Oldbloke]

"and thanks juststarting I've been working out...... Oh you mean the rifle"

faarkin funniest thing I heard all week.

[Supaduke]

Finally got down to the range today. Weather and conditions were perfect. Cool and dry and only the most gentle of breezes. I managed to get down there at a reasonable hour and set up for a full day of shooting.

Henry 45-70

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Henry 45-70

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The 45-70 being the latest aquistion, I was keen to try her out first up. I had a box of Hornady Leverloution and 70 reloads. Reloads were all 300gr hard cast flat nose . Powder was Trail Boss with loads from 13.5gr to 16gr.

Knowing they were all pretty soft loads I decided to start at 16gr loads and work backwards.
Started at 25 meters to work out a zero and just see how it shoots.

First couple of shots barely make paper, shooting way low. These cowboy loads sure do drop. Start dialling up the rear Buckhorns every few shots and start walking it into the bull. Buckhorns are going up and up at this point and I'm still not on target and getting nervous I'm running out of elevation. 2nd last notch and we start making centre. I'm still working out my grip at this point. The 300 grainers are also a bit erratic with 16gr of Trail Boss.

Henry at the range

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Aiming at blue cross 25m

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Next step was 15gr and straight away groups began to tighten. I was learning where to actually arrange the sight picture for best effect. Once I found the closest elevation point I found having about half the target poking out above the front bead put me bang on. Elevation remained unchanged at 50m.

25m , dialling it in

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Getting better 25m , 15gr

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About 2 inches or less. Seems the sweet spot is somewhere between 14gr and 15gr, do more load development to go. Satisfied with the accuracy I was getting so far, I didn't want to shoot for groups any more and started popping clays at 50m. I tried a few at 100 but needed more
work on elevation. They certainly start dropping off at 100m.

100m, aim higher

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The Leverloution rounds certainly pack quite a punch . Shot much flatter than the reloads. Good accuracy , about 1.5 inches at 50m, not bad for open sights. Easily popping clays at 50 and 100m. Ran out of memory on my phone so no photo of that.

Here is a short video of me popping some
clays, 4 shots, shanked one, got 3.
http://youtu.be/8pQeOEK9k4s
25m clay targets. 300gr hard cast flat nose
15gr Trail Boss
Pop.....Pop.......Pop......Pop

And here is a video of my mate shooting some Leverloution.
http://youtu.be/zjwBvHSy2_o
100m Paper Target
325gr hornady Leverloution

Boom......Boom

Overall the rifle functioned flawlessly. Shot quite accurately considering my starting point in
Load development with plenty of scope for better accuracy.

No failure to feeds or eject. The rifle handles and cycles beautifully. Looks beautiful out in the daylight too.

At the range

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Overall an awesome gun, I recommend it.

[juststarting]

Them holes

[in2anity]

Very nice. Trail boss seems to work well with HRBCs, perhaps slightly less than max. You seem to be able to push Westcastings a little faster (with a medium-burn like AR2206H) - I'd try 48.0gns over a Westcastings 405 @ 1645fps.

[Noisydad]

I'm feeling a bit like Homer Simpson and his donuts - Llllgggggggghhhhhh

[Gwion]

Very nice, Superduke... if i ever by a cowboy gun, i think it will have to be a Henry!

[Deacon]

There's just something about 45-70 that gets me all giddy. I'm currently looking at a 357 lever gun and after seeing this among other things I think a Henry is the way to go. Hopefully one day I will have the time to reload or the money for factory ammunition in 45-70 so I too can put big holes in stuff. Thanks for sharing this Supaduke!

[in2anity]

There's just something about 45-70 that gets me all giddy. I'm currently looking at a 357 lever gun and after seeing this among other things I think a Henry is the way to go. Hopefully one day I will have the time to reload or the money for factory ammunition in 45-70 so I too can put big holes in stuff. Thanks for sharing this Supaduke!

The beauty of straight walls is that you can bypass lubrication if you use a carbide die. If you have a big enough progressive press, you can handle every step from start to finish, i.e. deprime->prime->flare->charge->seat->crimp.

And considering most .357s can shoot 38sp, with cast lead and TB, you can get your reloading costs down to 22lr territory at around 12c / round! The ultimate plinking setup IMO!

[Supaduke]

I can say that the loading tube was not an issue. For hunting you can load 5 in the tube (Henry says 4 ,to avoid over compression of the mag spring I guess) and drop one in the chamber for 6 rounds of 45-70. Nothing that walks this planet is getting up after 6 rounds of 45-70. If it does, the zombie apocalypse has begun and we all know you should double tap the head.

With a little practice, tube feeding is actually very quick. Hold the rifle upside down with your support hand. Twist and slide the tube with your other hand and expose the gate. Grab four shells, clink,clink,clink,clink. They go in very easily. Slide and twist closed, rack, point, fire. I think if I was in a hurry I could do it in about 10 secs.

When shooting off hand I loaded the tube. When shooting off the bag I usually single fed, which was easy to do.

For sh1ts and giggles at the range it's really hard to beat a lever gun. Shooting groups with a scope is fun. But shooting a lever off hand at short to moderate range is a real hoot, especially at some sort of reactive target. I like clays and milk bottles full of water.

[bigpete]

Love it ! So does it hold 4 or 5 in the mag ? How heavy is it ?

[Supaduke]

It will hold 5, but Henry recommends 4.
For occasional hunting use I would think loading 5 would not overly stress the mag spring. At the range I just load 3 or single feed.