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357 Lever Action

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Boston404

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Looking to pick up a Henry 357 lever action for a range plinker. Any opinions out there on the octagon barrels? I imagine mostly a personal preference and no real impact otherwise? Considering the model X as well but something about that octagonal barrel is calling my name.

Big Boy Brass
 
Boston404 said:
Looking to pick up a Henry 357 lever action for a range plinker. Any opinions out there on the octagon barrels? I imagine mostly a personal preference and no real impact otherwise? Considering the model X as well but something about that octagonal barrel is calling my name.

Big Boy Brass
Click to expand...
I have owned one with the octagon barrel for about five years or so. Great gun. The barrel has some heft to it, which makes it super stable. And also kills any recoil, not that there is much. Shooting 38s out of it is lighter shooting than using a 22. It's just a great gun!
 
Heavier for sure. If you like the look then go for it.
You’re not shooting off hand competition where you’re going to get tired. You shoot 10 rounds and lay it down on the bench to reload. It’s worth the weight for that sexy barrel.

Now forget the Henry and get a Uberti 1873.
 
Ha open to different manufacturers. Henry over Rossi. Was considering Marlin but harder to come by compared to Henry it seems. Those were the three on my radar at the moment....
 
hminsky said:
I like the round barrel, it is less front heavy which make a difference in balance. I have a Rossi stainless 20" and had the action worked on to make it very slick. There's no significant recoil from .357 mag.
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I love my Rossi stainless 20" .357, but do wish the action was a little more slick. Did you have it worked on by someone local (local to MA, that is)?


Frank
 
pinefd said:
I love my Rossi stainless 20" .357, but do wish the action was a little more slick. Did you have it worked on by someone local (local to MA, that is)?
Click to expand...
Several years ago, when I got a Rossi .357M Trapper, I took it apart and polished the action parts. Helped a little. Then I bought the Palo Verde spring kit. Night and day, and I wished I hadn't bothered to do anything else. Recently, I got a 45C stainless Rossi trapper. Went straight to the spring kit. Even with the heaviest configuration of the replacement main spring, it's a super smooth action. The only hassle is changing the main spring, since obviously you have to compress the replacement spring and can't just capture it as you do if you take it down for cleaning.
 
Rossi is a good budget gun and works fine for 600 bucks. I'd buy the stainless......Quality...hit or miss. Would not get online, because you could get a lemon...touch and feel it.

Marlin/Ruger does not remake these Model 1894 in 357 yet. I have a very late model Remlin 1984 and its fantastic for the 500 I paid for it....

Henry but they are pushing 1K

Winchester/Miroku but they are over 1K, but I've seen some very nice sporting models as of late...but they are pushing 2K. But these are high quality in wood and finish heirloom pieces. The wood on some of these is amazing.

Taylors/Uberti....again pushing 1K or more as well. Wood and color case no where near the quality of Winchester.

The market is softening and guns that weren't available, are now available and prices are retreating off over MSRP. I've seen new Ruger 1894's 44 mags sitting at MSRP......I'm gonna get one, just refuse to pay over 1k for it. That said.... .357 is the most popular caliber. .44 mag is poular as well, 45 Colt's tend to sit longer.
 
meh said:
Several years ago, when I got a Rossi .357M Trapper, I took it apart and polished the action parts. Helped a little. Then I bought the Palo Verde spring kit. Night and day, and I wished I hadn't bothered to do anything else. Recently, I got a 45C stainless Rossi trapper. Went straight to the spring kit. Even with the heaviest configuration of the replacement main spring, it's a super smooth action. The only hassle is changing the main spring, since obviously you have to compress the replacement spring and can't just capture it as you do if you take it down for cleaning.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that suggestion; I hadn't heard of Palo Verde before. My main complaint with the gun is that it doesn't feed as smoothly as some of my other guns. I'm thinking that I may end up sending it to Steve's Gunz (see above) for some work on it anyway, so I'll probably hold off on the spring kit...for now.


Frank
 
38ExtraSpecial said:
Heavier for sure. If you like the look then go for it.
You’re not shooting off hand competition where you’re going to get tired. You shoot 10 rounds and lay it down on the bench to reload. It’s worth the weight for that sexy barrel.

Now forget the Henry and get a Uberti 1873.
Click to expand...

^this
i stupidly sold my Uberti 1873 .357 mag lever action when I was still in MA. very cool rifle on par with the Uberti colt SAA clones. Super fun and value firearms. Henry rifles are nice but ever since pandemic they’re overpriced for what they are.
 
I bought my Rossi model 92 20" blued about 5 years ago and did the following mods to it:
Replaced the plastic magazine follower with a stainless one.
Replaced that crappy safety with a blank that just fills the void.
Polished all internals.
Shimmed the cartridge guide.
And IIRC I put some kind of spring kit in it to sweeten up the action. It may have just been the spring inside the bolt that I swapped. Either way, the gun functions much smoother and reliably than it did out of the box. Heck now I need to go shoot it this weekend! 😉
 
After 3-4 years of looking, I finally got a Winchester (Miroku) 20" carbine in 357M for a reasonable price. Miroku stuff comes in batches, and you snooze you lose. Could have bought other Miroku-made models, 1892 and 1873, that were more expensive, but I specifically wanted this 1892 carbine, and I wasn't willing to pay full retail (or more) to get it. The trade-off with the Miroku 1892 is that you get much higher quality than Rossi, but with the 1892 you also get the rebounding hammer (hence heavy main spring) and tang safety. I don't care about the tang safety, but because of the rebounding hammer, it will never approach the smoothness of my Rossi 92s. OTOH, I was getting groups like this sighting it in at 55 yards with the stock iron sights. Those are all 4 shot groups, 3 tight with a flier, 3 different loads (N350, Enforcer, and N110) of 158 grain Zero JHPs. That flier to the wide right on the first target was the first shot of the bunch, probably all me getting settled in and being more concerned with elevation and not enough with windage through the irons. Only mods I've made to it are a lever wrap, black grip tape on the buttstock (to prevent slippage on the shoulder), and electrical tape on the saddle ring to prevent it from marring the receiver. Seen them show up here and there so if you want one, you might be able to find one still, if you're quick about it.

4s.jpg
 
meh said:
After 3-4 years of looking, I finally got a Winchester (Miroku) 20" carbine in 357M for a reasonable price. Miroku stuff comes in batches, and you snooze you lose. Could have bought other Miroku-made models, 1892 and 1873, that were more expensive, but I specifically wanted this 1892 carbine, and I wasn't willing to pay full retail (or more) to get it. The trade-off with the Miroku 1892 is that you get much higher quality than Rossi, but with the 1892 you also get the rebounding hammer (hence heavy main spring) and tang safety. I don't care about the tang safety, but because of the rebounding hammer, it will never approach the smoothness of my Rossi 92s. OTOH, I was getting groups like this sighting it in at 55 yards with the stock iron sights. Those are all 4 shot groups, 3 tight with a flier, 3 different loads (N350, Enforcer, and N110) of 158 grain Zero JHPs. That flier to the wide right on the first target was the first shot of the bunch, probably all me getting settled in and being more concerned with elevation and not enough with windage through the irons. Only mods I've made to it are a lever wrap, black grip tape on the buttstock (to prevent slippage on the shoulder), and electrical tape on the saddle ring to prevent it from marring the receiver. Seen them show up here and there so if you want one, you might be able to find one still, if you're quick about it.

View attachment 791920
Click to expand...
Congrats!

But I believe you're required to post photos of the gun itself, or we can only assume that those targets were from your .40 at 10 feet.


Frank
 
We have a Henry Big Boy All Weather in .357/.38 Spl. Maybe two boxes through it.

Lately, when I try to chamber a round, it does not seat all the way. A number of users in another forum say to put more force into it and it will seat properly. This sounds like a bad idea.

Happened to anyone else? Henry has already sent a return tag. Maybe it’s time to get a borescope.
 
garandman said:
We have a Henry Big Boy All Weather in .357/.38 Spl. Maybe two boxes through it.

Lately, when I try to chamber a round, it does not seat all the way. A number of users in another forum say to put more force into it and it will seat properly. This sounds like a bad idea.

Happened to anyone else? Henry has already sent a return tag. Maybe it’s time to get a borescope.
Click to expand...
I have one (not all weather) , I haven't had any issues with it.
 

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