I recently bought an herny big rifle in 357 mag for target and fun shooting and I also want to use it as a self defense carbine.

I need now advice for ammo selection.

I am aware that the standard 125-grain jhp rounds offer the best results in a revolver, but I asume that using this rounds in a rifle would be the best idea because they are maybe not designed for the higher velocities a rifle barrel can generate.

So would it be better to use a heavier round for sd in a rifle in the 150 grain or even the 180 grain range Ore are my worries not necessary and a 125 grain round would be perfectly fine.??

Thanks for the help in advance.

Greetings from Austria

I like the sound of the thump from 158gr.

I also feel that the 158 grain loadings are probably the best for all around use. I personally like the jacketed flat soft point bullet loaded by PMC for this task. These rounds feed and function for me and they will get the job done while being relatively easy and fun to shoot and easy on the gun as well. They are also safe to use in the tubular magazine of your rifle. Using and practicing with the same load that you will carry has the benefit of allowing you to become very familiar with that round's trajectory and performance at any reasonable distance. This will result in confidence that you can hit what you aim at at any of those distances.

The Henry Big Boy rifle is a dandy, IMO. I also like the .357 cartridge in this rifle. It has the benefit of also fitting in an appropriate handgun of the same caliber if you choose to carry that. There are other brands of this ammo in the same configuration, but I have had good experience with the PMC.

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So long ... Ken

In regards to .357 magnum ammunition only, you will see a larger gain in projectile velocity with the lighter projectiles when comparing the carbine to a typical revolver. As the weight of the projectile increases that velocity gain will decrease. That being said, you should be able to get an extra 400 fps out of the carbine with 125gr loads compared to a 6" revolver. For SD applications, I would go for the load that produces the highest velocity, try some out in ballistic gelatin or whatever you have available, you will be impressed

I can give you some hard numbers for velocity increase on my 20" barrel Rossi 92SRC as compared to my 6 1/2" barrel 27-5. I did this a few years ago, comparing Hi Tek coated 158 grain lead bullets to 158 grain Zero brand JSP bullets. Both bullets used the exact same powder load and primers, which was 16.3 grains of Winchester 296 and CCI 550 primers.

Here are my results I had with them:
First up is the pistol.
With the Zero bullets, the average velocity was 1146 fps with a standard deviation of 18.19
With the Bayou Bullets, the average velocity was 1234 fps with a standard deviation of 13.58

Now for the rifle results:
With the Zero bullets, the average velocity was 1696 fps with a standard deviation of 15.44
With the Bayou bullets, the average velocity was 1762 fps with a standard deviation of 12.29

The coated lead bullets averaged 88 fps faster than the jacketed bullets with the same load in the pistol. With the rifle, the coated lead bullets averaged 66 fps faster than the jacketed bullets.

The rifle averaged 550 fps faster than the pistol with the Zero jacketed bullets with this load. With the coated lead bullets, it averaged 528 fps faster in the rifle.

I hope this information helps you out.

Jim

I leave 158 grain JSP (Jacketed Soft Point) in my Rossi 92 rifle. Groups like a laser, and packs enough punch to harvest deer at short range. I've been happy with Federal and American Eagle ammo.

For mag tube drop loading a Henry, I like the idea of the soft point or a hollow point aligning with the primer of the round ahead.

Whatever bullet weight shoots accurately in your Henry will more than suffice for self defense.

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Pisgah

A couple of considerations that did not apply to a revolver only round:

Do make sure whatever you try will reliably cycle the action. And of course, a bullet profile that will not set off off the rounds in the tube.

Based on muddocktor’s figures, whatever you choose will have adequate velocity.

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Reg. Magnum wants/Rossi wallet

Great post with some very important points! BTW, I've seen the Rem .357M 125gr "planet wrecker" clocked at 2000fps MV or just above in a 16" bbl Rossi Puma carbine. As for a suggestion, isn't the Leverevolution round available in .357? That bullet is designed to avoid problems in a tubular magazine.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Thanks a lot for the answers. Thats help me a lot.

...that the owners manual for the Henry Big Boy .357 states that .38 Special rounds need to be loaded to the same OAL as a 158gn .357 for reliable feeding.

I know that my 105 gn/.357 cased Cowboy Action loads with the projectile seated out to a usual .357/158 OAL feed reliably in my HBB but when loaded into .38 Special cases, even when the projectile is set out as far as in the .357 cases, they do not.

That 1/10th" shorter case has been problematic for feeding for me so the OAL of your self defence rounds could be a factor you need to consider.

Taranaki... Is that near Wanganui?

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

I have the same rifle. Just make sure that you don't use aluminum cased ammo as it states in the manual. I did at first and the spent rounds did not eject properly when opening the lever. I wasted a few minutes of a really nice Henry customer rep's day, just for them to tell me that. Only shoot brass or nickel cased rounds now. No problems.

Sounds like if using 38 spl cases you need to use the Lyman 358156 cast bullet . It has 2 crimp grooves , using the lower crimp groove it gives you approximately the same COAL as a 357 round . It weighs about 155-158 grs , can give 357 performance. It was a favorite of Skeeter Skelton . Regards , Paul

I can tell you that the 158 Hornady XTP over a good charge of H110 works great on whitetail deer. I have always had the bullets pass all the way through a deer.

If reloading is a consideration some (Maybe all) of hornady's .357 is loaded in shorter than SAAMI spec case.

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Certified Curmudgeon

Most people responding to this post seem to favor the heavier bullets and I agree. While the stopping power of the .357 125 Gr. JHP is legendary, the gain you get in velocity, energy, and accuracy in a carbine or rifle will more than make up for it. I have to admit that I am biased toward heavier bullets in general.

FYI, a 158 gr hard cast bullet with 2400, chronos at 1243 fps out of my 3" GP100. And 1677 fps out of my 16" Rossi 92 ..

Generally just go with a 158 gr soft point in either my 16inch Winchester Trapper or my Ruger 77/357.

Modern ammo is "designed" to expand at the velocities achieved out of a 4-6 inch handgun barrel....... not sure of the effect of adding 400-600 fps would have on the performance of the .125 HP .....

What charge weight of 2400 are you using for that load?

For a whitetail load out of a 6" Python, I use 158gr XTP over 13.8gr of 2400. Didn't chrono them, but they were true magnums and would have served the purpose.

For my EDC 2.5" Python, I use 140gr XTP over 15gr of 2400. They chrono at 1100fps average. A really great "milder" load that is exceptionally accurate.

One day I would like to get one of the Henry lever actions.

13.5 grs of 2400 with a 158 gr cast & cast coated bullet. Velocity was just about what the Lyman
Cast Bullet book stated.

My part of it is. Wanganui is about 45 minutes drive south of here. New Plymouth, Taranaki's main city, is almost twice that drive north.

.

You're good, partner. You didn't even blink, did you? Be safe.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Thanks for the further replies. For now I will stick to factory ammo, but in future reloading will be an Option too because i really want to learn it.

What do you think about the the Remington High Terminal Performance Ammunition 357 Magnum 158 Grain load? An nice round for an Lever Action or rather not?

This load i can very cheap at my local gun store. Seems to be an nice alround round i can use for my rifle and also for my future 357 mag sixgun. I already had an 357 mag Revolver many years ago but had to sell now.

In the middle of next year I want to get an s&w 686.