So, I am sitting here admiring my new rifle wondering if I should change up my loads from what I currently shoot out of the 629. I bought some Hornady XTP in 200 grain, but I'm not sure if I should stick with the 8.5 grains of Unique, or bump it up a bit. I'm currently shooting Missouri Bullet Co. 240 gr LSWC with the powder shown above, and it shoots awesome with my revolver. Anyone want to share some loads for a carbine?
John

Nobody shooting a carbine that wants to share a good .44 load???

Anything you shoot in your revolver will probably generate twice the muzzle energy in your Henry.

I just recently purchased a Henry 357 Mag Big Boy myself.

Henry make really nice lever guns.

Dave

The Henry uses the same action as a Marlin 336, and will handle the same loads.

The Lyman 59th Edition handbook has loads specifically for a lever action rifle or Ruger revolver. These are too hot for a S&W revolver, at least for extended use.

Unless you have a suitable revolver, I would think twice about what amounts to +P magnum loads. A mixup could make for "interesting" results. Furthermore, it probably isn't necessary. Typical "hot" .44 Magnum loads contain more powder than will burn in a revolver barrel, and the hot gas will continue to accelerate the bullet after the powder is completely burned. You get about 300 fps more velocity out of a 20" carbine than the same round in a 6" revolver, and almost no muzzle flash.

If you haven't shot it yet, you will get a satisfying thump at both ends of the carbine. Every time I shoot my Marlin .44 I think, "What am I doing putting these things in a revolver?"

I'm thinking of trying 10 gr. of unique with the 200 gr. XTP Hornady round for the carbine...anyone try this match?

Depends on what you want to do with your carbine. I have two 44 mag
carbines and I use the same loads in them that I load for my Ruger
revolvers, 24.0-24.5 grs W296 and 240 gr HP or SP, for deer hunting.
Decide what you expect from your carbine load and go from there.

Curious about bore diameter of the Henry. Have heard rifle barrels run a couple thousands larger so the one load for revolver and rifle idea is good in theory but not so much in practice for cast bullets.

I guess yer talking about the made in NY Henry and not the Italian replica of the original 1860 Henry , huh?

Neumann,

You probably won't find much information about loads for the Marlin 336 in .44 mag. They were in production for about a year. Dean

Yes...The new version. I've wanted one for about 2 years, and I finally got it yesterday. I'm pretty pumped to try it out today!

Thanks for posting that!

yeah .. and abandoned it.
when loading jacketed bullets I favor the full smoke and fire philosophies of H110, AA9, or 2400.
there's nothing a jacketed bullet can do over unique, that cast cant do just as well, and sometimes a little better, at a fraction the cost.

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it just needs more voltage

It sounds like Unique is the only powder you have?

Unique is great for mid range loads, but like a previous poster said, no reason to use those expensive jacketed bullets with Unique.

Pick up a pound of H110, WW296, or 2400 for full power loads with those jacketed slugs.

I'll try the H110...I shot some loads with 11 grains of Unique today, and compared it to some factory rounds. I liked the thump of the factory load, so I will bump up the load with another powder for my hunting rounds. Yes...unique is all I have right now.

What kind of accuracy did you get with that load?

since I've used a similar load .. it is rather accurate, thus it was reincarnated with cast soon after.
the 200 grain XTP was a little iffy with expansion over Unique, However, when propelled with AA9 or H110, it really comes into it's own and is the one load that I haven't replaced with cast

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it just needs more voltage

It was OK...with iron sights I was able to get the majority of my rounds in the black circle (the entire 9" target is black except for a 2" inner circle). I'm going to buy a Skinner peep to see if I can improve my accuracy, but I don't like the factory sight. It's good enough for what I'll be using it for...I can't say that I wasn't the factor in the errant shots...the iron bead on the front of the barrel engulfed the target at 100 yards, so it was very hard to determine.

Ill be watching this thread closely.

I have been wanting to procure a Henry Big Boy 44 for quite some time and should be making that happen in about 2 months...

Thanks Radtuck & Venom. Keep us posted. I too, have been looking real hard at one of these.

I absolutely love how the gun shoulders. ..it comes right to my eye level without much adjustment, and the recoil is minimal. It's definitely a gun I could shoot all day if I could keep up on ammo. It's going to be a fun one to experiment with...The sound of the slug hitting the target is impressive!

Not to mention a REAL nice woods rifle for deer!

My Dad recently picked up what he has been wanting for quite some time.. a Henry 30-30. He loves it and it's his baby. He won't take it out to the woods if it even looks like it MIGHT think about raining! LOL! I really like it myself, I just want my Henry levergun chambered in 44mag.

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp
The Hodgdon site covers a lot of loads and is easy to shop from.

I have a 20" Henry in 44 and the top end mags are like a laser beam. My eyes are no longer at factory specs but my son is able to hit golf balls at 50+ yards with open sights.

What seems week in my 4" revolver are full effect loads in the rifle.

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>>ARMED LIBERAL>>

Unique can spike pressure in either hot or light loads. Save it for .44 Special. If I want to push a .44 Magnum, I use 2400, IMR4227 or H110.

I have noticed in my learning reloading that Unique, while adequate for some magnum handgun loads is not what I would call ideal, especially when you want higher horsepower loads...at least according to the loading data I read... Which I do not deviate from.

Well...I bought some H110 today. I loaded a few with 27 gr of powder and a few with 28 gr. I'm using a 200 gr. Hornady XTP with this load, but I think I want to go heavier for the next test batch. I will report my results after I go to the range.

If I had one, I'd load it up with 44 Russian.
Like filling my Remington 22 pump with shorts.

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

if you want to get a little more yardage out of your 44, try the hornady flex-tip bullets, you might have to cut your cases down abit to get the right OAL.

That, I can confirm is exactly right!

In my Hornady reloading manual, they are very clear that when loading the FTX (flex tip) bullets the cases need to be trimmed down. This is to allow for proper cycling of the action of a lever gun. Also, due to the shorter case length and longer bearing surface on the FTX bullet as compared to the XTP, there is specifically different loading data.

Just do not assume that loading data for another bullet that happens to be the same weight is OK to use for loading the FTX bullets... Hornady is very clear in the manual not to deviate from the data they have published for the FTX bullets.

I can't adjust windage with my iron sights, but I thought these loads were very similar with decent grouping. The first 4 were just left of the center. I thought the small screw on the back sight was for windage, but it turned out to be vertical fine adjustment.

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We'll...I haven't been to the range in a while, but I'm trying a new load with 23.5 gr H110 and a 240 gr XTP. I ended up ordering a scope and rings...my eyes aren't that great at 100 yds, so I broke down. I'll get the scope mounted and zeroed and report my results...hopefully next week.

Lyman's 49th shows 10.5 gr of Unique as a starting handgun load with that bullet. It was also their most accurate load and developed 905 fps. in a 4" universal receiver. They did not give a load for rifles using unique with that bullet. The powders they used for rifle loads with that bullet were much slower burning powders. With that, I would assume that a light load of unique could stick a bullet in the longer barrel.

Use extreme caution when deviating from proven load data.

I have a 1996 Winchester Model 94 24 inch rifle in .44 Mag. It shows a definite preference for full, maximum power loads using 240 grain jacketed FP or HP bullets propelled by 24 grains of W296. Alliant 240 is second best in the rifle, but wins in the 6.5 inch tube revolver.

I don't hunt these days, but if I was going into woods for deer, I'd feel pretty well gunned with the lever 44 out to 125 yards or so.

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Virtue,Liberty & Independence

Can't you just tap it over in the dovetail ?

After posting that, a buddy showed me the dovetail on the end of the barrel. I have already ordered the scope, though. I have a hard time seeing the target at 100 yds, since the bead covers the target completely.

Got my scope mounted and, after getting it sighted at 50, I shot several from 100 yds. The wind was blowing pretty hard from left to right, so I'm blaming that for the right misses. I will shoot it again on a calm day to be sure. I used 2 different weights of XTP (200 gr and 240 gr). The 200 gr bullets were powered by 27 gr of H110, and the 240 gr bullets were powered by 23.5 gr H110. The 200 gr bullets had less recoil, as I figured they would, and accuracy was similar. Sorry I didn't separate the groups, but as you can see, there's not much difference.

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