38/357 and 44 lever guns 16"

[GoToAle]

Mine has the saddle ring and hasn’t been shot by me or little before me.

[GoToAle]

S/N is AA 14xx

[GoToAle]

IMHO any ammo loaded by others that may be suspect should be s*** canned immediately if not sooner.

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

So, selection these days is garbage. I can find Rossi, Marlin, and Henry in 44 mag offerings on Gunbroker, all new and for around $900-1200. Is one of these brands better than the other in a new offering for a 16-20" 44mag?

[lonestardiver]

I have experience with the Rossi 16” 44mag for 20 years.
Nice little brush gun or truck gun.

I have the Henry in .22lr and .38/.357mag, the 22 is a fun little shooter, same dimensions as the .44mag Rossi so the 22 is a good stand in for practice. I have not had the chance to fully vet the Henry .38/.357, but I suspect it’ll be a good shooter.

My only marlin experience was an old .30-30 and another in .35 Remington.

Of all of these, I have no real issues...other than the lawyer safety on the loop against the action. Rossi I have does’t have one. Not sure where that rates on the want to haves/need to haves/ Or the don’t want to have lists.

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

I answered my own question: bought a 20" Henry 44 Mag w/side gate. Hoping to have a better time with it than the last Henry I owned. Wish I wouldn't have throw away that Skinner Peep Sight and Big Loop lever.

[kerplode]

I answered my own question: bought a 20" Henry 44 Mag w/side gate. Hoping to have a better time with it than the last Henry I owned. Wish I wouldn't have throw away that Skinner Peep Sight and Big Loop lever.

What happened with your last Henry?

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

What happened with your last Henry?

We're thinking it was a bad batch of Magtech 44 Mag, but essentially about 10-15 rds in the lever locked up, all parts inside seized and any attempt to move the lever resulted in bent parts.

[kerplode]

We're thinking it was a bad batch of Magtech 44 Mag, but essentially about 10-15 rds in the lever locked up, all parts inside seized and any attempt to move the lever resulted in bent parts.

Damn, that sucks...Hope the new one fares better.

I was lucky to stumble across a Big Boy X in 357 last summer, but I haven't had time to get it to the range and test it out yet. Hopefully it'll all go smoothly.

My other Henry is a standard Big Boy in 45LC. It shot patterns due to some really bad machining marks/gouges at the muzzle (I didn't get to inspect it prior to taking possession). Anyway, it had to go back to NJ for a new barrel. Henry took care of me with no issues, but it came back with the new barrel installed just slightly canted. With the barrel mounted sights, it's not a big deal, but it's still just slightly disappointing.

[LowSpeed_HighDrag]

Damn, that sucks...Hope the new one fares better.

I was lucky to stumble across a Big Boy X in 357 last summer, but I haven't had time to get it to the range and test it out yet. Hopefully it'll all go smoothly.

My other Henry is a standard Big Boy in 45LC. It shot patterns due to some really bad machining marks/gouges at the muzzle (I didn't get to inspect it prior to taking possession). Anyway, it had to go back to NJ for a new barrel. Henry took care of me with no issues, but it came back with the new barrel installed just slightly canted. With the barrel mounted sights, it's not a big deal, but it's still just slightly disappointing.

That sounds super irritating.

The Henry worked fairly well today. I shot 20rds of Leverevolution. One failure to feed because the follower got stuck in the tube. Side loading seems to be a bit of an issue, the cases want to hang up mid way through insertion. Will need to clean it up a bit. Paper plate accurate at 50 yds, and no catastrophic failures.