How accurate can the henry 45 colt be? Part 1

[@Diemerstein]

Here is what you should know, the Henry Big Boy 45 colt is a very accurate gun, but a gun such as the Henry is only as good as the shooter and the ammo you feed it. First of all, the scope is not tuned, you know this because as you said you are aiming at the center and all of them are hitting low and right. One of the issues with scopes is, when you pull the trigger, you have got to make sure that recticle is dead center as you pull the trigger, if you're off by just a tiny bit, you will miss what you're aiming at. I use a 3x zoom red dot, when dialed in for 100 yards, it does not miss and nice and tight, that bullet will hit what the red dot was aiming at when the bullet left the barrel. Factory load 45 colt are ok, but if you want performance that exceeds a 44 magnum, get some Buffalo bore 260 gr, that comes out of this 20 inch barrel at over 1900 fps. As for that Hornady flex tip ammo, I cycle that with no issues at all.

[@Eugene2ndW]

I hand load 250 XTP to T/C max and get smarted. How comfortable are the Buffalo loads?

[@Diemerstein]

@@Eugene2ndW Depends on which buffalo bore round you shoot. My Henry is an all brass classic, so there is no padding on the butt stock, shooting a Buffalo Bore Deer Grenade is quite a kick in the shoulder. Keep in mind, the Deer Grenade is more lethal than a 30-30 out of a 20 inch barrel, it delivers over 2000 foot pounds of energy, it's quite close yo 45-70 performance.

[@musicmatty67]

Henry lever action or just about any other lever action scoped @ 100 yards is far more accurate than these results… I’m not sure what happened here. I just shot a Henry 45 long colt (200 grain) benchrested @ 50 yards with open sights and was easily getting groups of 1.5 inches.

[@dspeirs8694]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has troubles with leverevolution feeding.

[@hardchines]

bought a used 45 big boy last year, love it and previous owner loved it , first ten rounds factory in a 6 inch circle no scope, 100yrds!

[@stuffnsuch631]

Hard to complain about that!

[@Earlthepear69]

My Henry Big Boy X in 45 colt gets a 2" group at 50 yards shooting off the hood with a blanket folded up for my rest. I use the installed factory fiber optic sights. I think thats quite good seeing the sight covers completely the 1 1/2" circle i draw in the center of a paper plate. I do have it shoot 1 inch high at that distance.

[@barndweller4573]

Hope you got it figured out, I have a Henry Big Boy in 45 Colt and it does much better than that. I just use home cast bullets powdercoated and loaded mild

[@jreed10291974]

If it's not the scope it might be the rifle. I have 4 45 colt rifles 1 is a Henry. I shout 6.5 grains red dot With a lee home cast 252 semiwad cutter sized to .252 all my 45 colts will put them in 1 1/2 to 2 inches at a 100 yards open sights. That's my deer load out to a 100 yards all kills were DRT. The Henry scoped will do 1 to 3/4 all day long.

[@samdunlap5365]

255grn LSWC over 6.5grn W231 or 5grn 700x.i am not recommending cloning these loads by any means but personally I've taken several deer @ 50=75 yds all heart shots I believe that the LSWC is a very underrated projectile JMHO

[@denisdegamon8224]

I do hope you realize that you need to zero your scope and check those scope mounts. My experience with these 45 colt LRNFP easily get 1-11/2" groups at 50 yards with factory iron buckhorn sites. Don't mean to come off crass, but eliminating the above potential issues, you might want to brush up on your shooting principals.

[@stuffnsuch631]

I can shoot .5 moa. I need to try some factory stuff and see if theres a flaw in my reloading method with straight wall. I've never had this gun shoot anything better than 6 moa with any load i've tried over 8 yrs, although ive not continuously attempted... we shall see if I play around some more this summer

[@denisdegamon8224]

Ok your point is quite possibly correct. I typically use lead round nose flat point 200 - 250 grain hard cast bullets. Try 8- 8.5 grains of Alliant Unique or 5.8 grains of Trail Boss if you can find it. Trail Boss has been out of production for a while. It burns clean and occupies more space in the cartridge case, so that the powder lays better in those large cases.

[@CP-012]

I guess that is why conservation recommends Deer 🦌 hunting with 45 colts between 50-55 yards. Everyone can get a kill at that distance.

[@cwby1978]

That’s horrible groups what kind of scope you using

[@beri232]

Beautiful piece but hate that tube load