Last November I ordered a new Henry in .327 Fed... here is what I posted about it on a couple of other boards (LevergunScoundrels, RimfireCentral & Ruger.net):
quote>gmd1950<quote I've eyed the Big Boy Steel in .327 Fed./.32 H&R Magnum as the review say they feed .32 S&W Longs pretty well too, I've got revolvers in all three calibers.
Absolutely correct. I bought a Henry Big Boy Steel Carbine in .327 Fed, and it DOES handle all 3 types easily.
Here is some info I've posted on the Ruger.net board:
In .327 Federal/.32 H&R Magnum weights are:
Big Boy Classic: 20" octagonal barrel, hardened brass receiver. 8.68 pounds
Big Boy Carbine: 16.5" octagonal barrel, hardened brass receiver. 7.76 pounds
Big Boy Steel: 20" round barrel, steel receiver. 7 pounds
Big Boy Steel Carbine: 16.5" round barrel, steel receiver. 6.59 pounds
All weights are from the Henry website.
Rifles have the normal lever loop and the carbines have the large loop.
Henry customer service said that the normal loop lever and the large loop are interchangeable (between the same stock style), and they would be happy to ship a "normal" to me if I do want to change away from the large on my carbine.
I'm sure that they would also be happy to send someone a "large loop" that was unhappy with their "normal".
Back in 2017-2019 there were posts on the Ruger.net board about the Henry having feeding problems if the rifle was tilted even a little to the side... so when mine arrived I tested that:
I fired both Federal (American Eagle) .327 Fed 100gr JSP rounds and Federal .32H&R 100gr SWC rounds - both loaded/chambered well, and fired smoothly. One .32H&R round gave me a bit of trouble closing the lever... I had opened it softly, and I had to jiggle the round with my finger before it would load. On all the others I opened the lever briskly, and they loaded perfectly and easily.
As for the tilting issue - I cycled the action with tilt angles up to 90 degrees to the left (flat on its side) and ~40-45 degrees to the right - not one miss-feed or poor ejection.
The common consensus on the Ruger.net board was that the .32 S&W Long would be too short to cycle properly, but then...
I had seen a comment on the S&W forum about another forum... Levergun Scoundrels.
That sounded like a fun place, so I registered there... and found a couple of posts from 2016 and 2018... the former when Henry was just announcing the .327 chambering in their rifles & carbines, and the latter after some members had bought them.
Apparently, the early advertising from Henry claimed it could fire .327 Federal, .32 H&R Magnum... AND .32 S&W Long!
Two or three guys who had bought it also confirmed that it could fire .32 S&W Long... so I had to try that.
While the carbine holds 7 .327 Fed or .32 H&R rounds, it holds 10 .32 S&WL.
I fired Aguila 98gr lead roundnose, PPU 98gr lead roundnose, and Magtech 98gr lead hollowpoint. The hollowpoint is about 1/8" shorter than the round-noses.
All three types functioned well, with the only problem occurring when I had the carbine on its left side while slowly closing the action - the round's tip fell a bit to the left and caught, I pulled just a bit on the rim and it popped right back into proper place. That was the first round (Aguila), I held it upright with only a little tilt to either side for all subsequent rounds, which loaded and fired perfectly.
In all, I fired one 10-round string with each ammo type, and mixed 8-round and 7-round strings with all 3 types in each string (a total of 15 rounds of each type, 45 overall), and everything worked perfectly.
The mass of the carbine meant that I could just barely feel the .32 S&W Long rounds going off - it felt like I was firing .22LRs in a lightweight rifle.
As I have a S&W model 30-1 (.32 S&WL), a Ruger Single Six (.32 H&R), and a S&W 632 (.327 Fed), my Henry does indeed partner with all three revolvers.
