I have used a Henry Big Boy 357 in 4 matches now. At first I had feeding problems, but last week bought a truncated-cone bullet mold, and the last match it fed perfectly.

However, during the fury of rapid fire, another strange problem came up. Sometimes the hammer would fall but the gun would not fire. At first, when this happened, I would lever it, but an unfired round would eject. Then I started manually recocking the hammer when it happened, and it would fire.

The rifle has a lever safety, ie, the lever has to be completely closed for it to fire. Is it possible that the hammer can fall, but the firing pin still be blocked???

Anyone shed any light on this problem??

"...I would lever it, but an unfired round would eject..."

Did that ejected round have any kind of a dent on the primer? If so, you might be getting a light strike that will fire on the second attempt. If not then something is keeping the fireing pin stationary.

Thanks for the reply. I also suspected a firing pin problem, so I removed and disassembled the bolt. All parts in it seemed good and operated freely. Then I spotted a ridge in the hammer channel, left from machining. Assuming that when the hammer, which has a little side play, is on the extreme left side (maybe one out of ten times), it was catching on the ridge and impeding the hammer, causing a light strike. Buffing it off with a hard rubber wheel in my Dremel Tool cured the problem.

BUT...... next match the hammer failed to cock, and would hang in the notch on the bottom of the bolt, locking the action. Henry replaced the bolt, and that took care of that problem.

THEN..... next time I used it, cartridges would slip under the carrier, locking it with the previous round half-chambered, locking the action until the magazine tube was emptied.

Henry is replacing the rifle!!!!!!!!!!!! I expect the replacement any day now. They have a Cowboy Action shooter on staff, who is to wring out the new rifle before shipping it.

Summary... The Henry Big Boy has been nothing but trouble, but the company has been great. They always send a UPS call tag, so all that shipping has cost me nothing, except taking it to the UPS depot.

PS: I picked up a used Marlin Cowboy Limited with a Marble tang sight, and have not missed a match (shot 10 matches in June). LOVE the Marlin!

Are the primers seated to the bottom of the case? I had a revolvers that had a light spring in it. On some reloaded ammo it would not fire. I then started re-seating the primers on the reloads before shooting them. It fixed the problem. kwg