The Big Boy from Henry Repeating Arms is accurate, reliable, and smooth of operation. It's right at home on the cowboy action range and in the hunting fields.
By Mike Venturino
To enlarge this photo of Henry's .44 Magnum Big Boy, please click HERE.
Since about 1997 the modern Henry Repeating Arms Co. has made lever-action, pump, bolt-action, and semiautomatic rifles chambered for rimfire rounds. A few years back it began offering the Golden Boy, a brass-frame, exposed-hammer, tubular magazine-fed .22 rimfire that has been well received among fans of that genre of firearms.
The Henry Big Boy was the company's first venture into the centerfire rifle marketplace. As with the Golden Boy, the Big Boy lever gun has a brass receiver and classic styling. Let's take a look at some of its features.
Traditional Yet Unique
Unlike most traditional centerfire lever guns chambered for pistol cartridge-size calibers, the new Big Boy does not load through a gate on the action's right side. Instead, there is a slot in the front of the tubular magazine into which cartridges are inserted. To load, the magazine tube follower is rotated slightly and pulled forward to expose the loading port. Then cartridges are inserted and the follower pushed back and locked into place. This is the same magazine tube system that has been used on .22 rimfire rifles of all sorts for well over 100 years. However, the only big-bore lever action that I am aware of that loaded through the front of the magazine tube was the original Henry .44 rimfire rifle of 1862 to 1866 vintage.
Here's a word of warning about loading magazine tubes from the front with centerfire cartridges: They must be inserted with the firearm lying level. Then they can be gently slid to the rear. If they are dropped from the front with the muzzle pointing skyward, a primer could ignite from the impact of cartridges hitting one another. This is not just an idle warning. Such has happened often with the replicas of the original Henry rifles imported from Italy and chambered for such centerfire rounds as .44-40 and .45 Colt.
Once the new Big Boy is loaded, it functions in the same manner as traditional lever guns. That is, the operator's fingers are inserted through the loop lever and it is drawn downwards and then back up again. That movement does two things: a cartridge is inserted into the chamber and the hammer is brought back to its fullcock position. Then to fire the rifle the trigger is pressed.
Over the 140 years that lever-actuated rifles have been in production, two basic modes of ejecting empty cartridges have evolved. Winchester-designed versions throw their fired cases out the top of the action, and Marlin-designed versions throw fired cases from the right side of the action. The Big Boy follows the Marlin style. As the Big Boy's lever is brought upwards, the bolt travels forwards and when closed is locked shut by the lever. There is also a disconnector behind the trigger that prevents the trigger from being pulled unless the lever is drawn completely upwards.
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