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Henry's .44 Magnum Big Boy Grabs The Brass Ring
The Henry Big Boy loads through a slot in the front of the tubular magazine. Magazine capacity is 10 rounds.
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Classic Styling
That covers the operation of the Henry Big Boy. Now let's take a look at its cosmetics. As I said earlier, it has classic styling. The stock is two-piece American walnut. The buttstock has a straight grip with a brass buttplate. In its shape the buttplate closely resembles the Winchester and Marlin carbine-style buttplates of the late 19th century. That is, it has a slight curve without being crescent shaped, and it is fairly wide to help distribute recoil.
The Henry Big Boy .44 Magnum ejects empty cases from the right side of its machined brass receiver.
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On my sample Henry Big Boy the buttplate was 1 3/8 inches in width. The forearm is likewise of straight-grained American walnut and is 9 1/2 inches long. The forearm is secured to the barrel by means of a brass barrel band, which is also reminiscent of carbine barrel bands as used by Winchester and Marlin in the late 19th century. Length of pull on my test sample is 14 inches.
A point where the Henry Big Boy varies from 19th-century carbines is with its octagon barrel. The 20-inch-long barrel is fairly heavy, measuring .75 inch wide at the muzzle. It is rifled with six grooves with a twist rate of one turn in 38 inches. A lead slug pushed down the barrel measured .429 inch in diameter. The magazine tube is nearly the full length of the barrel, stopping about 1/4 inch shy of the muzzle.
Sights on the Big Boy consist of a Marble buckhorn rear and brass bead front.
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Sights are classic Old West all the way. The front sight is a tall blade topped with a brass bead. It is set into the barrel by means of a dovetail. The rear sight is a Marble's buckhorn style that is elevation adjustable by means of the usual notched slider. It is also set into a barrel dovetail and can be adjusted for windage by drifting laterally. There is no provision for mounting peep sights on either the receiver or tang, nor is the receiver drilled and tapped for scope mounting.
| Shooting The .44 Henry Big Boy |
| Factory Load |
Muzzle Velocity (fps) |
Velocity Variation (fps) |
25-Yard Accuracy (inches) |
100-yard Accuracy (inches) |
| .44 Special Cowboy Loads |
| Hornady 180-gr. RN/FP |
1014 |
65 |
1.50 |
-- |
| UltraMax 200-gr. RN/FP |
1033 |
24 |
1.63 |
-- |
| Black Hills 210-gr. CNL |
863 |
64 |
1.25 |
-- |
| Winchester 240-gr. RN/FP |
877 |
17 |
1.75 |
-- |
| .44 Magnum Cowby Load |
| UltraMax 240-gr. RN/FP |
975 |
16 |
2.25 |
-- |
| .44 Magnum Hunting Loads |
| Federal 180-gr. JHP |
2088 |
49 |
-- |
4.75 |
| Hornady 200-gr. JHP |
1580 |
22 |
-- |
3.63 |
| Black Hills 240-gr. JHP |
1572 |
71 |
-- |
2.88 |
| Federal 240-gr. JHP |
1610 |
134 |
-- |
3.46 |
| PMC 240-gr. Starfire |
1376 |
58 |
-- |
4.04 |
| NOTES: Aa 25-yard accuracy figures are for a single 10-shot group. All 100-yard accuracy figures are for three five-shot groups. All shooting was done from a sandbag benchrest. Velocity is the average of 10 rounds measured six feet from the gun's muzzle. |
The walnut stock is oil finished, and the steel barrel, magazine tube, lever, trigger, and hammer are all given a nicely polished blue finish. Wood to metal fit is very nice. Of course, the brass receiver, buttplate, and barrel band are highly polished brass. The choice of brass in this day and age seemed odd to me so I called Anthony Imperato, Henry Repeating Arms Co. president.
He told me they chose brass to help identify with their namesake company of the 1860s. When I asked about the composition of the brass, Imperato said there are many different formulations for brass and that theirs is a special proprietary composition. He said they have extensively tested it and determined it to be strong enough to withstand the pressures given by standard .44 Magnum factory ammunition.
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