Uberti Henry Rifle with magazine damage!

[JCT]

I will post pics as soon as I can.....This is my friends Henry by Uberti, not mine....From what he told me I think the follower must have caught on his backpack as he lifted it out of the tailgate of his truck when camping...3 or 4 rounds fired inside and mushroomed out the magazine.
It's bad...but we're hoping there's a fix for it besides a $500 barrel...Anyone ever had or heard of this happening? Any recommendations as to what to do? I'm thinking that inserting a rod into the mag with the proper diameter to allow us to pound the walls in with a brass hammer might work, not sure though.
Any help is appreciated....I'll post pics soon!

 

[PTK]

3 or 4 rounds fired inside and mushroomed out the magazine.

That'd have to involve all sorts of major safety errors, such as: wrong bullets (pointed), very light primers, etc.

This is sounding VERY odd indeed. In fact, I've never heard of anything like this from anyone in the gunsmithing community. At least, nothing that didn't involve the above named gross errors in safety.

I look forward to seeing pictures, that will greatly help in seeing exactly what happened.

 

[JCT]

they were RNFP with Federal LP primers......All I can think of is maybe a primer wasn't seated enough. If that follower dropped hard , that could do it.....in any case the damage is done, just trying to see what route to take now...fix it, or buy a new barrel...
I'll post pics as I can get them this weekend.

 

[sundance44s]

Could have been a high primer .......are you sure they were not rifle primers ? Rifle primers are taller . eaither way Federals are touchy .
I`ve got a Henry myself ...show us some pics and we`ll see how bad the damage is to the mag tube .
When I reload for my Henry I inspect those rounds a little better than rounds for my pistols ..it can happen and does , this isn`t the first time I`ve heard of this .

 

[sharps59]

check w/ bobby hoyt 9717-642-6696
I think he may have worked on one.
But i think you are looking at a new barrel.
I know of a guy that let the follower fall on a 1/2 full mag same thing happened turned out it was high primers that caused it.

 

[JCT]

 

[Electric Factory]

Wow. For years I've heard mag tube warnings regarding lever action rifles and rounds sitting end to end in the mag tube but this is the FIRST time I've seen such damage.

 

[Tommygunn]

This actually happened to Benjamin Tyler Henry when he was developing the Henry. He was using pointed bullets and even though it's rimfire the primer was plastered across the entire base and recoild ignited some rounds.

IIRC the magazine on the Henry is formed around a mandrel, which is later removed. Couldn't you simply find a metal rod the right size and try to reform the magazine some how?

 

[JCT]

Yes, I hope that'll work. I have a couple local shops I will ask at.....maybe if we can get a rod inside that, they can pound the steel down with a brass hammer.

 

[scrat]

Most machine shops would be able to fix that. You need to remove the lower magazine tube and take it to a machine shop. You want someone experienced in sheet metal bending to fix it. As for the gun itself it may be a good idea to have it checked out. Now you are still missing the spring and the Piece that the front bullet rest against. Hopefully he has that. As for the gun itself. Just inspect the barrel. May even want to have it magna fluxed to make sure there are not hidden cracks. Then just put it back together. If you want to attempt to bend the rod yourself. You would need a wooden dowel that is almost the same size as the magazine. insert the wooden dowel then put a piece of leather over the sheet metal and use either a brass, or harden plastic mallet. May even want to use a harden rubber one. the leather will help to protect the outside surface and a tight fitted dowel will ensure that you do not dent in the magazine. heck if i had it here i could do it. Take me a few hours.

 

[scrat]

oh one more thing you need a sand bag of some kind. to rest the magazine on to absorb the shock and protect the magazine.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Wow, that looks painful!

I will have to be more careful with my Uberti henry!

 

[Gewehr98]

It does beg the question, doesn't it?

I know in some reloading circles they recommend against using even round nose bullets for mag tube leverguns, instead stating that one needs a flat meplat on a bullet nose to prevent the above incident.

I could see where a round nose bullet and high primer would present an uncomfortable situation...

 

[scrat]

You just need to use a hard compound primer. and make sure its fully seated. This is why i always uniform my primer pockets as well. Federal primers are the most touchy primers in the market. i do use them for handguns but i use winchester for my lever guns and i make sure they are fully seated

 

[Onmilo]

+1 on Federal primers being the most sensitive primers.
This is actually a somewhat common issue with Henry type rifles but generally involves a shooter loading the magazine and then allowing the follower to snap down on the cartridges causing a magazine eruption.
I have heard of shooting being injured pretty severely when this happens.

I am afraid the only fix will be to replace the barrel assembly.
Your friend may wish to send the rifle back to Uberti USA.
They are pretty friendly and if you explain what happened and be honest, they may replace the barrel for a very nominal charge.
Here is a link.,
http://www.uberti.com

 

[Griff093]

Well, my only comment is:

There are meplats that meet the "flat nose" description and then there are those that are adequate to meet the need for a flat nose.

Here's a pic of 3 different boolits I use in my .45 Colt handguns and leverguns:


The left two rounds are the same boolit, just different seating depths. Now, while that 185 grain pill doesn't stabilize in my '73 rifle it's deadly accurate out of my Colt SAAs... but it does show just how wide a meplat can be. The other two boolits are a commercially cast RFN 200gr and one I cast out of the labeled mold. One both of these boolits the meplat is roughly the same size as the primer cup, with maybe just a little extra width for that margin of safety they have demonstrated in my '73 and Henry. But, first... I don't DROP my rounds down the tube of the Henry... I lay the gun down on the table and slide them down the tube with the gun resting at about a 10-15º incline.

Now... I don't know just how generic this photo is, but... this looks like the meplat may be just a little smaller than ANY of the 3 I'm using:

And I've seen .452 bullets that have a smaller meplat than that by at least ½!

Wish I had a photo of the 160grain BigLube™ bullet I'm using now in the Henry & '73... it's a pip! But... here's a better pic of that 200grain Rucker bullet:

 

[sltm1]

I like your loading press, I just bought one. Used to have a Rockchucker...but bill's got in the way. Ever go as high as 250g in your bullet? They seem to track much better in a rifle than any lighter loads I've tried

 

[Griff093]

Thanks, that's actually just posed for a bullet seatin' primer I did for another forum. That Lee Handloader usually only gets used for decappin' my BP brass... either the .45Colt, .40-90SBN. I load on a pair of Dillon 550Bs, Mec 600s, RCBS Rockchucker or Jr.II. Just depends on what I'm loadin'! But, in truth, that Lee Handloader is fully capable of almost anything any other press can do.