A traditional gun with a non-traditional approach to “retro.”
The Henry Big Boy revolver was one of the most eye-catching introductions at the NRA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis this spring. Some critics decried its appearance on sight: “It looks like a cartoon revolver.” “It resembles one of those cheap H&Rs of yesteryear!”
My response: “Who cares? You’re gonna have it concealed anyway! And besides, give Henry credit for pure guts for introducing a traditional service revolver in a time when polymer-framed eighteen-shot 9mm autoloaders hold sway!”
Our test sample arrived in early May, a round butt (RB) in .357, which of course takes six rounds of .38 Special and, for that matter, .38 Long Colt and .38 Short Colt. It’s available as a ten-shot .22 Long Rifle or .22 Magnum, all with four-inch barrels at this time, and buyer’s choice of square butt or the round one, the latter being the old “bird’s head” style.
Finish and build quality were excellent, inside and out, as rifle shooters have come to expect from the Henry brand. For example, the chambers were polished well enough that with a sharp slap on the ejector rod, even hot Magnum brass ejected cleanly.
I was joined on the test team by four men who, like me, had won matches shooting revolvers double action. They included retired lawman Allen Davis, retired SWAT cop Steve Denney, master instructor Herman Gunter III, and IDPA Five-Gun Master John Strayer. Three of us had also won state and regional championships with assorted Colt, Ruger, and S&W sixguns. I submit that simply to show that we knew what to look for in terms of performance.
Henry Big Boy .357 Magnum — Off the Bench
Accuracy testing was done from a Caldwell Matrix rest on a concrete bench at 25 yards. Each group was measured center to center for the farthest shots in question to the nearest 0.05”. Every group was measured twice: once for all five shots to get an idea of what an experienced shooter could expect under perfect conditions, and again for the best three to factor out as much unnoticed human error as possible. I discovered decades ago that this would give a good approximation of all five shots from a Ransom machine rest, which most readers don’t have access to. The hypothesis was proven more than twenty years ago by the late Charles Petty and I; the results appeared in American Handgunner in the spring of 2002.
With any .38 or .357, the mild 148 grain .38 Special midrange wadcutter is a great “starter load” for new shooters or the recoil sensitive, and is believed to be adequate for self-defense by a growing number of well-credentialed experts. We chose Federal Gold Medal, famous for its accuracy. It gave the tightest group of the test: 1.75” for all five shots with four of those in 1.20” and the best three in less than half of one inch, 0.45” to be exact. Promising accuracy indeed, though the group centered three inches below point of aim at the 25-yard distance.
The Big Boy’s barrel is stamped “CAL .357MAG/.38SPL.” The middle ground in that range is .38 Special +P, and the load that earned the best reputation for so-called “stopping power” back when cops almost universally carried revolvers was the 158-grain lead hollow point. We used Remington’s, and the group centered dead on to the sights at 25 yards, measuring 3.55” with the best three in 2.10”.
In a .357 Magnum load for big bad animals, you want deep penetration, and the most readily available such load is the 158-grain semi-jacketed soft point running in the 1200 foot-second range. We exemplified that with such a load from PMC, which also centered dead on with the fixed sights, measuring 5.15” for the whole group and 2.35” for the best three.
Grouping was done single action and was hampered by the sights, and we need to talk about that.
Sights
The rear sight is a tiny notch at the rear of a gutter milled in the top of the frame. The front sight is ramped and not serrated, and roundish at its peak. With overhead light including sunlight, this causes glare, and the front sight sort of “whites out.” Even under an outdoor roof on the shooting bench it was a chore to hold sight alignment, particularly with the minuscule rear notch and the roughly 1/10th-inch wide front sight.
The good news with that front sight is that it’s interchangeable easily in the hands of the end user, who only needs a screwdriver. The Big Boy comes with three front sights of varying heights. The medium-size one was already installed on our revolver and was perfect for elevation with the 158-grain loads, both .38 Special and .357 Magnum. If I was to use this gun exclusively with soft-kicking mid-range .38 wadcutters, which shot low with that sight, the short one would have been the answer.
This revolver would benefit greatly from a serrated front sight (and a non-ramped Patridge sight option!) and an adjustable rear sight to take advantage of the .357 Magnum chambering’s inherently great versatility.
The Henry Big Boy in the Gun Hand
Trigger reach was optimal for an average size adult male hand, allowing the barrel to stay in line with the forearm with the crease of the index finger centered on the trigger for maximum leverage. That leverage was needed, too: the pull in double action was heavy. On a Lyman Digital Trigger Pull Gauge applied to the center of the trigger face, double action pull weight averaged around 12 pounds. (I say “around” because each pull was either in the high 11-pound range or “over” because the Lyman stops at 12 pounds). Single action pull averaged 5.71 pounds, but with a manageable clean break.
Professionals know that a good trigger pull isn’t necessarily light, but it has to be smooth. In slow double action fire, the trigger pull is much like old Colts: two-stage. The Big Boy “pre-times,” that is, the cylinder locks the firing chamber in line with the barrel well before the trigger pull is complete, and there is a palpable “second stage” of pull before the hammer falls. Some people like this — it’s the essence of “trigger-cocking” without having to thumb-cock the Henry’s hammer — and it means that you’ll have lots of shooting before there is sufficient wear that you start getting misfires from the chamber not coming up in time and have to send it for repair. However, some of our testing shooters, accustomed to S&Ws, Rugers, and custom Colts with single straight through pulls, didn’t like it. The good news was that the faster we shot, the more that two-stage effect ceased to be something we could feel.
Recoil with the bird’s head grip and smooth walnut stocks was no problem with light or heavy .38s at all, nor with the .357 Magnum loads in a two-hand grasp. However, the angle of the grip was such that shooting heavy Magnum rounds one-handed, the gun shifted in the grasp and required re-gripping after two or three shots.
Carry
I spent a day carrying the Henry .357 with Remington +P in an old Bianchi #3 inside-the-waistband holster for a K-frame S&W, which it fit quite well despite its L-frame size cylinder. The smooth bird’s head grip was comfortable against the body and never “caught” on the concealing garment to ride it up. The 4” barrel pressed gently against the hip, tucking the rest of the gun into the body to aid discreet concealment.
Bottom Line
The gun was reliable. It took HKS 586 speedloaders just fine, thanks to the well-conceived cut-outs in the grip. The ejector rod length was just right: clean ejection even with Magnum rounds with a good sharp slap to the ejector rod, but it wasn’t long enough to over-travel, thus reducing the likelihood of the nightmare “jam” of a spent casing caught under the ejector star.
Our test Big Boy .357 showed the excellent workmanship inside and out that has characterized Henry’s rifles and made them so popular. Our testers all commented on the heavy trigger pull and unanimously hated the sights, but admired the build quality of this revolver. The grip frame and trigger guard are brass, a hallmark of Henry’s guns, perhaps symbolizing the fact that it took a lot of brass to introduce a “service revolver” in 2023. It’s very much worth checking out. Suggested retail for the Henry Big Boy is $928.
