Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Yeah the golden boys are sharp guns but man you can't touch them without leaving fingerprints everywhere lol. 

 

When I unboxed my Henry, I discovered a rub mark through the bluing that obviously came from the factory. I emailed Henry and got a call from the owner himself. We discussed it a little and he said he'd call me back. A couple days later he called and said they had discovered that one of the cats they use to transport the rifles from one line to another had the protective felt rubbed through causing the guns to rest on metal. He told me I could either send it back for a replacement or he would send me a free Henry gun case. I took the case but later thought I should returned it because I may have gotten back gorgeous wood on the new rifle. 

 

Anyways, while talking with the owner, Anthony, I explained that the trigger on it was horrible. He had his gunsmith polish up a whole new trigger assy for me and mailed it with the gun case.  That new trigger was amazing. Henry's customer service is top notch. 

  • Super User
Posted

If UPS  delivers mine tomorrow, I've still got a few hours work to do on it before it's ready to shoot, so I won't be shooting it tomorrow.  Probably Friday or Saturday.  If it finally shoots in a manner I'm satisfied with, I will give you detailed description of everything I've done.  I'm not sure how gun savvy  you are or what capabilities you have.  One thing they are in serious need of is pillar post.  I made mine but have a lathe.  Those action screws are all kinds of mushy feeling and very sensitive to how tight they can be.  Pillar post firms them up and locks it down very nicely.

 

HeavyDuty, my Golden Boy was rusted badly in the barrel.  Come to find out, Academy had it a year and a half before it was sold, so don't know where it had been.  

I called Henry, they sent me a box with prepaid shipping to ship it back to them, put a new barrel on it and had it back to me in about a week.  They do stand behind their product.

  • Like 1
Posted
37 minutes ago, Way2slow said:

Looking at the picture, that looks like the model with the SS barrel and regular wood stock.  The same as mine but mine has a fancy laminated stock.  That also looks like the same Hammers scope I ordered that came with the rings I never put on.

I learned from my Platoon Sergeant that they chose the stainless and regular wood stock (I don't know what wood it is, but it is surely not walnut or maple) due to what the engraver said would be the best material to engrave.  I can't remember what scope I have on it, but it's definitely a cheap scope in standard Weaver rings mounted on the integral dovetail.  I wish it was tapped for bases, but since it isn't, what type of rings have the set screw you mention?  I doubt I'll shoot this one a great deal, and when my son first shoots it, I'll have him use the open sights on it.  When I put a scope back on it, I may as well put it back on right.

  • Super User
Posted

Some dovetail rings put a setscrew in the base of the ring to lock it down onto the top of the receiver.  The M*Carbo and DIP picatinny rails have six set screws that lock it on top of the receiver.  All of these are going to leave ugly marks in the top of the receiver if you plan to take the scope off, so you might want to opt out of getting something like that.  Just make some kind of a mark, maybe a pencil, so you can tell if it starts walking back.

Yea, I don't know what kind of wood Marlin uses on those, it's definitely plain with no grain much.  That's why I went the few extra bucks and got the laminated stock. looks much better.

You will know pretty quick when you start shooting a target if the barrel is worth a darn.  If you can shoot a tube of bullets and they are within a couple of inches at 50 yards, you got lucky.  

Don't try free floating the barrel, mine sucked doing that, and just about everyone I read about basically agreed, that pressed in, pinned in barrel doesn't do well free floated.

  • Thanks 1
Posted

Thanks, I will mark the receiver where the rings sit and check after I shoot it some.  I can't remember what setup I had last time I shot it.  Definitely wasn't going to free float the barrel; that doesn't even help in every case with bolt action centerfires.  A lot of people took assumptions from what works on benchrest guns and applied it in other places.  The barrel doesn't have any engraving, so I could replace it, but for what I plan for this gun, the barrel is fine.  You're a wealth of knowledge for this - thanks so much for sharing.

  • Super User
Posted

Don't think you can easily replace the barrel.  For one, finding one, other than used take off barrels, a few of them around.  

The biggest problem is getting the barrel out of the receiver.  I just tried that so I could send just the barrel.  I even made a special punch to knock it out, there was no way it was coming out without a lot of heat.  I took it to about as much as I thought it could handle without ruining the finish on the receiver, it would not budge.  Since that's a painted on finish, I was not sure how it would hold up to what 300 Below was going to put it through.  Guess I will find out tomorrow.  I am more than capable of refinish it if needed, but that's just a lot more work I will have to put into this thing I was hoping to avoid.

 

Posted

@CountryboyinDC you'd be better off honoring that rifle for what it is and buying a different rifle for target shooting. If you like to tinker with rifles, maybe look at Ruger 10-22. You can pick them up for $200 new and occasionally find them for 150 used. They are extremely easy to modify and they have the largest aftermarket support than probably any other firearm on earth. The barrels come off in less than a minute and trigger assemblies are easily swappable too. You can even buy used parts for them because guys are always changing them up. They are really a lot of fun to tinker with.

If you just want to buy a rifle that will already be a great shooter, I'd suggest a CZ 452, the accuracy is simply amazing out of the box. 

 

 

  • Thanks 1
  • Super User
Posted

It's raining and supposed to rain all day, so no punching holes in paper but I did go shoot 28 CCI Stingers into the dirt.

Figured this would be a good candidate to try a product, Dyna-Tek Bore Coat I bought a long time ago and haven't had a barrel I felt I wanted to take a chance with.  It's been so long, the company has changed names from Dynamic Finishes to Dyna-Tek and Dyna-Tek appears to no longer supports it, so it has been several years, but I see MidwayUSA still sells it.  Anyway, it's supposed to put a ceramic coating in the barrel and you have to fire a bunch rounds to cook it in after it has dried, so I went, sat in the truck and wasted 28 of those Stinger rather quickly I haven't found a use for yet. 

The stuff is supposed to make a barrel super easy to clean and prevent the carbon doughnut from building in the throat.  When I got back, I put some of my favorite bore cleaner, Deaton's Deep Clean (DDC) that you can't buy anymore, on a bore mop, made a couple of passes through the barrel and pulled a bore snake through it.

I know 28 rounds is not much but I will say I'm surprised with results so far.  Down the bore is spotless and only minor traces of carbon in the throat where you get the doughnut.

 

This is the throat where the carbon doughnut forms, very slight traces now. You have to luv that great machine work they did in that throat.

Snap_012.jpg.0062acf46777372b3094fe3d1ab7b040.jpg

 

This is just getting into the lands where you normally get a lot of carbon fouling.  You can see a very slight hint of copper but that's all.

Snap_013.thumb.jpg.d1ffc0db9a6d47468520ea61310a390e.jpg

 

If it continues to work as well as initial indications, might have to try it in another rifle.  We will see what happens when  couple hundred of those nasty Thunderbolts have been sent down it.

 

One thing, this stuff is supposed to be applied to a barrel that has been cleaned to bare metal.  Since I had already cleaned this barrel to bare metal before I shipped it off, and for how hard it is to get one to bare metal, I decided I didn't want to wait until after I had tested it to apply the bore coat.  I would like to have, but I really didn't want to spend another few hours getting it cleaned back to bare metal after testing the barrel. 

You may think you clean your barrels but very few will ever get it to bare metal, it can takes hours and hours of cleaning to do that.

Posted
On 1/30/2020 at 6:33 AM, SuperDuty said:

@CountryboyinDC you'd be better off honoring that rifle for what it is and buying a different rifle for target shooting. If you like to tinker with rifles, maybe look at Ruger 10-22.

Thanks, that is one way of looking at it.  It's worth less than retail price to anyone else, but I think I'll try to make a point to shoot it when I get a chance.  Otherwise it will sit in the back of the safe with all those other 'heirlooms'.  I have a few other .22s, and with the few opportunities that I have to shoot these days, I probably can't justify another one.  I still have a 700 that was going to get worked into another 500 yard groundhog gun that hasn't been been touched in years.  All I've done is buy a semi-inletted McMillian stock for it.  One day.

  • Super User
Posted

A Remington 700 has the potential to make a very good shooter.  I always say they are like the 3.0 OMC looper outboard,  out of the box, they do ok, but in the hands of the right person, can be made into a real hotrod.

They have an excellent trigger, or at least can be made and excellent trigger.  The actions are probably the most copied and desired among rifle builders.

A good, stress free pillar post bedding job is critical and goes a long way to making the out of the box Remington shoot.  Proper inletting of the stock for the bedding job is critical.  Not all bedding jobs are the same and if not properly inlet, it can make the bedding worthless.

Getting the trigger tweaked properly is necessary.  I prefer the Remington trigger over any of the high dollar, after market, but only after I've massaged it to my likings.

I can usually get most 700's to shoot sub MOA without doing anything to the barrel and action.  Lapping the bolt helps, but there you have to be very careful unless it's during a rebarrel.  Over do it and you can create too much headspace or have the bolt handle hitting the action.  

Now, if you want to get real serious, get you something like a 260 or 6.5 Creedmore barrel from one of the top barrel makers, and have it fitted by one of the builders that has a good reputation for blueprinting the actions.  That properly bedded into a stock, and shooting the right load, pretty much makes five hole groups that 3/8" at  100 yards would be on the ugly side.

I just sent my grandson a 1976, factory stocked 700, 270, that was shooting 1/2" groups at 100 yards on a bad day.  I also sent him 200 rounds of the load I developed for him and it.

Posted

I had all sorts of ideas for that rifle that hasn't come to be.  It was going to be a wildcat I haven't seen, a 6mm-.284 AI with nice Lilja or Hart barrel, the stock I mentioned and a Jewell trigger (I can usually do pretty good with a Remington trigger that I fool with, but for a sub 6 ounce one, I like Jewell).  With the exception of a 788, I don't think there's a better place to start if you're building something for tiny groups.  My first light varmint gun was a 700 action, and depending on who was behind it, it could hold it's own against Panda action guns.  Anyway, this one can't be shot in the state it's in, but I'll get back to it one day.

  • Super User
Posted

Talk about a barrel eater, 6mm-284, that sucker should smoke a barrel in no time.  If I load my 6.5-284 to it's fullest potential for 1000 yards, 700-800 rounds and it's about done for even hitting anything at long range.  If I load it down for barrel life, may as well be a 260, so I built a couple of 260's and almost never shoot the 6.5-284.  Actually thinking a rebarrel to a 6.5 CM with it.  Seems that's one of the hottest thing coming out of the woodwork now.

I avoid wildcats because of all those other expenses.  Custom die's, fire forming brass, custom reamers, etc.

  • Super User
Posted

Couldn't stand it, I went in the rain and mud to try it.

 

Cold clean barrel, shooting 5 shot groups @ 50 yards with Remington Thunderbolts and pretty much ripping them off, doubt there was ever more than two seconds between shots (most were much less).  Reloaded as quick as I could get 10 rounds in it and shot the last two. Some of the flyer's and stray shots were those funky sounding loads you get and a couple were pulls from shooting so fast.

That target is only spaced 1/2" and the black center it 1" with a 3/8" center dot.

  The order shot was top left was first, top right was second, center was third, bottom left was fourth and bottom right was last.

290572673_Picture95.thumb.jpg.e71f26a428c3d8f6a8f0fd7f3d5a5d4a.jpg

 

So based on the results from this target, looks like freezing it might have helped, a whole hellava lot.  Before those first 10 would have been on another target several inches away.

It's still only good for a pllnker, but at least it's usable for that.  Before, it was useless for anything more that a few feet.

 

One other side note.

Don't waste your money buying a scope mount to try putting a scope on a Henry lever action 22.  I have an extra scope and getting where I can't see to shoot open sights that well.  So, figure what the heck, I ordered a mount from Henry to put the scope on my Golden Boy.  Totally money thrown away.  The scope sits so high and so far forward it's almost impossible to use.  You would almost need a pistol scope and even then, it's sitting up too high to see. 

Also, the thumb tab you can put on the hammer to offset it for a scope, another waster of money.  The bolt slides over the hammer in a way you can't work the lever with the thumb tab, it stops the bolt from coming back.

  • Super User
Posted

Thanks, maybe somebody will get something out of it.  Like, don't buy a Marlin, at least not one with a stainless steel barrel. 

Since I was playing in the rain and that pit I shoot in don't drain and was very sloppy, I've got more testing to do. 

I shot the Marlin for this target and then tried to shoot my Henry, what a waste.  I just got through taking the scope off and putting my sights back on, you have to remove the rear sight to uncover the scope mounting holes, so now I get the zero them again.

It's also looking like the brick of Yellow Jackets might be another $40 wasted.  Since doing the cryo on the barrel, it didn't seem to shoot them as good.  I only tried one five shot group since I didn't have the recoil spring in for those, but that group was not very pretty.   I tried a 10 shot group of CCI subsonics and didn't fare much better with those. 

If it ever quits raining so that pit can dry a little, I have a bunch more testing and retesting I need to do before I can speak for certain on anything with it right now. 

I have to be careful how much I'm in the rain, I might dissolve.  Sugar melts when it gets wet, poop dissolves.  

  • Super User
Posted

Final conclusion, it works.  Went to town and bought a new assortment of bullets.  I've never shot CCI other than those couple boxes of Stingers I bought, so I got several different ones of those  I've made two trips to the pit so the rifle could cool.  Both times it started off shooting very close to the 1" center dot and will place most of the subsequent shots inside a 1" circle with the Thunderbolts, other than those that give you that real weak crack or super loud crack, those, no telling where they are going to hit.  All of this is at 50 yards.  I really saw no need in trying it at 100. 

With the CCI Mini Mag, 36 and 40 grain, it will keep all those in the 1" black circle.  It likes a warm barrel better than a cold one.  If you shoot fast like I did on the target posted, it will start shooting bug holes, just putting bullet on top of bullet, but give it five minutes rest and it goes back to just shooting inside the black circle.  However, I didn't buy a target rifle, and it's basically doing what I was expecting it to do the first time I shot it.  It's just taken me three weeks and a hellava lot of work and extra money to get there.

I also reset my iron sights on the Henry and zeroed them at 50 yards, that was tough on these old eyes.  I had to keep track of which one of those images I was seeing I was supposed to shoot at, but we got it done.

When done testing, there were hundreds of shotgun hulls and 9mm pistol brass on the ground about 30 yards from me, so I spent a tube of bullets in both rifles shooting those things and sending them flying.  Don't know that I missed a one, missed hitting the brass on a couple of the shotgun hulls and just poked a hole in the plastic, but hit the brass on the most of them and didn't miss a pistol brass.  So, I think it will make a pretty good plinker.

All together, I've probably put 500 rounds in it today.

 

You know, I was just looking and those targets I post look large, but those are five targets on a piece of 8 1/2x11 printer paper and trying to see that little one inch dot at 50 yards with open sights was rough.

  • Like 2
  • Super User
Posted

I've redone the bedding three times, starting off free floating the barrel to get it off the stock where is was rubbing the left side of the barrel and not touching the right side.  That looked like a load of buckshot was shot at the target at about 30 yards.

Second time I added a pressure point at 2" from end of stock.  That really made it make a serious rise in impacts as it warmed, several inches of rise.

I took the pressure point out and bedded the whole barrel.  That made is seriously sensitive to action mounting screw torque, 

Then I removed all the bedding out of the barrel channel and removed the front pillar block and bedding there, but left the rear bedding and pillar to maintain that height.  I then bedded the front pillar and the full barrel length together at the same time.  I used surgical elastic tubing warped tight around the action and put the screws in the action to hold alignment and keep Devcon from getting into the holes.  I did not wrap any around the barrel in order to prevent that pressure from pushing down on it.  Devcon is pretty thick so I depended on that to apply a slight pressure on the barrel when tightened into the stock.

Once it warmed up, It would shot very tight groups but the first ten shots were almost useless for hitting anything.  

The conclusion I decided on that was the barrel was not stress relieved after rifling, if at anytime.

Concerned it would destroy that painted on finish if I put it in my oven I decided to try 300 Below after reading reviews on them.  

It still likes a warm barrel best, but I think that's a common trait of rimfires, but now it will put the first bullet close enough to hit most anything you could want at least the size of a quarter at 50 yards.

I still had to play with the action screws torque a little to get it right.  I didn't use a torque gauge of any kind, just went by feel, but after about 60 years of turning wrenches, I have a pretty good feel for it.

I also modified the crap out of the trigger to get it down to a touch over two pounds.

Now I will make a number of trips to try different ammos in a cold barrel for the first 10 shots, to see which one I want for my go to ammo.  I still have 4000 of the Thunderbolts, and they are a pain in the butt because you never know what the next shots going to do.  Shoot normal, pop like a hyper velocity and make a thud like a subsonic, and those have a very different POI from the rest.

Those things are also ungodly nasty in a semiautomatic.  

Posted

I agree. Great job on that rifle! How much did the cryo cost you and what was the turn around time?

 

I've changed my mind...don't ever buy a CZ because you'll not enjoy it. There would be very little work required, if any, to get it to shoot very well. And the set trigger that allows you to adjust the trigger pull down to ounces takes all the fun out of working a trigger over. A polishing is all they ever need. 

 

My CZ 527 .223 will shoot sub MOA @ 100 out of the box. The rimfires are literally one hole if you put the rifles in a vise. 

  • Super User
Posted

They charge $100 and it cost me $14 to mail it to them with the additional insurance, and that includes return shipping if it less than 6 or 8 pounds, (I think it on there site).  Mine was so lite I didn't check.  They process on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Mine got there on Thursday and it was on it's way back to me on Monday buy UPS.  I had it that Wednesday or Thursday, a week after I mailed it.

If the gun was worth anything, I probably would have just tried to trade it in on something else, but as you say, it such a cheap rifle, they wouldn't give but very little for it.  So, I had the choice of just kissing what I had in it good by or, throw another $114 into it and hope it worked.   I think the $114 was worth it for how much difference it made in the rifle, it's just a shame it had to be such a cheap POS I had to spend it on.  

This weekend when I shot it, I shot a tube of the Stingers pretty fast to warm it up, loaded it up as fast as I could and shot 10 CCI Mini-Max Varmints and it was one small ragged hole, probably about a 1/4" group, so the sucker will shoot.  That was shooting off a bipod in the front and a rabbit eared, bench rest bag under the stock and a scope strong enough I can see white all the way around the center dot in the reticle, and I'm still a pretty good shot.  No where near what I once was but feel I can still hold my own.

That is one thing I can say about it, once that barrel is warmed, it don't much care what ammo you shoot, it makes bug holes with it, except for those funky sounding shots that no telling where they are going to hit, but if you get a string that shoots the same, they will be in one hole.  The thing is, I have a couple thousand Federal Target loads that do the same thing as the Thunderbolts, so that's over 6,000 of junky bullets.  At least I do have a few thousand of the Winchester 555 bulk pack that other than the dudes, shoot ok.

Back in the early 70's when Remington used to semi sponsor me and furnish me with free bullets, it was very rare to get a dud out of the couple thousand I would sometimes shoot a month if I had a couple of demo's, but buying there bulk packs of Golden Bullets now, I would get a dozen or more out of each box.  At least with the Winchesters, I only get a couple. 

 

Oh, I will put my Remington 700, 223 up against your CZ any time, and bet it will beat it, at any distance.? and most anybody else's 223.

 

Took if for the first of several first shot test at 50 yards, passed with flying colors, put the first bullet dead center bullseye and the next two about 3/8" above that one, shooting CCI Mini-Mag varmints.   Then I changed scopes and zeroed that one.  Still have several more of the first shot test to do.

 

  • Super User
Posted

CountryboyinDC,

If you happen to read this, I've discovered another manufacturing defect in this Marlin you might run into with yours since it has the same receiver as mine.

After mine started getting a little dirty, which is only a handful of rounds of those Thunderbolts, it starts have some feed problems and the bolt is very lazy about closing.  Pull the trigger assembly out, clean it and the inside of the receiver off a little and it goes back to OK for a little while.

I haven't cleaned it the last couple of times I've shot it so today it was really slow and if you let the bolt ease to, it wouldn't close completely.

Tired of it, I decided to figure out the problem.  The main problem I found was when they sprayed the coating on the receiver, they also coated the inside top of the receiver and the stuff was flaking and gumming up, and with a little dirty gritty powder up there also, it was not pretty.  Since the top of the bolt slides along the top of the receiver, that was not good.  I gently scrapped what was left of that coating off, used some Flitz some cleaning patch on the end of my finger and polished it so it was smooth.  I also polished the top of the bolt to where it was nice and shiny.   Since the hammer is also another major friction point, I polished the top of it and the bolt surface it rubs on.  

Now, you can't make the bolt stick open any and it goes to battery with a nice snap.  Never would do that before. 

Yours might work great, but if you run into a sluggish bolt, you might want to check there first.

  • Thanks 1
  • Super User
Posted

Marlin has micro groove tech thats  pretty good stuff there and a 22 barrel isnt getting much stress to make it shooot dif anyway ...at 160 you wont find a better gun .at 220 you in 10/22 territory ...and that will do for anyone unless your a comp shooter all a 22 needs is breaking in is about 500 rounds the only diff i have found is ammo brand that IMO is the game changer.

  • Super User
Posted

I guess I'm a little more demanding of my pea shooters and this Marlin with it's micro groove barrel darn sure ain't cutting it.   I think how it wants to place bullets on a target depends on the time of day, the alignment of the planets and phase of the moon.  Low velocity, 40 grain stuff usually shots best in most 22's, this one hates them.  Hyper velocity stuff usually is a wast of money in most 22's. this one loves Yellow Jackets and shoots one raged hole groups at 50 yards with them, after it's warmed up for 20 rounds or so. 

As for breaking it in will make it shoot better, I'm already approaching 2000 rounds through this one just working on getting it to halfway shoot.

I've always said buying something cheap can be the most expensive item you can buy.  That has really held true with this POS. 

I bought it to use in the place of my old 552 I use for instinct shooting, and I've about got it good enough to do that. 

As for reliable accuracy, I just added $300 to my AmEx card ordering a target barrel for my 10/22.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Super User
Posted

Well, got the barrel I ordered for the 10/22 Take Down, put it on and went in the rain just to see how it does.  Did nothing but load 10 CCI 40gr Mini-Mags in a magazine and shot all 10 at a 50 yard target, figured the scope would be close enough to get on paper.   They hit 2" right and I covered the hole all 10 made with a nickle.   Looks like it might be a shooter.  In a few days I hope to have time to work with it a little.

  • Super User
Posted

Remington surprised me.  I sent them and email about how bad the 5000 rounds of Thunderbolts were.  That I've probably shot a box car load of their bullets back in my instinct shooting exhibition days and since and I have never shot anything as bad as these thing were.  I asked them if they were being made in China and just boxed by Remington.

They had FedEx send me a prepaid shipping label to return the eight, 500 round boxes I had left.  I got an email from them this morning that said they were sorry, and didn't know how it happened, but those bullets were so far out of spec, they should have never left the factory. They had bad casings, bad bullets and bad velocities.  They were upgrading them the Golden Bullets and shipping me 10 boxes of those for my troubles.  I thought that was very good customer support.

  • Like 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.