doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Got one of these coming Friday

What�s wrong with the opening lever on the blued Henry in the picture?

Prefer the �Companion� single shot, no hammer, non automatic safety, 3� chamber 12 gauge. But, prefer a double gun, more.




Best,
Ted

What you say about the comparative weights is true, but it is a moot point. How far does a #9 TSS pellet penetrate? The answer is - far enough. As long as they have enough energy to penetrate into his head or neck, they will kill him.

I'm sure you know this, but I'll share it for those who don't turkey hunt. We kill turkeys differently than most anything else. We body shoot upland birds, we body shoot waterfowl, we body shoot deer, but the last thing in the world you wanna do with a turkey is to body shoot him with a shotgun. The long neck and head are the areas of the turkey that are vulnerable, and since we shoot them while stationary it makes sense to tailor your gun and load to fill the head and neck with holes. I have found that it doesn't seem to make much difference how big the holes might be. The smaller shot kills them just fine if you punch holes in the head/neck.

I just checked my hunting log that I have kept all my life. I have killed 88 spring gobblers with TSS handloads. I have killed them with size 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, and even killed a couple with 10. I have killed a lot more with lead than I have with tungsten, so I think I have a large enough sample size to form an opinion. I started out using TSS #8 shot, which is a 6.4 if you wanna compare it to the weight of lead. That size certainly has plenty of penetration to kill a turkey, but it has so much that it will kill a turkey way further than I wanna shoot one. Other folks were having success with #9, so I decided to try them. What I found was that they have plenty of penetration to kill the turkey, so I'm able to use a more open choke and a smaller gauge gun. That gives me a wider pattern and more room for aiming error, which I think is a good thing.

Turkey ammo has come a long way since I started hunting back in the 60s. The Longbeard loads that Joe mentioned are much superior to the lead I used back in the day.

Good hunting to all.

True we do try and shoot turkeys in the head...but some fail to remenber we are shooting a shotgun with an ever growing pattern. If you only hit the head then the rest of your 20 to 30 inch pattern is going somewhere.
I'd rather not deal with hundreds of small pellets in and through my meat...the best range to shoot a turkey is between 25 to 35 yards. A #4 lead is devastating at those ranges and if a few get in the meat they're not hard to find...and if you miss judge the yardage the #4 will not let you down

Actually, TSS has a lot fewer flyers than a comparative lead load. It's 16" from the top of a gobbler's head to the base of his neck if he is standing up straight. That gives you plenty of room to put the pattern on his vitals without getting it into the breast. Any shell will have a few flyers outside of the kill pattern, but any of the denser shot will have fewer of those than lead. I have shot a lot of patterns with both, so I'm not guessing at this.

Nothing "wrong" with the top-lever on the Henry. I just think the thumb push opener on the H&R and the NEF is more ergonomic for me. It is right under where my thumb is on the gun after a shot and I can open the gun without changing its position. I wish they'd put one on a double...Geo

No, Geo. Look at the picture on the site that John posted. The blued gun has the opening lever riding up what looks like 3/8ths of an inch higher than the other gun in the picture.
It looks like the opening lever is coming out of the frame.

Best,
Ted

Ted...he's not b buying a BSS.

That Firing pin block on the H&R was a good idea, don't know if Henry is using the same design or not. While it Was a Good Idea it was in fact rather poorly designed. Back in the 1980s & 90s when I had an FFL & did some gunsmithing I always kept several of these in stock. The block itself was comparatively heavy but connected to the trigger on only one side by a fairly thin leg. I replaced a good number of these during that time. I don't know if they have improved it by now or not. I have a 30" barreled H&R 12 gauge with the thumb push opener which I inherited. I have not shot it but will say if & when I do it will not be with a 3" Mag, even though it is so chambered. It is simply too lightweight for such power.

I can�t be the only one who noticed this:



Look at the opening lever on the blued, or black gun- it is projected out of the frame. Not by a small amount, either.

Best,
Ted

Up close it looks like this