my new henry golden boy 22 magnum with a question?

midland man said:

I just got this last Tuesday and really been impressed with the quality and craftsmanship of this rifle! but been trying 30gr,40gr, and 50gr bullet loads and the only one that was the most accurate was the federal 50gr hp in which these shot the tightest group! but other wise I love this pretty rifle and are wondering if anyone else that has this same gun or other 22mag rifles where the 50gr federals shot the best group over the lighter bullets??

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.22 WMR rifles can be just as ammo picky as .22LR rifles.

I have good shooting buddy with a regular Henry lever gun in .22WMR. His gun has "roomy" chambers and that gun prefers the heavier bullets that fill up the chamber better. In contrast, I have a bolt action .22WMR rifle with shorter chambers and that gun won't even close the bolt on 50 grain ammo. Accordingly, it shoots pointy 30 and 40 grain ammo very well.

If I had your Henry I'd try fat profile 40 grain bullets and see if they shoot as well as the 50 grain ammo. Basically, try hollow points and fat soft tipped ammo but stay away from pointed soft points until proven otherwise. The objective is to get the bullet into the leade of the rifling in the chamber and see if that improves the accuracy.

I never tried 50's in mine...

DM

Mine shoots its best groups with Winchester Dynapoints 45 gr. That being said I haven't shot any 50 gr bullets through it. The only stuff that it hasn't shot reasonably well was a box of CCI 30 gr solid copper that I picked up a while back during the shortage.

I had one years ago and it preferred 40 grain Winchester JHP. Try all of them until you find one you are happy with. My Ruger 77/22 magnum loves that Federal 50 grain stuff.

These shoot best in my CZ 455: CCI HPs are also pretty good.