.357 magnum brass bulging in Henry Big Boy .357

[DW357]

I shot through 100 rounds of Fiocchi 142 gr and American Eagle 158 gr .357 magnum ammo out of my new Henry Big Boy .357 the past couple weekends. But I noticed today after I was done tumbling all of the brass, that there was a slight bulge about 1/4" up from the bottom/rim of the case. The last ~1/8" of the brass wall tapers inward and decreases in diameter. I measured the brass with a caliper and there's a difference of .005" between the base of the walls and halfway up the walls of the case. It's like the opposite of a .357 sig case, it tapers towards the base/rim of the case not towards the opening of the case like the .357 sig. It's very very suttle not as extreme as a .357 sig case but you can notice it. I know that after firing the brass obviously swells so there will be a difference in diameter throughout the length of the case. But all of the .357 mag brass I've shot out of my Ruger GP-100 6" doesn't have this slight bulge in it.

I'm just not sure if this is something to be concerned about or not. I'll be reloading within the next month or so when I move into my new house and get my Hornady LNL press set up and I'm thinking that maybe once the brass is run through the resizing die that it will get rid of this slight bulge?

I read on some other forums and people said that the chamber/bore on lever guns are slightly oversized compared to a revolver and that's what is making the case bulge since it's swelling to the diameter of the chamber/bore on the lever gun.

I just hope that I'll be able to use the brass in my revolver and not just in my Henry, otherwise I'll have to pick through and organize all of the brass that's been shot through the Henry.

I know there's a few guys out there that have the Henry Big Boy and most likely reload as well, any info or experience with this?

The bulge is too suttle for you to see it in a picture so I just took pictures of the brass with the caliper.
View attachment 72886View attachment 72887

 

[Zappa]

.005" isn't a huge amount of expansion.
I wouldn't worry about it, it'll be fine after it goes through the resizing die.
Just for the heck of it, did you try to see if the spent cases will fit into the chambers of your revolver ???

 

[DW357]

.005" isn't a huge amount of expansion.
I wouldn't worry about it, it'll be fine after it goes through the resizing die.
Just for the heck of it, did you try to see if the spent cases will fit into the chambers of your revolver ???

Yeah actually I did. They all pretty much fit but a few I had to force the last ~1/4" of the case into the cylinder. Which made it impossible to press down the ejector rod so I had to pry them out with my fingers and a brass cleaning rod to punch them out.

 

[01SVTvert]

Spent cases fitting in a cylinder are irrelevant. Resize and see if they are a problem. I resize 9mm used in a oversize chamber and after processing it is fine.

 

[DW357]

Spent cases fitting in a cylinder are irrelevant. Resize and see if they are a problem. I resize 9mm used in a oversize chamber and after processing it is fine.

Yeah I'm hoping once I resize them it shouldn't be an issue. I won't have my press set up until the end of the month or early August. Well that's good to hear you don't have issues with your 9mm brass in an oversized chamber.

The .38 spl cases are perfectly fine which makes sense since the pressures aren't close to the .357 mag rounds.

 

[DW357]

.005" isn't a huge amount of expansion.
I wouldn't worry about it, it'll be fine after it goes through the resizing die.
Just for the heck of it, did you try to see if the spent cases will fit into the chambers of your revolver ???

Have you ran into issues with reloading the brass shot through your Big Boy? You have one in .45lc right? Probably would have an even bigger bulge in .44 mag if I had to guess.

 

[Jbarila]

Nothing to see here after resizing... move along.
Mine does the same thing but resizing fixes it.

 

[Zappa]

Spent cases fitting in a cylinder are irrelevant. Resize and see if they are a problem. I resize 9mm used in a oversize chamber and after processing it is fine.

True, but it gives you an idea of how much expansion the case has undergone and a relative idea of how tight the chamber dimensions are in the rifle.

Have you ran into issues with reloading the brass shot through your Big Boy? You have one in .45lc right? Probably would have an even bigger bulge in .44 mag if I had to guess.

No problems at all with the brass fired in my Big Boy.

 

[yogi]

I reload 357 for a Henry big boy and S&W revolver. I have noticed this too but like others say, once you resize they are good to go and I have never had a problem. And that's with a mix on 5-8x fired factory brass as well as fresh Starline brass.

 

[DW357]

I reload 357 for a Henry big boy and S&W revolver. I have noticed this too but like others say, once you resize they are good to go and I have never had a problem. And that's with a mix on 5-8x fired factory brass as well as fresh Starline brass.

Good to know. Thanks.