Anyone here own a Henry ?

[Die Judicii]

Just curios,,
Who's got one,,,,,, and are they any good ? (top shelf, middle shelf, bottom shelf) ?

[Shootermick]

22 mag octagonal barrel, 357 big boy steel, 44 mag brass, 243 single shot.
I like them a lot and rate them highly.
Which model are you looking at?

[bladeracer]

Just curios,,
Who's got one,,,,,, and are they any good ? (top shelf, middle shelf, bottom shelf) ?

I only have the basic H001 .22LR.
I'd rate it middle shelf.
Nicely finished, poorly assembled.
Hate the pot metal receiver cover.
Lots of little pieces to lose during disassembly.
Pretty reliable though and reasonably accurate.
Good price.

[wrenchman]

I have a steel boy in 357 very smooth action and very nice wood

[dnedative]

Only got the H001 in 22
Good rifle, runs well, seems well made and when you could buy them, they were pretty cheap. Runs 22 shorts fine, its never jammed or misfed anything for me.

The receiver cover on them is cast aluminum, does feel a bit cheap when you figure that out but you can buy a brass one from the US for about $50

[Fionn]

I have the H001 in 22lr and its a nice rifle except for the receiver cover, as other have mentioned. The paint scratches off very easily, lets the whole rifle down as everthing else is well made.


I had a 357magnum big boy steel, but sold it as I didn't like the lack of a side gate and tube feeding only. When they become available again I might get one of the newer side gate models.

They are well made lever actions and shoot very well, hence the demand on them at the moment.

[bladeracer]

Only got the H001 in 22
Good rifle, runs well, seems well made and when you could buy them, they were pretty cheap. Runs 22 shorts fine, its never jammed or misfed anything for me.

The receiver cover on them is cast aluminum, does feel a bit cheap when you figure that out but you can buy a brass one from the US for about $50

The frame of the receiver is aluminium, the cover is not - it's a pot metal based on zinc (so is the "brass" cover). Not a bad product in itself, in the right circumstances, but tightening up scope mounts crushes the dovetail very easily. Would've helped if they'd put a recoil lug in the top to prevent the scope creeping forward under recoil, wouldn't need to rely on clamping force then. The Williams aperture sight is so much lighter than a scope it's not an issue. A minor issue when I installed the aperture is that the front sight was too short, and is a single pot metal casting. But it is held in place by a screw so I made a new post out of a screw and put that in instead.

20220427_163253b.jpg (190.71 KiB) Viewed 2613 times

My front wood moves back and forth 1-2mm, more annoying than a real issue. The butt stock has a couple millimetres pivot to it, which is very annoying but doesn't cause any issues. It "clicks" as you transfer the weight from the wrist to the butt plate. I drop the rifle from the shoulder every shot so I can catch the empties, so I feel it every time. You can see the angle of the butt stock and generally poor fit in this pic. You can also see where the dovetail has been chewed up by the scope.

20220427_163241b.jpg (369.93 KiB) Viewed 2613 times

As you say though, it is built down to a good price so these minor issues can be tolerated.

My next project for this one is to make up a tube to put onto the muzzle to move the sight post further out so I can actually focus on it. Figuring to start with a 300mm tube and find out where I need the sight, then cut it to length. As I can use the front sight screw to hold it in place I'm hoping I can do it as a removable piece without losing zero between fitments. The issue is leaving enough clearance to remove the magazine follower for loading

[bladeracer]

I had a 357magnum big boy steel, but sold it as I didn't like the lack of a side gate and tube feeding only. When they become available again I might get one of the newer side gate models.

Agreed, I hate front loading, and I dislike tube mags generally for their safety aspects.
I only owned one tube-fed rifle when I was a kid, the semi-auto Winchester Model 190 (a terrific design), but it put me right off these mags.
The issue with side-loading .22LR is the amount of force required to feed them in, but if they went to the original Henry design, where you push the follower up to the muzzle first, you could basically just pour the ammo into the action. This is basically how I load it anyway, remove the follower and tip a tube of 15rds into the end of the magazine.

[Die Judicii]

Thanks fellas.
By the look of things in general,, I think I'll give the brand a wide berth.

[Shootermick]

Thanks fellas.
By the look of things in general,, I think I'll give the brand a wide berth.

What were you considering?
What else are you going to look at instead?

[Fionn]

A minor issue when I installed the aperture is that the front sight was too short, and is a single pot metal casting. But it is held in place by a screw so I made a new post out of a screw and put that in instead.

Some bogan gunsmithing right there

Henry do make taller front sights for them, they send them out for free to new owners in the US, so wouldn't cost much to get them to Australia.

My front wood moves back and forth 1-2mm, more annoying than a real issue. The butt stock has a couple millimetres pivot to it, which is very annoying but doesn't cause any issues. It "clicks" as you transfer the weight from the wrist to the butt plate. I drop the rifle from the shoulder every shot so I can catch the empties, so I feel it every time. You can see the angle of the butt stock and generally poor fit in this pic. You can also see where the dovetail has been chewed up by the scope.

My Henry doesn't have any of these issue, the fit of stock is near perfect.

[Fionn]

Thanks fellas.
By the look of things in general,, I think I'll give the brand a wide berth.

Why they are probably one of the best lever action brands on the current market. Their customer service and support is very highly regarded.

[dnedative]

I rate them, basing their brand off the H001 is pretty poor, its a cheap plinking gun. The larger ones look very well made, I wouldn't write them off at all.
Its no different to when Ruger started making actions out of cast metal and when Glock made a gun from plastic, the aluminum frame and zinc cover is perfectly durable and strong enough, its just perception that's its cheap and inferior. It is cheaper to make but so is casting a Ruger GP100 frame, people got over that pretty quickly. If you want a really nice 22 lever gun, spend the $1400 on a Browning BL22

I got a front sight off a 22mag H001 to suit the Skinner peep sight I mounted. Taller, works fine.
Fit and finish of the gun is very good, if you never pulled it apart or had someone tell you, you would die a happy man with it.
Stock on mine is perfect, seen far more expensive rifles with far worse timber and fit. Should of seen the s**t Remington were selling a few years ago.

[Die Judicii]

Thanks fellas.
By the look of things in general,, I think I'll give the brand a wide berth.

What were you considering?
What else are you going to look at instead?

For starters, I haven't bothered to do any homework at all on the various models that they put out,,,
What I was tentatively considering was a 30/30 lever (if they make them)

I did have a JM XLR 336 Marlin that I bought new,,, but unfortunately took it to an INCOMPETANT gun smith to get a minor job done,, and it was never the same afterwards.
I ended up selling it, and now would like to replace it.
So for now I think i'll bide my time and try and pick up a good second hand one.

[bladeracer]

A minor issue when I installed the aperture is that the front sight was too short, and is a single pot metal casting. But it is held in place by a screw so I made a new post out of a screw and put that in instead.

Some bogan gunsmithing right there

Henry do make taller front sights for them, they send them out for free to new owners in the US, so wouldn't cost much to get them to Australia.

My front wood moves back and forth 1-2mm, more annoying than a real issue. The butt stock has a couple millimetres pivot to it, which is very annoying but doesn't cause any issues. It "clicks" as you transfer the weight from the wrist to the butt plate. I drop the rifle from the shoulder every shot so I can catch the empties, so I feel it every time. You can see the angle of the butt stock and generally poor fit in this pic. You can also see where the dovetail has been chewed up by the scope.

My Henry doesn't have any of these issue, the fit of stock is near perfect.

I prefer to think of it as "expedient engineering"

Replacing the sight is an option as well, as was simply building it up with epoxy - the screw was simpler and keeps everything original.

I'm glad you got a good one, I'm sure most of them are. Mine isn't so good and I can only base my opinion on my experience. As I said, for a fairly cheap rifle it's pretty good overall. Their centrefire models are priced in a much higher bracket, and I would expect the quality of those to be higher, but I don't own one so haven't commented on them. Henry is a relatively new company, and have built themselves an excellent reputation in that short time. My only contact directly with them as a customer was excellent - I asked them for the screw pitch for the front sight and they got back to me with the correct info within an hour or two.

[bladeracer]

I rate them, basing their brand off the H001 is pretty poor, its a cheap plinking gun. The larger ones look very well made, I wouldn't write them off at all.
Its no different to when Ruger started making actions out of cast metal and when Glock made a gun from plastic, the aluminum frame and zinc cover is perfectly durable and strong enough, its just perception that's its cheap and inferior. It is cheaper to make but so is casting a Ruger GP100 frame, people got over that pretty quickly. If you want a really nice 22 lever gun, spend the $1400 on a Browning BL22

I got a front sight off a 22mag H001 to suit the Skinner peep sight I mounted. Taller, works fine.
Fit and finish of the gun is very good, if you never pulled it apart or had someone tell you, you would die a happy man with it.
Stock on mine is perfect, seen far more expensive rifles with far worse timber and fit. Should of seen the s**t Remington were selling a few years ago.

If yours is excellent then you have every right to be pleased with it, that doesn't mean they're all excellent, just as mine is not indicative of the brand, it's only indicative of mine. I wouldn't write them off either, but based on my own experience, if I were looking for another centrefire lever, Henry would not be my first choice - I have Marlin, Rossi, Winchester and Uberti centrefire levers that are very good, so I would tend to look at those first. That is the downside of a manufacturer allowing even one "lower standard" product to slip through their quality control, word will get around.

I have no issue with a "perception" that the receiver cover being pot metal is a weakness, my actual experience with it shows it to be a weakness, as can be seen in the photo I posted showing where the scope mounts move forward under recoil. Cranking them down tighter simply deforms the very soft metal dovetail. Either way, you damage the finish. A very simple fix would be to put a recoil stud in or mill bolt groove(s) in the top for the scope rings or mount to butt against. I didn't buy it with the intention of running a scope, but I prefer to use a scope when I'm testing ammo. I bought it intending to put the Williams aperture sight on it, as with my other levers (my Model 94 came with a Lyman aperture). If I had never scoped it I probably would've never discovered any issue with the receiver cover.

I bought the Henry specifically expecting it to be a step up from the Norinco JW21. I had put something like 15,000rds through the JW21 and felt perhaps I was shooting the rifle as well as it was ever going to shoot, so I wanted something better. I was disappointed as the fit of the Henry was poor the moment I took it out of the box, and the Norinco is more accurate, and more pleasant to shoot - for me, and it mounts a scope whenever I need to test some ammo. So much so that having bought the Henry in March 2018, I put 330rds through it in testing, then put it away until December 2018, when I put 140rds through it practicing Silhouette, put it away again until September 2020 when I did 130rds on steel, got it out in July 2021 for 100rds practice, then didn't touch it again until I finally broke the JW21 in December 2021 and had to switch to the H001 for my regular steel practicing. The Norinco is simply more enjoyable to shoot, and is more accurate - for me - so I stuck with it. I'm enjoying the Henry though, and as I said, it performs just fine. When I finally track down the parts I need to repair the JW21 will I leave the Henry in the safe again? I've put a few thousand rounds through the Henry now and it's doing what I'm asking of it, so until I have them side by side again I can't really say whether I'll prefer one over the other again.

The Norinco is a copy of the highly-regarded Winchester 9422. If the Henry had been my only lever I'm sure I would've been perfectly happy with it. I can very easily finesse the wood to fit more precisely if I want to, but, as I said, it's not an issue that affects it's abilities on the target, so I haven't bothered - I have no interest in aesthetics in my firearms, only that they perform as I want them to. Because it's a tube-fed lever I strip it pretty regularly, around every 300rds, as the action fills with shavings of brass and chunks of lead, and it allows me to clean the bore from the chamber. Stripping it is not especially fiddly, but you need to have a nice bench due to the numerous screws - I would not recommend stripping it in the field at all, ever.

[Fionn]

I prefer to think of it as "expedient engineering"

Replacing the sight is an option as well, as was simply building it up with epoxy - the screw was simpler and keeps everything original.

I'm glad you got a good one, I'm sure most of them are. Mine isn't so good and I can only base my opinion on my experience. As I said, for a fairly cheap rifle it's pretty good overall. Their centrefire models are priced in a much higher bracket, and I would expect the quality of those to be higher, but I don't own one so haven't commented on them. Henry is a relatively new company, and have built themselves an excellent reputation in that short time. My only contact directly with them as a customer was excellent - I asked them for the screw pitch for the front sight and they got back to me with the correct info within an hour or two.

If you bought it new, why didn't/haven't you return it? the stock fitting problem isn't normally how they fit, in fact Henry's are often highly regarded for the stock fitment.

Do you know that Henry's have a lifetime guarantee? so you should contact them about fixing the issue.

[bladeracer]

If you bought it new, why didn't/haven't you return it? the stock fitting problem isn't normally how they fit, in fact Henry's are often highly regarded for the stock fitment.

Do you know that Henry's have a lifetime guarantee? so you should contact them about fixing the issue.

I have been very clear that my experience is based on the reality of my own rifle, not what I've read on forums.

I don't know how I can make it any clearer that these issues are MINOR, and don't affect the actual performance of a $550 rifle.
If they were, or if they ever become significant issues, I am more than happy to rectify them myself - I can make the wood fit better, and I can cut recoil lugs in the cover.

Do you know that Henry is in the US? The rigmarole involved in having the rifle replaced is more pain in the bum - for me and my dealer - than the issues with the rifle are - why would I want to go through that when the rifle does everything I need it to?

I have had warranty repairs and replacements done in the past. Occasionally it is as simple as returning it to the store and they replace it immediately, as with Bunnings - the rattle gun stops working, take it into town, come home with a new one and finish the job. Other times it can be downright painful, like an importer refusing to send out a replacement magazine until they have received my failed one, meaning weeks without being able to use the rifle. Or six-weeks waiting on a scope repair only to receive the scope back no better than it was to begin with.

If I can avoid dealing with warranty by expending a few minutes or hours of my own time I will.

[mickb]

I have been very clear that my experience is based on the reality of my own rifle, not what I've read on forums.

And I think is what separates most of us from certain posters mate

[dnedative]

Everyone makes duds and drops the ball; I worked with a bloke who bought a Savage 110BA in 300WM;
Thing never shot under 4MOA out of the box, dealer sold him new rings, then reckoned it was the old Leopold scope, sold him a $2500 new one, they looked at the rifle, said it was mint, blamed him, he insisted it was f***ed, went back to the importer, they said it was fine and shot acceptably during testing, got it back with a bill, still s**t after another $250 in various factory ammo. Dumped it in the safe and pretended he never bought the thing for close to a year. Cracked the s**ts one day, dug it out along with the $3500 in receipts he had spent on factory ammo, rings, scope, testing etc at the dealer, took it back, bailed up the owner who sent it to someone else to look at, got a call back a week later or so, gunsmith looked at it for 30 minutes and found the barrel was tapered. Savage f***ed it up, it went back again, got re-barreled and by this stage he was done with it. Dealer kept it, of all things ended up with a Howa in a chassis from memory.

Yet I know other people with Savages who reckon they are the ducks nuts and on average they probably are good things.


End of the day, if you can handle the actual gun your looking to buy you generally wont have issues. If it looks rough with s**t timber, just hand it back.

[bladeracer]

I have been very clear that my experience is based on the reality of my own rifle, not what I've read on forums.

And I think is what separates most of us from certain posters mate

I don't mind when somebody offers something like "The larger ones look very well made, I wouldn't write them off at all", as it is clearly an opinion based on non-ownership - a clearly-stated external view based on how the product looks does not in any way endorse the actual performance of the product in use. As most people buying firearms nowadays are not able to "test drive" a new firearm, how it "looks" is a valid remark. It doesn't confuse the issue as posts like "I really like them!" do, when you then ask them if they've had any issues with theirs and they admit they've never actually seen one, they've just read on a forum that "people really like them".

I try to keep my advice to my actual experience, or perhaps other people's experiences that I've been witness to (making that clear). If I have an opinion on something that I have no first-hand experience with, I endeavour to make that clear as well. I may occasionally do this for example when I find a thread that has been "ignored" for a week or more just to drive some discussion that may lead to helping the original poster.


I learned years ago on motorcycle forums, when somebody asks "what is the '04 GSXR750 like?", the standard response here (Australia) is likely to be, go and find one and test ride it for yourself. In other countries that is often impossible, people have to buy bikes based entirely on what they look and sound like as nobody will allow a test ride unless they have the full payment in their hand already. Personally, I would never recommend buying a bike without actually riding it first - what it looks like and sounds like and what service history is available is all largely irrelevant to how it actually performs.

[northdude]

It always amuses me when someone come across as the biggest authourity in the world on something but then say they have never owned one etc. The classic ones I like are the "mechanics" or even better the "engineers" giving car repair advice on the internet. I stay out of those discussions been a qualified mechanic for a very long time so find it entertaining seeing some poor guy getting all this advice and 6 or more pages later still hasnt fixed his car...

[dnedative]

Buying guns is no different to buying a house, you really have no idea what you have until you well and truly own it
I've never owned a larger center fire Henry, handled a few and they seemed quite good. If it looks well made, doesnt cut your hands and the action runs tightly and smoothly I'm going to say its worth atleast looking at. Not saying buy one but if I was in the market I would at-least look, wouldn't turn my nose and assume they are s**t without holding one.

Bloke I know well bought a BL22 Browning today, only thing wrong with it was a wrinkle in the red sticker on the forened

[Fionn]

I don't like it when people buy a product that has a fault or issue, but instead of give the manufacturer/seller a chance to fix the issue, they jump on social media and have a whinge about the issue and bad mouth them and/or the product.

Its just attention seeking behaviour really.

I am all for people posting bad reviews or about bad service, but have the decency to let the manufacturer/seller address it first.

[bladeracer]

I don't like it when people buy a product that has a fault or issue, but instead of give the manufacturer/seller a chance to fix the issue, they jump on social media and have a whinge about the issue and bad mouth them and/or the product.

Its just attention seeking behaviour really.

I am all for people posting bad reviews or about bad service, but have the decency to let the manufacturer/seller address it first.

Agreed. I have issues with mine. I have never bad-mouthed Henry over it, but I don't sugar-coat it either - it is what it is. It happened to me, it could happen to somebody else. Better to be aware of it than never mention it. Even if I had gotten mine repaired or replaced under warranty, it still happened, it's still reality. I love Ruger but I got a dud magazine with one rifle, and it was replaced under warranty, it happens.

As for service, I have only had one contact with Henry directly and they were outstanding.