dnedative wrote: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.