Opinion on Henry rifles

[Ian]

Another tip on the Marlins is to use the Burris Posi-line (or whatever they're called) scope rings with the selectable offset inserts you can buy additionally for them. All of the Marlins I've seen have the barrels and receivers pointing in totally different directions and thus tend to strain the adjustment limits of some scope, degrading optical quality. The offset ring inserts can be selected and oriented to point a 'zeroed' scope more or less where the bore is pointing and then only a few clicks on the knobs away from dead-center will fine-tune the sighting. Pull the lever and bolt, place the rifle in a cradle, and alternate sighting through the bore and through the crosshairs while orienting or switching out the inserts to achieve this pre-zero condition.

 

[Dick West]

thanks, Bill and Ian,
My 336 is a solid performer with the Lee 175 FP, the Ranch Dog 165 and the SKS 150 pointed (one in tube and one in chamber). The chamber is tight so I have to be careful with seating. I size to .311 and the micro-groove does a good job.
it had a scope on it when i got it and seemed pointed generally in the right direction--but we'll see when I mount the K4--which has nearly invisible target hairs and dot.

 

[Ian]

OK boys and girls, I have officially seen the inside of a Henry Big Boy .45 Colt and it has WAY more spiraly thingies in it than 1:38. Didn't have a rod and patched jag with me but in 20" it goes around more than once, which is good enough for me. Tomorrow it will be mine....

 

[Will]

Let me know when you get it. I have really had my eye on one of these.

 

[35 shooter]

I'm excited for you and hope you give some shooting reports on your new 45 colt Henry.

 

[freebullet]

ooow! Can't wait to see & hear bout it. Are ya going with the brass frame?

 

[Ian]

Yep, brass frame, heavy octagonal barrel. It wasn't as heavy and blocky as I remembered them from handling a few years ago. I'm super-excited and will be doing my best to make all of you jealous soon...

 

[freebullet]

While I wouldn't choose brass (simple personal preference) I am wildly stoked for you to get it to & can't wait to see/hear more. Jealous won't take much.

Could you please ask the dealer if they are willing to do a two for 1 deal on that. I'd like the steel 357 if they decide to give them away or something.

 

[Ian]

I wanted the brass one originally, years ago. Since this particular discussion came up I've been looking at the steel framed, round barreled one with no barrel band and rubber butt pad, but just can't warm up to the bead-blasted receiver. So I went and looked at them in person at a local gun store and it was a no-brainer at that point, I wanted the purty brass one.

Not sure they're going to give them away, but they were way overpriced (this store is famous for that and as one would expect has a huge inventory of firearms). I told the counterman to make me a deal that would save me a trip to Cabelas, and told him what the Cabela's current price is (I may or may not have mentioned that Cabela's is running a sale ) and he got right down near enough that I jumped on it.

 

[Will]

My local shop said $750 out the door for a brass receiver 20" octagon barrel.

 

[Ian]

That's about what I'll be paying after tax. A bargain I think, we'll see how well I can make it shoot. By fit/finish alone I do believe that the Henry is superior to the current "competitive options" in .45 Colt.

 

[freebullet]

Can't fault you on that one bit. I'd rather have the brass frame than loose the octagon barrel. That's guna be fun.

 

[35 shooter]

I'm already turning green and you don't even have it yet lol. I've been eyeing the steel version pretty hard on their website, but wish it had the octagon bbl.
When and if...i would probably wind up with the brass too.

I bet with the slick little action they have, you'll be doing a whole lot of 45 colt shooting very very soon.....lol don't forget the range reports!

 

[Winelover]

Curious to know, if it will feed the RCBS 270 SAA or it's clone, right out of the box.......

 

[Ian]

Curious to know, if it will feed the RCBS 270 SAA or it's clone, right out of the box.......

I still have a few of the MP version left from a batch Rick sent me a while back, I'll be happy to make a couple dummies and check that for you.

 

[RBHarter]

A friend of mine has had 1 a couple of yr now it feeds a commercial load with a bullet resembling the NOE copy of the 454424 . His is the steel round bbl.

 

[Ian]

Well....I spoke too soon. Went to buy the rifle today and I worked the action one time and couldn't get the lever closed. After I verified there wasn't a chamber flag or something like that interfering with the bolt, the resident store gunsmith took it away for about half an hour to fiddle with it and in the meantime I decided to just order a new one. ETA unknown, they deal with several distributors. I was told the firing pin is two pieces like a Marlin and the back piece had rotated and fallen down where the locking bolt couldn't push it home. I'm a little skeptical because just before I handed it back across the counter I thumbed the breech bolt home (it was half in inch out of battery) and STILL couldn't get the lever to close the last quarter inch or so, so it wasn't the firing pin jamming, it was something with the locking bolt itself or possibly the lever had come disconnected from the breech bolt. Nothing like that to spoil one's confidence. So, we'll see how the next one does. Sighhhhh.....

 

[Will]

One good thing about Henry is if you have any complaints they will send you a shipping label and fix any problems.
I have done a lot of reading on the Henry forum and have gathered that the customer service is off the charts. Most have the rifle back in a little over a week.

 

[Tony]

I'm curious to know your impressions of the trigger: take up, pull weight, over travel, can it be easily improved if required? Also, is it easy to mount a receiver sight on these?

 

[Ian]

When I get one that works I'll let you know.