Henry Rifle Forums

Seems like it took forever! It didn't of course, but patience isn't my strong suit. I think it will have been worth waiting for though. The normal Henry beautiful fit and finish is present in abundance, and the action already feels like a well cared for 50 year old Marlin. The balance seems great, and the forearm is just the way I like 'em-nice and slim. The hard chrome finish is very nice and evenly applied. It seems to have more of a matte or bead-basted texture to it than regular stainless and I really like it. I tried to show the stock finish in one of the pics, but be aware that it isn't just monolithic black like hard plastic or something of the sort. It actually looks more like a laminated stock that had been stained a very dark transparent grey. It isn't laminated of course, it's some type of real hardwood and the grain shows through very nicely. Overall the cosmetics are very appealing in my opinion. I'd love to see this as an option in more Henrys.

One little concern: in one of my first attempts at loading a full 4 rounds in the magazine tube, I experienced the dreaded lever pop-open when I went to seat the inner tube. I'm not sure if I was rotating the inner tube left and right as the video suggests or not, but if it were that important you'd think they would mention it in the manual. In any event, it hasn't happened again in several subsequent tries, so let's hope it was just teething pains. Even if it does occur again, I think I'll likely just keep sending it back in to Henry until they get it right as opposed to giving up as quickly as I did on my .30-30. I just like the rifle that much.

It's going to be a while before I can get it to the range, but my plan is to give her a thorough break-in with HSM Cowboy Load 405s.

Here are a few pics, hope you enjoy:

Congrats! Very nice choice...you have a well-dressed Henry there.

I read about the change Henry made in your wood stock as they moved away from their long-standing use of American walnut. It is real wood, and your stock looks very nice. Here is the Henry write-up for the H010AW:

"The furniture is another departure for us; we’ve based a good part of our reputation on our select American walnut over the years, but here we’ve opted for a stained hardwood with a carefully-selected coating that’s formulated to stand up to wear, tear, scratches, moisture, temperature variations, and the angst of the various “character marks” an everyday outdoor tool inevitably picks up during its lifetime."

I bet if you write to Henry and ask what wood the stock is, they'll let you know.

Sure hope you don't have that "dreaded lever pop-open" issue with your rifle. I did with a Henry .30-30, and at that time the rifle was not workable for me. Henry gave me a full refund, and we went on to my next purchase of a great steel .357 Big Boy. I'm fully confident, however, that Henry CS will handle your handle if there is any problem with the lever during loading.

Enjoy....and thanks for the pics!


P.S. I noticed your rifle was made in Rice Lake, WI. They've been doing good work out of that facility.

PT7, my only other Henry, also a .30-30 had the same problem in December of 2014. I lost patience and never sent it back to Henry but rather got the dealer to take it back.

I'm hoping this was just a one-time fluke, but if not I'll take the time to send it back to Henry. It's otherwise just too nice not to keep, or so it seems at this point. And since I don't shoot the Hornady Leverevolution, if it will digest other Saami spec ammo I'll be fine with that. Although Tim Sundles says all of his Buffalo Bore Heavy 45-70 loads run fine in Henrys, I don't imagine I'll have a need to go past HSMs 430 grain Bear Load and not often with that.

really a nice looking Henry .... our 45-70 has quickly become one of my favorite rifles .... don't know what you plan to use for ammo but we have found HSM Bear Loads http://www.cabelas.com/product/hsm-bear ... t=hsm+ammo for big/dangerous game hunting and HSM Cowboy Action Ammunition http://www.cabelas.com/product/hsm-cowb ... t=hsm+ammo for cheaper target rounds with much less recoil perform well in ours

Very nice looking rifle, thanks for the photos and the report. I wish you the very best with it.

Yup, midnightrider, the timing connects perfectly.
I worked with Henry CS on my .30-30 from April 2014-June 2014. They did the refund in mid-June.

I understand about being patient. I'd guess a lot of folk don't have that as a strong suit either. But I'd just suggest that you stick with Henry on this issue, and get it resolved. Your rifle is just too nice to give up yet.

Henry will bring you through OK. I think as they patiently worked with me through several fully-paid shipments of my .30-30 back and forth, and even the production supervisor called me directly, I also learned a little patience in working with and relying on them.

Let us know how it all turns out. The best is yet to come!

JEBar wrote:really a nice looking Henry .... our 45-70 has quickly become one of my favorite rifles .... don't know what you plan to use for ammo but we have found HSM Bear Loads http://www.cabelas.com/product/hsm-bear ... t=hsm+ammo for big/dangerous game hunting and HSM Cowboy Action Ammunition http://www.cabelas.com/product/hsm-cowb ... t=hsm+ammo for cheaper target rounds with much less recoil perform well in ours

That's pretty much exactly my plan. Already have a good stock of HSM Cowboy loads in the house, and the Bear Loads are just a few miles away at my local Cabela's.

Congrats, midnightrider. That is one nice looking rifle. I bet it shoot as good as it looks.

Looking forward to a range report when you get a chance to shoot it.

If it shoots as good as it looks you have a winner!

Nice looking all weather 45-70 mdnightrider.
My 45-70 had the dreaded lever pop opening issue as well. A trip back to Henry and they fixed it. I think I could drop the gun off a second story window loaded and the lever would not pop open now after the fix, but it cycles so smooth.
One thing to look for is when you have the rounds loaded and the inner magazine tube in place, take a light and look under the bolt. Part of a shell casing should be visible under the bolt. I can take a picture later when I get home so you can see how mine looks. Before Henry fixed mine the carrier kept the shell all the way in the tube. Henry added carrier clearence, smoothed the bolt ears and changed the lever. I got my rifle back in 12 days including two weekends. My 30-30 lever does not pop and it seems to have perfect carrier clearence too. If you don't mind what was the manufacture date in the inspection tag? Mine was October 15th 2015.
BTW I have some Buffalo Bore 430 grain 8A rounds I'm going to run through my Henry 45-70, it's the blued model.

Here is an excellent video showing how the carrier and lever work together. https://www.hunter-ed.com/washington/st ... 700046633/

PMC wrote:Nice looking all weather 45-70 mdnightrider.
My 45-70 had the dreaded lever pop opening issue as well. A trip back to Henry and they fixed it. I think I could drop the gun off a second story window loaded and the lever would not pop open now after the fix, but it cycles so smooth.
One thing to look for is when you have the rounds loaded and the inner magazine tube in place, take a light and look under the bolt. Part of a shell casing should be visible under the bolt. I can take a picture later when I get home so you can see how mine looks. Before Henry fixed mine the carrier kept the shell all the way in the tube. Henry added carrier clearence, smoothed the bolt ears and changed the lever. I got my rifle back in 12 days including two weekends. My 30-30 lever does not pop and it seems to have perfect carrier clearence too. If you don't mind what was the manufacture date in the inspection tag? Mine was October 15th 2015.
BTW I have some Buffalo Bore 430 grain 8A rounds I'm going to run through my Henry 45-70, it's the blued model.

Thanks PMC, I'll load some rounds and try that when I get a chance. My inspection tag shows a pack date of 6-3-16, so it's brand new. I've loaded and unloaded it now probably 30-40 times without a reoccurrence, so I'm thinking maybe I have escaped the problem long term. We'll see. I actually talked to a very knowledgeable tech fellow at Henry today who gave me a slightly different story from my understanding of what Dan had said. Dan said they had slightly redesigned (maybe reshaped?) an internal part, which cured the lever moving issue. The fellow today indicated they hadn't really reshaped a part as much as they were trying to reeducate owners on the loading process through the videos on their site, with two things being of importance: 1). Never drop the shells into the outer mag tube with the rifle standing straight up, but rather tilt it at a less steep angle. Heavy shells like a 45-70 could cause the lever to pop open with no other action on the part of the operator. Nothing was mentioned about the safety aspect or lack thereof. 2). ALWAYS rotate/wiggle the inner mag tube back and forth a bit when attempting to seat it after loading the rounds, otherwise the outer edge of the inner tube could easily hang up on the relatively large rim of the 45-70 shell casing. This also would create pressure on the mechanism and possibly cause the lever to pop open. Evidently it doesn't take much pressure on the cycling mechanism to cause the lever to pop open.

As stated, I'm doing these things and so far all is well. My only beef with Henry is that they don't put this in large type in the manual. He said that the manuals were printed before the rifles came out, and while I understand this it would seem pretty simple to just slap a sticker on each manual with this caveat. Seems like it would save Henry a lot of grief, and owners too. All the customer service folks are very nice, but not all have this man's knowledge. And certainly not everybody watches those videos on the website; in fact, they're a little obscure unless you're looking for them.

Having said all that, I still have very high hopes for this rifle, and I love it's looks and it's format!

Here is the picture.

Thanks for taking the time to post those pics, PMC. I checked, and that's pretty much just how mine looks when loaded.

As long as I don't drop rounds down the tube with the rifle straight up and down (bad idea anyway) and especially remember to rotate the inner mag tube while I'm pushing it in to seat it, I think I'm gonna be fine. It's no big inconvenience IMO; pretty much every firearm I've ever owned has some idiosyncrasy that has to be learned.

Maybe a little OT on my own thread, but I really just don't see the big deal with Henry's magazine tube loading system. I actually kind of like it, especially for unloading. I love old JM Marlins and have a bunch of them, but it's hard to find one where the loading gate screw hasn't been boogered up from near-constant retightening. And they aren't the most fun to unload.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble. Morning coffee I guess.

I think you are good to go too. Have fun with that all weather! It's next on my list.

midnightrider
Thanks for sharing your rifle with us. It looks like a very efficient hunting rifle.
When you get it to the range I'm probably not the only one who would like to hear the results.
Glad to hear you like the loading through the tubular magazine.
Thanks.

Beautiful gun. The only thing I can see wrong with it is now I want one.

A beautiful and unique rifle

Very nice. Henry has done a fantastic job with those rifles.

That one just begs for the new Skinner Scope mount with a peep sight on it in stainless. Or a SS Skinner Alaskan Peep.

I think the brass guns are still made in NJ and the steel variants are made in Rice lake.

I have had the lever pop open once or twice on my 45/70 buts it's not a problem issue and I assume operator error on my part.

The 300 grain Winchester factory ammo is very nice to shoot in these guns and cycles flawlessly in mine (brass).

Like someone else has mentioned above my 45/70 has become a favorite. Especially since I've been handloading some light recoil cartridges. it's such a versatile round. And there is something about putting a big fat 45 shell into the rifle that makes you smile.

Squatch wrote:Very nice. Henry has done a fantastic job with those rifles.

That one just begs for the new Skinner Scope mount with a peep sight on it in stainless. Or a SS Skinner Alaskan Peep.

I think the brass guns are still made in NJ and the steel variants are made in Rice lake.

I have had the lever pop open once or twice on my 45/70 buts it's not a problem issue and I assume operator error on my part.

The 300 grain Winchester factory ammo is very nice to shoot in these guns and cycles flawlessly in mine (brass).

Like someone else has mentioned above my 45/70 has become a favorite. Especially since I've been handloading some light recoil cartridges. it's such a versatile round. And there is something about putting a big fat 45 shell into the rifle that makes you smile.

Squatch, do you recall if the "lever pop open" occurred when you were attempting to seat the inner magazine tube after four rounds have been dropped down the outer tube, or was it rather when you were actually dropping the rounds themselves down the tube itself?