As with the first two, a beautiful rifle. The new brass is a bit shiny for my taste, so it'll definitely be going patina. Trigger is really good, right at 4 lbs & crisp. All three Henry rifles I've had thus far have dropped ~1/2 lb after the first hundred or so shots, so suspect this one will settle in 3.5-3.75 lbs. Fit & finish are great, which I've come to expect from Henry. Whenever I take that for granted, a close look at most of the new rifles for sale at any gun shop reminds me that it's become a sadly uncommon practice. Some exceptions of course, but not many. And most of those have a comma on the price tag.
Cleaned & took her to the range with 10 rounds each in 5 handloads put together while waiting for the rifle to arrive:
- 158 grain coated lead round nose flat point over 15.8 grains of IMR 4227
- 158 grain jacketed soft point over 15.5 grains of IMR 4227
- 158 grain jacketed soft point over 16.0 grains of IMR 4227
- 158 grain jacketed soft point over 16.0 grains of H110
- 158 grain jacketed soft point over 16.5 grains of H110
I'm here to tell you, it's an accurate little leadslinger. Don't get me wrong, the first two were plenty accurate for my usage, but was frankly a bit shocked at how well this one did. All of the loads did rather well, with the 16 grain IMR 4227 & 16.5 grain H110 loads being a bit better than the other three. Here is the best of show:
Mismarked the top group, it was actually 4 shots. Had burned 4 over the chronograph already, & decided to make a sight adjustment, then shot the last 2 into the bottom group. Juuusst a bit off on the elevation adjustment, but too darn happy with the grouping to let that little detail bother me. Brass is tumbling as I type; tomorrow will bring a new batch of 50 & will get her zeroed this weekend.
While tickled to death seeing what the rifle can do, not even going to pretend that I could do that on demand, at least not with the factory irons. The shooter had a good day, and lighting was absolutely perfect. Have a love/hate relationship with brass bead front sights- under the right conditions can do great with them, but when light/shadows etc. aren't just so, can really struggle. Will likely set this one up with a peep & black blade front sometime soon.
