I bought my son a new h001 Henry 22lr. Took it downstairs, unboxed it and we did a full strip and clean. Very nice, different than any lever action I have but overall impressed with the action and simplicity, one little aluminum curly q where it wouldn’t have mattered.
We went out back and loaded up 15 into the tube and I brought out my Marlin 1897 cowboy 22lr, I have a lot of rounds through this gun and can plink a 12” steel at 100 yards off hand consistently. I have it stoned internally and once returned it to marlin to reset the chamber as it just wasn’t perfect. Point is I would say this rifle is as good as it can get and receive compliments on it by anyone that shoots it for its action and accuracy, a real joy to shoot.
I beat him on the dueling tree, the first few cycles, then he started getting ahead of me, then he started beating me. Ok, I picked up the pace and out ran him, then he out ran me. Now is when the Henry started upsetting me, my son was outrunning my slick marlin consistently and I started having FTE problems trying to keep up with the Henry.
Boy boogered up the Henry feed block somehow loading the tube so we went in the basement and cleaned them both up and got the round out of the Henry ramp that had nosed down.
Fresh metal and lube and the Henry outran the marlin again. Accuracy was dead on on both, the problem was the henry just fed and ejected at a speed the marlin couldn’t run at. By now my knuckles are getting sore as we are well into,the second 500 brick.
So I shift over to my pump action Winchester gallery gun in 22wrf, when I was his age I shot the thing crazy, it was my grandfathers and he shot it out, had it bored and relined back to 22 and the chamber redone to WRF, this is a fine rifle, smooth sharp and built for this kind of shooting.
It couldn’t make it either, not as many FTE as the marlin but still occasional FTE with the brass resting angled left on the lift block still lipped under the ejector. Since the game we were playing was most standing at the end or when one player had all 6 paddles turned a single hiccup with the weapon and you lost.
Other than the loading snafu the son had that got the round nose down on the feed ramp of the Henry which was his hiccup that we still haven’t duplicated or figured out it has ran flawless.
Back to back in my hands I have to say the Henry is smoother and lighter to cycle and a quicker action into battery than anything I have ever played with.
Anyway about 1500 rounds into the afternoon I was done, he had a new toy and was still plugging along pinging the 6” round steel at 125 yards pretty consistently.
As I walked away making sure he didn’t see me grinning until I had my back turned he said, hey can I rifleman on the tree? Sure I said, don’t get your hopes up and start slow as you find the range I don’t want you overshooting real high.
He then proceeded to walk it up left to right at 12 yards from the hip held like Chuck Connors would hold his 44 flipping 4” paddles pretty consistently. By the time he had ran a few tubes through it he was cycling that Henry fast enough to the point I seriously think I’m going to have to get the 10/22 out to give him competition.
I am seriously impressed the the initial quality impression and overall design of this comparatively cheap rifle stacked up especially against my marlin.
I believe by the end of this my wife and myself will likely have Henry 22’s of our own and the marlin and Winchester will work their way into the back of the safe with other beautiful tweaked rifles that I love to get out and play with on occasion but are not the go to rifles they were for such a long time.
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Originally Posted by Greg
