Henry Lever

[Downeaster]

Just picked up a new Henry Lever in .22Mag.

Paid a whisker over $400 for it, and I'm...well, "satisfied" I guess would be accurate. The action is smooth, and a little preliminary test firing (5 rounds each of 4 different brands/types of ammo) indicates that the accuracy will be acceptable. Excellent quality wood in the stock and forearm, tho I can't say I'm too fond of the finish. Nicely done, but flat where I'd have preferred gloss.

Maybe I'm a little out of touch with prices, but for $400 there are a couple of other things about the gun I'd have expected to be better than they are.

One is the receiver. It's aluminum, and I suspect it may even be cast aluminum, judging by the orange-peel finish on it. Doesn't seem to affect the performance, just strikes me as a little cheesy for a $400 gun.

The best thing I can say about the sights is "clunky" The front blade tilts to the right and looks like a 2x4 edge-on, the rear elevator has to be in the next to top position to put rounds in the black at 50 yards.

Finally, the trigger is gritty. Let-off is crisp, and the weight is quite good actually, but the feel during takeup is definitely gritty.

I'll be keeping it, but it'll definitely be wearing some better sights. I'm flipping back and forth between a nice set of peeps or a red dot.

So, I guess my question is am I completely out of touch in the expectations vs. price department or did I pay too much for the gun?

[Bullseye]

When you consider that a new Mark III Ruger 22 Auto pistol costs an average of $350, that doesn't sound to bad for a lever rifle. With the price of fuel going up almost daily, so does the cost of everything else. Ultimately, its how you feel about the purchase that counts.

R,
Bullseye

[CajunBass]

Especially not for a 22 magnum which doesn't have the high volumn of sales that a 22LR would have to help drive the price down.

[KAZ]

I had one in 22rf for a while. It was a fun plinker with a smooth action that never failed to load/extract. The trigger was not bad for a lever action,I'll bet yours will smooth out with use. One caution, I was cleaning by pulling a patch of Butches Bore Shine through and a small drop of BBS landed on the side of the action. It instantly removed the finish down to the aluminum

[Tigerbeetle]

Go to the rimfirecentral.com forum, Henry category and page 5 of the Henry Photo thread. A fellow used Meguiar's Scratch-X on his stock and followed up with a good wax. I can't wait to do the same to mine. It made a tremendous improvement in bringing out the color and clarity of the grain, plus more shine. Really very nice. You can search on Scratch-x on rimfire and find some other examples also. Some of the uses were on the receivers where folks were converting over to clear coats, and new colors. I like the stock treatment myself. TB

[Tigerbeetle]

I posted that this stuff looked pretty good.. I got some a week or so back an tried it out on Henry II. Take a look see and tell me if it isn't pretty sweet. The compound removes a little of the poly and shines it up with a light wax on top.
Before:


After:

[Downeaster]

Whoa! That IS nice!

I kin see I'm gonna hafta order me some of that. Thanks for the tip!