Cycling The Henry Pump

[azdover]

I have a question for other Henry pump owners. When shooting I use both hands to pull the rifle back into my shoulder. If I try to cycle forend right after the shot, the pump basically locks up and won't come back. I find I have to release pressure slightly or even put forward pressure on the pump before the rifle cycle the next round. Is this normal for the Henry H003T pump?

Pete

[BigAl52]

Its been a while since I shot mine and I dont recall it doing that but I dont put any pulling pressure on the forend either. I dont have a range at my house to check it out real quick but maybe one of the other guys that has a range at their house will chime in.

[Travlin]

I have had a Henry pump for several years and no that is not normal. You can't slam fire it like Winchester 61 but after the hammer is dropped the slide should come back.. The HRA action is stiffer than some of the other pump 22's but just shoot four or five hundred rounds through it and it will get better.

[azdover]

I have put about 200 rounds through my pump since my first post. As long as I keep forward pressure on the forend (not "pump" as I previously called it) the rifle fires and cycles normally. I have noticed if I relax the forward pressure the bolt will occasionally move back ever so slightly after the hammer falls - maybe about 1/16" - and the action will lock up. I can get it to cycle by applying forward pressure on the forend or I can pull on the grooved release button just in front of the trigger.

After taking it apart to see if there was any debris blocking the moving parts, I might have found the problem. It looks like the locking bar is causing excessive wear on the bolt, creating a divot about .0025-.0050" deep and raising a small burr of metal on the bottom of the bolt. Maybe the wear is allowing to bolt to move back far enough to engage the release bottom - who knows?

I do think the bolt wear is excessive. Kind of surprising for something that is supposed to be hard enough to deal with the "massive" pressures of a 22LR round. The bolt only has about 500-750 rounds on it. Both the bolt and the locking bar were replaced by Henry a couple of months ago after it went back to the factory. I was getting a lot of FTFs. After looking at the rifle, I noticed the barrel wasn't fully seated in the receiver. Henry fixed that problem and while replacing the bolt and locking bar as previously mentioned.

Look like it's time to give them a call again. Hopefully, they'll just send me a new bolt and skip the hassle of shipping the rifle back.

Oh well, guess I'll shoot something else in the meantime,
Pete