New Henry Long Ranger (5.56) range report: huge disappointment

[My Toy]

Received new Henry Long Ranger in 5.56 about a week ago. Had a good weather day on Friday so went to the range with a couple of boxes of Federal AR-15, 5.56, Federal 223 and Lake City XM193. The good news first: The Henry exceeded my expectations for accuracy even with the crappy ammo that I took on the spur of the moment. The problem came with the way I had to operate the rifle. When inserting a full mag (5 rounds) I was unable to open the lever any more than half way when the bolt contacted the first round in the magazine. It took such effort effort at that point that I was afraid of stripping the gear system in the action. Only way I could chamber rounds from the magazine was to insert the mag with the action open and lever the first round in to the chamber. After the first round was fired the lever could be worker to chamber the 4 remaining rounds. The fun didn't stop there. the bolt would extract the spent cartridge but not eject it . The fired case would be hung up at about a 30 degree angle sticking out of the ejection port where I would manually remove it to chamber the next round.

I had disassembled the rifle upon receipt to thoroughly inspect, clean and lube it. I followed Henry's instructional video on disassembly and re-assembly to the letter to be sure I properly indexed the lever/bolt. When I returned from the range I did the process again thinking I possibly didn't get the indexing correct. I'm positive the rifle is correctly re-assembled. I loaded some dummy rounds with small based sized cases and 55 gr FMC bullets. The rifle failed exactly as it did for me at the range. I'm sure the rifle was test fired at the factory. Not sure how these problems were not noticed. I'd be interested in any comments forum members would have on this. I'm going to be contacting Henry on Monday.

[BigAl52]

Sorry to hear about issues with your new gun but many of us here have had issues with new and guns we have used for a while. Henry will fix it and hopefully the turn around time will be quick. You are doing the right thing by contacting Henry

[John E Davies]

Yes, this is very disappointing, it happened to me - my new BBX .44Mag would not feed rounds at all. Henry fixed it by replacing parts and grinding away sections of the new lever (???) This should not happen, period. But they will definitely fix it ... hopefully on the first try.

John Davies
Spokane WA

[JEBar]

disappointment understood .... I wasn't aware that the 223/5.56 magazines are designed to hold 5 rounds .... my experience has been with 308 which holds 4 .... not surprised at hearing about your rifle's accuracy .... they are building a strong reputation in that regard .... hopefully the issue is minor and they will get it back to you quickly

[My Toy]

Thanks for the replies. I will keep you posted.

[GtownGeorge]

Sounds like a magazine issue. Can the mag be taken apart?

[Oldbrass]

To bad they weren't designed to take AR mags, just use a 5 rounder in restricted areas

[My Toy]

Sounds like a magazine issue. Can the mag be taken apart?

That is a reasonable thought although I bought one spare magazine and it arrived before I went to the range -- the second magazine caused the same behavior. The whole thing may be two separate problems -- both mags could be defective as well as a problem with the bolt (ejection).

[My Toy]

To bad they weren't designed to take AR mags, just use a 5 rounder in restricted areas

Amen to that.

[NHshtr]

Just for folks thinking of getting a Long Ranger, I recently got one in .243 Win (late December). It works really well and it shoots tight groups with the load I've worked up. No feeding or extraction problems.
The only thing I'd improve is the magazine release. The release mechanism is a hokey design, and difficult to work when a scope is mounted. But not that big a deal, and I'd certainly buy again.

I'm sure returning to Henry will get a good result.