Henry Rifle Forums

I attended a lever action rifle class on the "tactical" use of this type of weapon. There were a three Rossi 357s, a Marlin 444 running reduced reloads and me with my Henry. I was the only one with no malfunctions for the day. There were a couple of comments about the Henry costing more but then there was the discussion of getting Rossi's drilled and tapped for a red dot sight, that fact that the Henry side loading port was beveled and the gate itself was cut away to show a round present and how many hundred of $$$ it would take to make these modifications to the Rossi's allowed me to show the Henry was a better choice. Plus after pouring all that additional money into the Rossi, you still had a Rossi. Yes, I got to gloat!

Rossi's customer service is a joke and I have owned 2 Braz tech revolters and it's a never again deal for me.

As they say, you get what you pay for.
That must have been an interesting class. If get a chance, tell us more about it please.

Good for you! Hope you had fun. Yes, it may be a good idea to look at a lever action to serve in others roles, besides hunting. I think that the addition of a side loading gate to a Henry makes it a more practical option, in a self-defense role, than a loading tube. In the end, something is better than nothing though.

What were the shooting distances?
I have a pair of Rossi rifles, I've done nothing to the 45 colt version.
But, the long barreled 357, I had to remove "nearly half of the magazine spring.
As when it was full the first couple rounds were a little problematic.
After that it runs like a charm.

As to a tactical aspect, the loading gate is WAY more better than that stupid tube feed.
And My 2 Rossis see way more range time then the 3 henrys put together.
I would part with the Henrys before I would the Rossis.

RP

I also have a pair of JM Marlins in 444, I'd put them up against any Henry, any day.
Especially the 18.5" P.

RP

I put the Skinner Sight on my 357 Carbine, and it's a shooter. I love it.

Couldn’t be more impressed with the 357 X. At first I wasn’t sold on it but the fiber sights, tube to u load, side gate and poly furniture work. That is my go to, hits the tightest groups of my safe. 38 spl and 357, zero misfires in well over 1,000 home loads.

Since you wanted to hear about the class, it started off in the classroom with dummy rounds where we practiced loading from butt cuffs and working the action and learned safe decocking technics. You learn to work the lever with authority to make it function right. Use of slings was taught. On the range we started about 25 yds away from the steel targets. Shot one and decock, shoot two decock, shoot two load two etc. Longest distance was 100 yards prone and 75 yds off hand. Later we engaged multiple targets at different distances with transition to hand gun when the rifle ran dry, then holster the pistol, load the rifle while moving, engage more target with the rifle then transition to pistol until all steel plates are down. We shot around 200 rifle rounds and around 50 pistol rounds during the course and the heat index exceeded 100 so that added to the fatigue of the day.

Sounds like a interesting/cool course.
Thanks for the info.

RP