Henry Rifle Forums

Does the hang tag on a new Henry BBS, with all the date info as far as test firing, checking for ammo, etc., have any correlation to the date that the rifle was actually assembled/manufactured? Or can that be determined only through deciphering or decoding the Serial Number? Or is there another way to find out? Or do I just call Henry with my S/N and ask?
Just a carry-over from all the Sigs I've owned. For the past many years, the exact born-on date is on the label on the factory hard case.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!

You hit the answer in your question, ESquared.

ESquared wrote:Does the hang tag on a new Henry BBS, with all the date info as far as test firing, checking for ammo, etc., have any correlation to the date that the rifle was actually assembled/manufactured? Or can that be determined only through deciphering or decoding the Serial Number? Or is there another way to find out? Or do I just call (or email) Henry with my S/N and ask
Just a carry-over from all the Sigs I've owned. For the past many years, the exact born-on date is on the label on the factory hard case.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!

How accurate of a date do you need? Firearms don’t sit around for months, weeks or even days to be given a birth certificate after the final assembly.

I’ve always thought the date tested was the date of birth.

I'd like to meet this woman that gives birth to Henry Rifles.

I have the "birth dates" of my Henrys logged down, simply because I'm a numbers person. It's just fun to know. I emailed Henry on each of my rifles, and was given the date, which HRA uses.

I decided to look at one of the final inspection tags I have. It's for my SGC. I never thought about the final inspection date before.
And I never thought to ask Henry how that birth date was determined for their records.
~~~The SGC's inspection tag was dated 10/29/15.
~~~I emailed Henry for the SGC's "birth date." They provided this statement: "The production date on that rifle was 10/29/15.

Got a match here!

Sir Henry wrote:How accurate of a date do you need? Firearms don’t sit around for months, weeks or even days to be given a birth certificate after the final assembly.

I’ve always thought the date tested was the date of birth.

I've occasionally *_wondered_* if the test fire date was the birthday. Nice to know it is so.

As far as the difference between final assembly and test we can only speculate (do we care? Nah)

It might be near real time if the final assembler is also the person doing the test fire or if they have enough testers to keep up with the assembly line. I could imagine that vacations or illness might created a backed up queue at outgoing test for days or weeks). Or maybe Henry runs a start stop production line where they build up a bunch of product ahead, a week, 2 weeks, a month, whatever, and then have the final assemblers test each others guns. Who knows how Henry really runs their production line.

Mags wrote:I've occasionally *_wondered_* if the test fire date was the birthday. Nice to know it is so.

As far as the difference between final assembly and test we can only speculate (do we care? Nah)

It might be near real time if the final assembler is also the person doing the test fire or if they have enough testers to keep up with the assembly line. I could imagine that vacations or illness might created a backed up queue at outgoing test for days or weeks). Or maybe Henry runs a start stop production line where they build up a bunch of product ahead, a week, 2 weeks, a month, whatever, and then have the final assemblers test each others guns. Who knows how Henry really runs their production line.

"Not so fast," as the saying goes. My hangtag dates were all May 16, 2018. I emailed Henry this morning with my query and got an answer just few moments ago. Turns out the Manufacture Date was May 8, 2018. May late mother's birthday, so there's a nice remembrance!

So, as it turns out, it would seem that they manufacture "over here" and do the final inspections, test firing, packaging, etc., "over there."

Good to know, in its own way, huh?

Sure, and a fun academic discussion to boot.

Wish I had more than the one final inspection tag from my SGC. I'd like to compare my Big Boy tag with the born date Henry emailed to me on that rifle.

It was interesting to come up with a "match," per SH's suggestion/thinking. ESquared's date info, however, brings us to a discussion point now really academic!

My inspection tag is dated 08-11-2017. I'm assuming that corresponds with the last check - packaging inspection. There are 4 check items preprinted on the tag. On the back there is a lock bar inspection sticker. Also looks like the LGS logged it into their inventory 11-16-2017 per their sticker on the Henry box. I bought it 03-25-2018.

Mags wrote:My inspection tag is dated 08-11-2017. I'm assuming that corresponds with the last check - packaging inspection. There are 4 check items preprinted on the tag. On the back there is a lock bar inspection sticker. Also looks like the LGS logged it into their inventory 11-16-2017 per their sticker on the Henry box. I bought it 03-25-2018.

If you want to double-check, just send Henry C/S an email with the Serial Number and ask for the Born On/Mfr date. I got a response back on the same day!

You must have got them on a slow day. I didn't hear from them today. Past experience 2 to 2 1/2 days for answers. Not complaining, I'm just glad they get back to us in a reasonable time. A lot of businesses wouldn't bother.

Got a response from Henry per their usual turnaround time. So although my tag is dated 8-11-2017, their build date is 8-14-2017. 8-11 was a Friday, and the 14th is a Monday. I can that if my Henry got a late day Friday final inspection that it might not clear outgoing until Monday.

Makes total sense to me. Wonder if they do factory tours up in Rice lake. I love plant tours.

There are some factory tour videos that can be found by google search. Not very good, but do give a sense of what is involved. Lots of machine work, so I wouldn't expect live tours open to the public. Would be really cool if one could get a private tour.