Spring has sprung. Get out and shoot your Henry

Chapter 1. Complaints about AR-7 rifles

Discussion about the AR-7 and all of it's versions before and since Henry
Post Reply
BMCTED
Wrangler
Posts: 94
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2021 12:35 am
Location: central NoGa.
United States of America

Chapter 1. Complaints about AR-7 rifles

Post by BMCTED » Fri Dec 09, 2022 3:19 pm

Some folks say they have no problems at all with their AR-7 Survival Rifle. Other folks call it the worse thing ever made. I bought my first one, a Charter Arms, 30+ years ago. Even before I bought it, I had heard the complaints about the AR-7. After some time, I started collecting the complaints, and set in to seeing if I could cure some of the problems. I'd like to think I've had some success with it. BTW, I'm own 3 of them now, 2 Charter Arms and 1 first generation Henry built in Brooklyn, NY.

A while back I thought I might like to sit down and write a book about fixing and modding the AR-7. Then I thought maybe I could do YouTube vids. I tried sharing some of my stuff on other internet forums, but internet forums are, after all, internet forums.

But this place seems pretty friendly, and admin has been very accommodating by allowing discussion about ALL AR-7 Survival Rifles on what is essentially a Henry Arms website. True, the AR-7 has been exactly the same and used the same parts since they were introduced by Armalite in 1959 up until Henry started producing them at Rice Lake. As an aside, the rifles built currently only share about 8 parts out of the 41 that make up the AR-7 with the rifles that came before. Although the rifles function the same, the parts no longer interchange like they used to.

Henry is building a MUCH better AR-7 now, much closer to what a "survival rifle" needs to be. That said, as good as the current ones are, I'm still hearing complaints. Besides, there are still the thousands and thousands of those that came before that are still a mess.

Below is a list of complaints I have heard about the AR-7 over the years. If you have more, please list them below. As I address them, I'll mark off where the "chapters" can be found below.

If your AR-7 runs good for you GREAT! But just remember that for your ONE rifle that is 100% reliable and accurate, there are thousands of others out there that are not.

One way or the other, on this forum I am going to share some of the mods and repairs I make to improve the AR-7 Survival Rifle. Hopefully you will share not only your complaints but also what repairs and mods you have learned as well.

AR-7 COMPLAINTS

1. Mag No last round hold open on mag
2. Mag No removable floor plate to clean/lube mag
3. Mag feed ramp causing failure to feed jams
4. Heavy Trigger pull
5. Failure to feed
6. Failure to Fire
7. Failure to extract
8. Failure to eject
9. No sling
10. No way to carry disassembled rifle
11. No onboard cleaning/tool kit
12. Too little ammo storage
13. The sights are hard to use
14. The rifle is inaccurate
15. Barrel nut loosens during firing
16. Charging handle too small
17. Parts interchange and availability
18. Difficulty with disassembly and assembly
2 x

armycat
Wrangler
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:55 am
Canada

Re: Chapter 1. Complaints about AR-7 rifles

Post by armycat » Wed Dec 28, 2022 2:17 am

1. Mag No last round hold open on mag - I don’t care about a last round hold open but I wish it had a manual bolt catch to permit the bolt to be locked open.

2. Mag No removable floor plate to clean/lube mag - yes, an easy way to disassemble magazines would be great. They can be disassembled but it requires bending metal which will lead to failure. My current method of cleaning involves sticking the straw from a can of WD-40 in a hole in the magazine body and flushing everything out followed by compressed air.

3. Mag feed ramp causing failure to feed jams - using copper plated round nose ammunition goes a long way towards eliminating this. Recently I noticed in my notes that the majority of my failures with copper plated ammo occur when manually cycling the bolt.

4. Heavy Trigger pull - the new improved trigger and hammer in the Henry Rice Lake rifles is a great improvement but there is always room for more improvement.

5. Failure to feed - round nose copper plated ammunition and keeping the rifle lubricated helps eliminate this. CCI Mini Mag is my go to ammo for this rifle.

6. Failure to Fire - I am on the fence with this one and believe the majority of failure to fire are ammunition related. Firing pin strikes normally appear the same as those on fired cartridge cases. I have had several rounds not fire after several attempts including when tried in other firearms.

7. Failure to extract - using low velocity I have had the bolt cycle partially and return to the forward position so that the fired cartridge case is put back in the chamber. I can’t remember if I have ever had a fired cartridge remain in the chamber when the bolt fully cycled with enough force to strip the next round out of the magazine. Have to check my notes.

8. Failure to eject - reduces if ammunition used is around 1200 fps or above.

9. No sling - I have a loop of nylon strap that goes around the butt with a Velcro strap that goes over the butt cap which prevents the nylon loop from sliding toward the receiver. The nylon strap has two D rings that the sling clips to. I can sling the rifle assembled or disassembled. With a piece of para cord tied with a prusik knot on the barrel I can use the sling as a two point sling.

10. No way to carry disassembled rifle - see 9

11. No onboard cleaning/tool kit - I have a few ideas for solving this but haven’t actually tried any to see if they are feasible. I’ll comment once I test them out.

12. Too little ammo storage - true

13. The sights are hard to use - not too bad but not great. I am upgrading my rifle with a fibre optic front sight. Unfortunately I purchased the wrong height sight and have to get a replacement. An optic helps.

14. The rifle is inaccurate - yes better accuracy would be great. For me it is a 50 yd rifle tops. 35 yd is better for small game. I can hit a pie plate off hand at 110 yd 7 out of 10 times on a good day. An optic helps. Fortunately bore sighting is easy so an optic can be carried separately.

15. Barrel nut loosens during firing - yes but this normally occurs after firing numerous rounds. Small game hunting where limited shots are fired I don’t think this is a concern. I keep meaning to put some plumbing tape on the receiver to see if it makes a difference.

16. Charging handle too small - for plinking and firing a lot of rounds, yes. If I am shooting for fun on the range and plan to shoot a lot I wrap a couple of elastics around it. For an emergency situation I am not concerned as it will be operated as little as possible.

17. Parts interchange and availability - in Canada especially availability sucks. At least Henry magazines can be purchased directly from HRA. Very limited after market parts available an many stores in the U.S. will not ship to Canada.

18. Difficulty with disassembly and assembly - under normal conditions I only remove the bolt, springs and spring guide. Providing the bolt has the ejector groove and you remember to cock the rifle first disassembly/assembly for the field strip is easy. Rifles that have bolts without the ejector groove are much more difficult. Detail strip of the firing mechanism is pretty easy for disassembly but the assembly is more challenging. Not really something I would want to do in the wild.

19, The current version of the Henry rifle does not have a foam filled stock and the stock is not water tight. It is buoyant at best. The Armakite and Charter Arms rifles truly floated, assembled or disassembled.
0 x

Post Reply