Henry centerfire quality survey

[bdbrown66]

Hello, fellow Henry owners. I was wondering if you all could help me out with a little quality survey regarding your Henry centerfire rifles. I am trying to gather data for a discussion occurring on one of the Facebook firearms groups that I am a member of.

What I would like to know is this:

1. How many Henry centerfire rifles have you owned, now or in the past?
2. Of that number, how many of them required factory service to fix some major defect or flaw? I'm excluding minor cosmetic issues or small things that you could repair easily on your own.

For myself, I currently own one Henry .45-70 CCH, and will soon add a .45 Colt CCH to it. I have never needed factory service for the one I own.

Thanks in advance for your participation!

Brian

[GFK]

One 30-30 (blue): No major repair yet.

[Bugs]

One .357 Big Boy Steel. Nothing but fun. I have to tighten a few screws now and then but it is a great shooter with zero issues.

[.45Steel]

One .45 Colt Steel. No issues ever. My favorite and most fun rifle.

[Yornoc3]

I have a lever action 30-30 - an early model made in New Jersey - and two single shots, a 45-70 and a .243. The early model 30-30, which I bought on clearance as "new old stock" (mostly because of its spectacular wood), needed a replacement lever, to eliminate the "lever popping" issue when loaded, and a different height ghost ring rear sight, to get it sighted in. Henry Customer Service was great, they sent me the required parts fast. These were simple fixes which did not require sending it in. The two single shots have been flawless, and accurate, too. Not to mention the really good wood .

[ESquared]

1 out of 4 had to go back.

308 Long Ranger was seizing up. Replaced bolt assembly, magazine and some odds and ends. Quick and painless.

Three others: 22LR Small Game Carbine, 357 Big Boy Steel and 30-30 CCH have been flawless.

[Pilsner]

New owner of a BBB .357 Carbine, my first CF Henry. No issues whatsoever, it shoots as good as it looks - beautifuly, and to my pleasant surprise it has also fired .38 special perfectly. (I had read that sometimes .38s hang up but the 130gr rounds I am using work well)

[JEBar]

we own 3 -- 45-70, 44 Mag, 357 Mag -- after literally tens of thousands of rounds I had to send the 44 back to have an ejector replaced ...everything else I've had done to them falls into the "want to" column

[CT_Shooter]

One .357 BBB that had feeding issues but was quickly replaced by a new rifle that has been flawless.

[Mags]

Brass .30-30 gen2 built August 2017. Inner mag tube hangs up on case rims. Pressing causes lever to pop open. Online history of others sending their Henry in for successful repair of this issue has been hit and miss. Decided not to send in at this time and live/wrestle with the issue most each time I load.

[shootinthecinders]

One .357 BBB that I sent in for two issues. Henry replaced the barrel and outer magazine tube but they don’t state the reason. If I were to guess, they erred on the side of caution with the barrel but there was possibly a headspace problem (split case stuck in chamber and damage to all previously fired cases). I fired rounds from the same box of ammo through the new barrel without problems.
The outer magazine tube was interesting in that I had checked two other Henry’s with the same manufacturing “anomaly”. The latch area on the outer magazine tube came to a point rather than being squared off. I searched the hardware stores for a thin walled o ring to replace the factory one with no luck. Henry was very helpful with sending out some o rings but they were still too thick for the outer magazine design I had.
The replacement barrel they sent has light chatter near the muzzle end of the bore. It does bother me a little but is only an aesthetics issue and can only be seen with a bore light. It shoots fine, has excellent fit and finish (less the chatter marks), and has always cycled everything I’ve put through it; including A Zoom .38 Special snap caps that seems incredible for a lever action rifle. I have no doubt that had I returned the rifle to Henry that they would have corrected the bore defect where other firearms companies would emphatically refuse because they don’t affect the rifles accuracy or function. The only issue is me expecting perfection in an imperfect manufacturing world and I didn’t want to be without this beautiful rifle again.

[Travlin]

B.B. Steel .44 =no problems= same answer as on the M owners forum.

[BigAl52]

1-357 BBB
1-41 mag in BBS
2-45-70's one in All weather the other in CCH
1-45 Colt Brass Carbine
The 357 went back for feeding issues and was fixed with a very fast turn around time.

[Cofisher]

One 357 steel carbine. Absolutely perfect.

[Mistered]

One .357 BBB - excellent on all fronts except for the common inner loading tube issue I repaired myself and the stock rear sight - but this is not a manufacturing issue and more of a poor choice of the part.

[Redthies]

.357 BBS Carbine and a SGC. Both have been 100% flawless, and are by far my favorite long Guns!

[PT7]

I have owned five Henry centerfire rifles. Three were returned to Henry for full refunds.
Currently, do not own a centerfire Henry, nor plan to purchase another. I'm am most pleased with the overall excellent performance and shooting of my rimfire SGC in .22LR. Glad to say I'm still a Henry owner!

Here are the stories on the five centerfires.

Early 2013. A .357 BBB (H006) was my first Henry rifle. Worked excellently. Had to sell it for financial/medical issues.

Early 2014. My .30-30 BBS (H009) was one that had the lever popping-open issue when loading the magazine. Never was fixed after repair services over a 3-month span; last time back, Henry provided a refund. Henry fixed this rifle problem the next year.

Early 2015. A .357 BBS (H012M) was my second .357 caliber. Worked just fine. Again had to sell this model for financial/medical issues.

Mid 2017. Decided to try another .357 magnum, this model (H012MR) was the BBS Carbine. Could not sight in rifle. Rifle shot highly erractic, and difficult to even keep POIs on any type target (paper or steel). After trying to sight in the rifle, a local gunsmith also shot it, and determined the rifling was very bad because the bullet was not even touching rifling, but "bouncing" near crown and shooting erratically. Possible damage of the bore size and rifling when returned for first Henry service. Bottom line, barrel was no good; returned for refund.

Late May 2018. Decided to purchase/try a second H012MR, .357 BBS Carbine. Had a lot of FTFs at the get-go. Bullet would hang up by the base at end of bolt, and the nose of bullet pointing downward. The lifter didn't lift the bullet up to the loading ramp, and jams regularly happened. Chose not to pursue any service with Henry, and the Henry rep at Rice Lake, WI agreed to provide a full refund.

With all of the problem centerfires, Henry repair and customer services were very good....always willing to help. When it came to dealing with refund issues, they preferred to repair rifles, but were willing to go the refund route. No complaints about Henry CS through these various issues.

PT7

[JayZuv]

Two BBB in .41 and .44

No serious issues, they both have the occasional lever pop that seems common with the center fires but never bothered me enough to send back. Overall very Happy with mine

[Redthies]

PT7: It seems like someone is trying to tell you to sell something different if you need extra cash!? I usually have a third vehicle around that I buy for cheap and fix to enjoy. I usually pick something “fun” and easy to sell like a Jeep or the convertible 4Runner I have now. I can (and do) sell them if things get lean. My firearms would be low down the list of things I’d sell, and my Henrys would probably only be sold after my Rugers, Mossberg and Marlin were gone. The M1 Carbine and Winchester would be the last to go as they aren’t easily replaceable.

[Redthies]

Brass .30-30 gen2 built August 2017. Inner mag tube hangs up on case rims. Pressing causes lever to pop open.

I’d say the issue of the tube hanging up on cases is likely to be a potential problem for any tube fed rimmed case rifle. I wouldn’t call that a “Henry flaw”. The lever popping open though, should not be happening. Someone posted on page one (Esquared maybe?) that Henry sent him a new style lever that solved his same problem. You should get them to send you one. They are easy to swap out.