New Henry .357 recently returned from HRA

[shootinthecinders]

I just returned from the range with my newly repaired Henry H0006M and the results were great. I put five different brands of commercial ammo through her. Cartridges ranged from 125gr 38 Special +P, 158gr .357 Magnum, and 200gr .357 Magnum. Accuracy was as good or better than the previously installed barrel.
I ran into some old friends and made some new ones who belonged to various shooting clubs and let them shoot at 50 yards plus. One is a regular CAS. I asked him to run it as fast as he could. Not only was he fast but accurate. Of course he runs Winchesters in CAS but he was impressed at the accuracy at 50 yds, the flawless handling, and as with most people, the beauty of the rifle itself. The only slight negative was the glare off that beautiful brass receiver. The next shooter up was a lady who had only shot a lever action rifle once. At 50 and 65 yds she was a regular Annie Oakley. She knocked every steel target down that she shot at and bounced an 18” piece of 2x2 into the air at every shot. To top it all off she was a relatively new shooter. Then my long time friend took a 60 yd shot at a steel target and nailed it. I was very impressed, to say the least, that four different shooters, including me, would have the same results from this rifle. It just goes to show how accurate these beautiful Henry Rifles are.

[JEBar]

not surprised in the least and happy to hear this positive news .... just curious, did any of the shooters who tried your Henry react to it .. .. during times when AR's are king, lever actions don't get much exposure and I find at ranges, people often find our Henry's to be something of a curiosity

[North Country Gal]

Good point. Even up here in traditional lever gun deer country, we seldom see anyone shooting lever guns at our range and we're there, weekly, during all but the hard winter months.

[Sir Henry]

I never really thought about it but I don't see many lever actions at our range either.

[shootinthecinders]

Now that you mention it, the main reactions were how accurate the rifle was, the beauty, and the weight. Because this group has members from many different clubs, I think they may have wondered where this rifle fit in; as they were shooting polymer semi-auto pistols and tactical style shotguns. The CAS shooter said that the Henrys he had seen couldn’t run fast enough to lead in those competitions. Not in a disparaging way, just a statement of fact.
I bought this rifle strictly for my own enjoyment but may even work it into my home defense plan; even though I have the polymer semi-autos and shotguns for hd.

[JEBar]

The CAS shooter said that the Henrys he had seen couldn’t run fast enough to lead in those competitions. Not in a disparaging way, just a statement of fact.

some of our members who are CAS shooters have expressed the same thing .... they use other brands for competition .... for most of us, they can be operated to where it isn't an issue

[shootinthecinders]

That’s interesting JEBar. I would think that the other commonly run brands of lever actions in CAS would have the mechanical advantage because of short stroke kits. Is there one for the Henry? If so, I might consider CAS with my Henry.
The guy that ran mine was very fast but not as fast as the ones I’ve seen on YouTube.

[JEBar]

That’s interesting JEBar. I would think that the other commonly run brands of lever actions in CAS would have the mechanical advantage because of short stroke kits. Is there one for the Henry? If so, I might consider CAS with my Henry.
The guy that ran mine was very fast but not as fast as the ones I’ve seen on YouTube.

it makes sense that the shorter stroke would most certainly be an advantage in CAS competition .... not being involved in such shooting, I have no clue if there is a way to modify a Henry so as to shorten its stroke .... I do know that I can fire ours rapidly enough for hunting, punching paper, and ringing a gong .... oh yes, even rapidly enough to heat-up their barrels ..

[Travlin]

I believe that the short stroke kits are only made for toggle link actions,re, Winchester 1866, 1873 or modern replicas of them. The H.R.A. Henry rifle is a toggle link design. I wonder how well the factory would look upon a rifle so modified when it needs to be sent in for service or repair.

[RanchRoper]

I seem to be the only lever guy at our range. But I'm mostly there by myself anyway.