Hello and welcome back to The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and its many guns, ammunition types, and shooting sports! Last week we covered a little bit of long-range 22LR shooting news, talking about the maximum “reliable” range you can actually shoot 22LR out to. Personally, having participated in Rimfire PRS matches with a variety of rifles, 700-yards does seem a bit far for maintaining practical accuracy with such an anemic cartridge but like many of you probably saw in the video, you can still kind of get in the general vicinity of your target at those ranges but landing a shot even on a large 2×2′ steel plate is a dice roll, even with a very calculated shot. This week we’re jumping back into a review of a classic – the Henry Classic Lever Action 22LR Rifle.
Previous Rimfire Report Articles @ TFB:
The Henry Lever Action is a classic Western-style lever action rifle, and one of the most popular .22 caliber rifles on the market today. The reason for its popularity is because it shoots great, looks great and is remarkably affordable – about half the price of the competition’s rifles.
-Henry USA Website
Based on my previous experiences with the Henry Classic 22LR Lever Action rifle, I can say that a lot of what is said in the product description is not only true, but the quality of the rifle itself probably even goes beyond that. Henry USA offers their Classic Lever Action, which is an affordable option that lists for around $420 MSRP but is often found for much closer to $350 in gun stores and various online distributors.
What’s really neat about 22LR lever actions and slide-action rifles is that they can make use of virtually any rimfire .22 rimfire cartridge including longer variants like Aguila Sniper Subsonic 60 grain, 22 CB, Shorts, and even 22 Long if you still have any of those sitting around in your gun safe. This allows for a wide variety of uses ranging from general plinking with bulk ammunition, to small game hunting duty. This is also a really great rifle to train up little ones with as the rifle is fairly light right around 5.5 lbs, is manually operated, and features a length of pull of 14 inches with is just 1.5 inches longer than the standard for most dedicated youth rifles.
The Henry Classic might appear to have no manual safety but it does have one in the form of a 1/4 cock safety feature. This is similar to how you would decock a Colt Single Action to a half-cock position that won’t let you accidentally set off the relatively light 2 1/2lb trigger.
My Lyman Trigger Scale gave the Henry Classic Lever Action .22 an average trigger pull weight of just 2 pounds 8.2 Ounces
General Overview
The Henry Classic 22LR Rifle is a blast to shoot and it’s fairly accurate for a $350 rifle but there are some sacrifices that are being made to get the price of the rifle down so low. For starters, the rifle uses a pretty boring blued finish for both its receiver and barrel. There’s really nothing wrong with that especially since it adheres to the classic look and feel of a lever-action rifle. However, henry is fully capable of producing rifles with hard stainless satin finishes which I think would make a welcome addition to the 22LR lever action market. Before you say it, the Golden Boy and Golden Boy Silver models are quite nice but to me, they’re just gilded collector’s items as I’d personally be too worried about scratching up that nice finish to do any serious shooting with it. The Golden Boy model is also an additional $200 over the standard blued model.
I much prefer the model of the Classic that has a big loop rather than the standard lever loop. The standard-sized lever loop is just a tad bit too small to easily and quickly get a winter-gloved hand in and out of it. The Big Loop would be my preferred choice in style but the big loop model also sets you back an additional $30 or so which isn’t much of an ask for an arguably better feature.
My last minor complaint is the lack of any sling studs or attachment points. I’ve seen several DIY modifications for these rifles to get them to work with slings but I think the best option out there for those that want something that looks good is the Brass Stacker RLO No-Drill Harnessed Rifle Sling. This handy option doesn’t require any permanent modification to your rifle which is great if you plan on handing it down to your kids or other family members someday. This sling kit will set you back about $100 but It’s a classy-looking upgrade if you plan on using the Henry Classic for varmint hunting.
Photo: Brass Stacker
Photo: Brass Stacker
Practical Accuracy, Reliability, and Fun Factor
If you look at nearly any online forum talking about the Henry Classic 22LR Lever Action, you’ll find a mixed bag of results in terms of accuracy. The barrel is lightly crowned to achieve better accuracy but I’ve seen everything from piss-poor accuracy to rifles that drill one ragged hole through a target at 25 yards. This particular rifle was accurate enough for Lucas D, Hop, and me to make very consistent hits out to 100 yards on an 8″ steel plate using only iron sights. The light weight of the rifle and the light trigger pull help with accuracy too – it’s a perfectly serviceable rifle in the accuracy department as long as your mission isn’t precision rifle shooting.
The reliability of the rifle is predictably near-perfect and that includes cycling with multiple types, and brands of 22LR ammunition ranging from Federal, CCI, Aguila, and even some 22 CBs we threw in there to see if they’d cycle reliably. On that note, 22 CB cartridges in the Henry Lever Gun are about as close as you can get to a suppressed sound signature without the hassle of dealing with the NFA.
Lastly, and most importantly, the Henry Classic Lever Action .22 rifle is about as fun as it gets when it comes to rimfire guns. There is just something extremely satisfying about a manually operated firearm and the Henry takes that aspect that I enjoy so much about guns and makes it less painful to shoot than my .45-70 both on the shoulder and on the wallet. In a single afternoon, we blasted more than 500 rounds through the rifle without a hiccup and had a good time doing it.
Closing Thoughts
If you don’t have one of these rifles in your rimfire inventory then you are missing out. The classic and affordable fun you can have with one of these rifles is unparalleled and I do honestly believe that they are one of the best types and styles of rifles to introduce new shooters to for their added layer of safety, low recoil impulse, low noise level with certain ammunition, and of course the low upfront cost of the rifle and the ammunition.
Check Prices on Henry Classic Lever Action Rimfire Rifles
The Henry Classic Lever Action .22 rifle is, in my opinion, probably the most affordable “heirloom” firearm on the market today. Even the more affordable models like the Classic are worth passing down to family members in any condition and the rifles are built so well and so reliably that they’ll likely keep running until the end of time. As always, I’d like to hear your thoughts and experiences with the Henry Classic Lever Action .22! Let me know what you think of it in the comments! Thanks as always for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report and we’ll see you all next week!
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