Quote:
Originally Posted by MidnightExpress
Serious or not, it reads like the irrational rantings of someone who expects too much from reasonably priced rimfire rifles.
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If he was referring to the Henry takedown rifle (or survival rifle, or whatever they're calling it these days), it truly is the worst firearm ever to disgrace whatever reputation the .22LR carbine had for reliability's sake. I've owned two. At first I figured the repeated jamming of almost every round was caused by the ammo brand. I went through about 10 brands with no improvement (and a few rounds firing out of battery and detonating right in my face).
After some inspection I then assumed it was due to the feed ramp where much scoring was evident. There isn't enough clearance from the top round to the barrel feed ramp, and the angle of the ramp itself is too narrow and small. So I ground it down a bit to come closer to the top of the magazine and provide a gentler slope for the round to slide into the chamber. Bad idea. Now the rounds were getting stuck at a larger angle and more firing out of battery.
Mind you this was a repeating issue with two separate firearms. I found a company called AR-7 industries which manufactures new aftermarket barrels, so I bought a few, including the bull barrel. Absolutely no improvement, same problems. I also bought some of the higher-capacity 15-round magazines. These fed much worse than the stock mags.
Now I was getting somewhere. It must be the magazine, right? After much research I settled on the ramline 25-round magazine, made of cheap plastic and selling for a whopping 75 dollars due to rarity. I bought one. Amazingly, it fed well with only one or two jams per magazine. I ultimately concluded that the rounded 'banana' shape of the magazine resolved the feeding issues. The stock straight magazines with the slanted follower and stacking result in a serious problem.
The ramline magazine gave me about 200 rounds worth of shooting before one side of the magazine top broke off completely and the rounds would no longer stay in at all.
There were also other problems. The firing pin repeatedly became stuck due to powder fowling. It was basically a piece of metal that looked like a toenail scraper, made of god knows what. It broke once at such an angle that it could not even touch the primer, and I don't dry fire.
Some of the rounds failed to eject after firing because of the weak recoil spring. Some rounds failed to fire because of a weak primer strike. The trigger was gritty. I've had BB gun triggers that were better than this. Inspection of the internals reveals extremely small gauge springs for everything, including the trigger, hammer and bolt recoil springs. The receiver is made of some cast aluminum, and the whole side of it is held on with one small screw; and not very well at that. Cheap grips. Cheap and uncomfortable stock. Cheap barrel nut.
I wouldn't shoot another one if it was given to me for free, and I wouldn't give it to anyone I cared about. That thing is a danger to the shooter. Cheaply made all around. The funny thing is, the ruger 10-22 is about the same price and I've had almost ZERO problems with it, and it's manufactured with much higher quality. Almost every round feeds like butter, it's accurate, the trigger is awesome, mags are cheap and reliable, loads of aftermarket modifications and replacement parts, well made receiver, decent springs. I settled on this rifle as the ultimate 22LR. It puts the Henry to shame.
Henry 22LR = disgrace
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