Henry AR-7 high round torture test?

wayupnorth said:
Bella Twin, an Indian girl, and her friend Dave Auger were hunting grouse near Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta. The only gun they had was Bella’s single-shot bolt-action .22 Rimfire rifle. They were walking a cutline that had been made for oil exploration when they saw a large grizzly following the same survey line toward them. If they ran, the bear would probably notice them and might chase, so they quietly sat down on a brush pile and hoped that the bear would pass by without trouble. But the bear came much too close, and when the big boar was only a few yards away, Bella Twin shot him in the side of the head with a .22 Long cartridge. The bear dropped, kicked and then lay still. Taking no chances, Bella went up close and fired all of the cartridges she had, seven or eight .22 Longs, into the bear’s head. That bear, killed in 1953, was the world-record grizzly for several years and is still high in the records today.
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Already the facts have changed from post #15 ton #18. From a .22 Short to a .22 Long. Or was it a .22 Magnum or perhaps a .22 Hornet? Don't believe everything you read on the 'net.
 
I broke open my piggy bank and had enough to buy a Henry U.S. Survival AR-7 so I picked one up today. I had not seen wayupnorths thread Great Survival Rifle / Pack Rifle Experiment 2016/2017 and obviously he has done some excellent testing and documentation of his tests. I am not going to run out and do a torture test, but I am going to do some testing for reliability.

I did a quick comparison between my Charter Arms AR-7 and the Henry version.


The butt stocks are different.


Charters Arm AR-7
- the butt stock is full of foam and is smooth.
- there is a storage compartment for one magazine, the receiver will not fit in the storage compartment with a magazine inserted in the mag well.

Henry U.S. Survival AR-7
- the butt stock is hollow as far as I can tell and has some grooves on the pistol grip to provide some grip.
- there is storage for two magazines, the receiver will fit in the storage compartment with a magazine inserted in the mag well permitting a total of three magazines to be carried.

Receivers


The Charter Arms rifle has no provision for attaching optics. The threads around the receiver are even all the way around and the barrel threads on easily, this may be partially due to how many times it was been installed and removed. The safety has some ridges on it to provide some grip.

The Henry rifle has a rail which will accept rimfire scope rings. The threads on the receiver have flat spots at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions. The barrel does not thread on smoothly. The safety is smooth.

Bolts


The Charter Arms rifle bolt cannot be removed without tools. The receiver slide plate has to be removed with a flat tip screwdriver. The magazine latch, magazine latch spring and ejector have to be removed and then the bolt can be removed with the action springs and spring guide. If care is not taken the trigger assembly can pop out of the receiver.

The Henry rifle bolt has a cut out which permits the bolt to slide past the ejector so the bolt can be removed without tools. The springs can be removed but the action spring guide cannot be removed.

Barrels


The Charter Arms barrel is aluminum with a steel liner and it does not have a feed ramp. The magazines act as the feed ramp.

The Henry rifle is a steel barrel surrounded with a plastic sleeve. The magazine still has the fed ramp but the barrel also has a small fed ramp.

Sights


The Charter Arms rifle has a single peep sight.

The Henry rifle has a large and small peep sight. Remove the screw and turn the rear sight 180 degrees to change the sight.

Hopefully this week I will get to the range and will test various types of ammo for reliability and accuracy. I currently have eight different types of ammunition to try out. I will give the rifle a quick cleaning when switching ammo types. I will keep track of any problems, failure to feed, failure to eject, etc and will probably fire 50 rounds of each type. Once that's done I'll pick a reliable ammo and run a few hundred rounds through it without cleaning it to see if it gets gummed up.
 
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I've had my Henry for a few years now, well over a 1000 rounds through it, the most I've done in a single session was about 100-120.

I found it very picky on ammo (failing to cycle properly, ftf common with some brands) and important to keep the bolt clean and lubed. Of the commonly available ammo, CCI Mini Mags were by far the most reliable and virtually eliminated any reliability concerns.

Biggest complaint from me is the heavy but very narrow trigger, gets uncomfortable fast. I bought a wide alloy trigger shoe though, and it's completely fixed it up and made for a much more pleasant shooter. I do love how neatly the whole thing packs up.
 
willisjake said:
I got a good 40 rounds out of mine before it came apart.
More like a floating club than a survival rifle.
Plastic action spring guide = big disappointment.

Edit, my first 10/22 ate 20,000 before I started changing parts, however it never broke.
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Yep, action spring guide made of plastic........Mine disintegrated after less than 50 rounds; Still waiting on a replacement.....
I think I'll use the replacement as a guide to building one on my milling machine out of steel.

Honestly.....plastic? Sheesh.....
 
told my dad last night i was contemplating seeing if i could melt my AR7 by out-shooting it.
he asked under what circumstances in real life would i ever shoot more than 10 rounds out my AR7 in one sitting?
its a survival rifle, made to shoot 3-4 rounds to get you some food.
of course its not gonna hold up to 500 rounds quick fire!

damn him and his logic!
 
I've no complaints about mine. It's an old "Ducks Unlimited" version. It's no more finicky that my other 22 shooters, so I guess I got lucky.
But, it's clearly not intended for "Burn-a-Brick" shooting.
I've got a 10/22 for that.
 
Weapontech said:
Yep, action spring guide made of plastic........Mine disintegrated after less than 50 rounds; Still waiting on a replacement.....
I think I'll use the replacement as a guide to building one on my milling machine out of steel.

Honestly.....plastic? Sheesh.....
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I'm not at all concerned about this. I thought the same thing about a plastic part when I first took mine apart. I plan to cnc a replacement in my shop at some point and then it will never fail.
 
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First Range Trip - the goal was to fire 100 rounds to break in the rifle. Shooting was done in an indoor range at 25m using a table as a rest while seated in a desk chair. Only my elbows were supported on the table. Ammunition was Federal Target 40 grain Lead Round Nose. 96 rounds were actually fired and 12 stoppages occurred. 11 stoppages occurred with the same magazine. When the first stoppage occurred I noticed I was holding the magazine and pulling the magazine to the left with my support hand. It does not look damaged but it seems odd 11 of 12 stoppages occurred with the same magazine. Only the last stoppage (Round 90) occurred with the other magazine. The blaze orange front sight is a big improvement over the black front sight on the Charter Arms rifle.

Round 14 - failure to feed, the cartridge was fed at too steep of an angle and the bullet struck the top of the chamber damaging the bullet.
Round 28 - failure to feed, same as 14.
Round 30 - failure to eject, the cartridge case stove piped.
Round 31 - failure to eject, the cartridge case remained completely inside the reciever.
Round 42 - failure to feed, same as 14.
Round 45 - failure to eject, stove pipe.
Round 49 - failure to eject, same as 31.
Round 59 - failure to eject, same as 31.
Round 64 - failure to feed, same as 14.
Round 65 - failure to eject, same as 31.
Round 66 - failure to eject, same as 31.
Round 90 - failure to feed, the cartridge remained in the magazine and the bolt travelled over the cartridge. Re-cocking the rifle caused the round to be chambered properly and fired.

The target shows the first 47 rounds. The rifle is shooting to the right. The front sight is off centre but I didn't have any tools with me so I did not try to adjust the sight.



When I got home I stripped the rifle for cleaning. Quite a bit of crud in the reciever. I had not previously removed the Action Springs from the bolt. One was stuck in the bolt due to corrosion. The corrosion on the spring is visible in the photo. There was also some corrosion in the spring hole in the bolt but it is not visible in the photo.



Corrosion residue is also visible on the plastic Action Spring Guide. I was incorrect in my earlier post when I stated the Action Spring Guide could not be removed. It also has a cut out that permits it to be slide past the ejector.

 
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i had some of that corrosion on my bolt as well but it was on the ejector spring and the firing pin spring, i had to remove the roll pins to get them out.
only reason i pulled them out was i saw some orange rust liquid coming out when i cleaned it last so i was concerned.

looks like the springs rust on these guns, easily and bad!

wonder if anyone makes a non corroding spring for these?

kinda makes me feel good mine isnt the only one with rust issues on the new gun.

oh, you should be able to move the front sight by just pushing it with your thumb, i was able to move mine like that.
plastic in plastic, moves very easy.
 
wayupnorth said:
looks like the springs rust on these guns, easily and bad!

wonder if anyone makes a non corroding spring for these.

oh, you should be able to move the front sight by just pushing it with your thumb, i was able to move mine like that.
plastic in plastic, moves very easy.
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I can't see any rust anywhere else but it's hard to be sure. After the next range trip I'll open it up to confirm. I wonder how many people have these tucked away in trucks or bush planes and the springs are getting worse. So far I have not been able to find any replacement springs that are identified as being of better quality.

I thought I could adjust the sight but I didnt want to over do it. Next range trip I'll take a sight tool and adjust. I have 11 types of ammo to run through it to test reliability and accuracy. I'll likely mount a scope on it and use a rest to maximize the potential.

Found a source for spare magazines so I'll get a couple and see if getting rid of the one magazine improves reliability. Regardless I am enjoying this rifle.
 
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