I've always wanted one of these little rifles. They look cool, they're compact, they float - what's not to like? Well, if you look up and read what others on the internet have to say about them, you'd soon be dissapointed. They're known to be of poor quality, inaccurate and have reliability issues. Well I'm not going to lie, most of the reviews are spot on. But don't give up hope yet, there's still a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. 
The rifle comes from the factory equipped with a plastic, over-sized stock as seen at the bottom of the following picture:
We'll get to the custom made stock in a little bit, but suffice it to say, I was going for function, not form.
All the components of the rifle fit in the factory plastic stock for a nice compact package - that floats! Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool too. Now I won't worry so much when I'm out kayaking or canoeing.
The receiver is simplicity itself. Made up of only twenty-eight - yup, you read that right, 28 - individual parts including springs, washers and screws. Here is how it breaks down:
Remove the cocking pin and the bolt slides out the front:
Flip it over, remove one screw and the internals are revealed:
Assemble in reverse order.
The barrel has an indexing pin on the top that fits into a slot on the receiver to ensure that you put it on the right way. It really is fool proof:
Here's a shot of the breach end:
Notice the chamfering on the bottom. (left side of the pic) This is a common modification that is done to earlier models of this gun to help prevent loading malfunctions. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it now comes this way from the factory. The barrel is comprised of a very thin steel tube that contains the rifling, what appears to me as an aluminum piece that mates with the receiver and a polymer covering. It's very light which is great if you're carrying it all day through the woods, but I get the feeling that this is not a barrel that you'd want to just toss around.
Here's the muzzle: (sorry about the cat - he was sleeping)
The front sight is windage adjustable by sliding the blaze orange blade sight right or left. The rear sight is elevation adjustable by loosening a screw and sliding it up or down.
The sights work quite well as all peep sights do. I won't get into how accurate it is or isn't right now but I will say that I shot better groups at 50 yards with the sight then I did with the scope - although that may have had something to do with the fact that it was really hard to get a comfortable cheek weld with the scope installed.
The magazines hold 8 rounds each and look to be well constructed. I hear that the larger capacity mags that are available for ArmaLite's and Charter Arm's AR-7s will not work in this model. Too bad really as a 15 or 30 round mag would be a lot of fun.
So that's a brief overview of the rifle itself. As I mentioned earlier, it comes with an oversized plastic stock that keep the rifle afloat if you drop it overboard. The downside to this is that in order to keep it floating, the stock needs to be quite large. Being as large as it is, I find it quite uncomfortable to shoot. I have to crane my neck over just to see the sights properly. Not good. I initially thought that I'd pick up a kit from ar-7.com
but they do not ship to Canada. So I hit the workshop one weekend and after scrounging around in the "leftover paintball gun parts" bin, I found a collapsing t-stock, adapter and a set of grips. I fabricated the pistol grip itself out of a chunk of maple (I think) that I had laying around from an old bed post and then put it all together. It's not too pretty, but it works and it's quite solid.
As you can see, the t-stock screws into the end of an adapter that is screwed directly into the pistol grip. With the t-stock removed, it measures 24 inches or 610 mm. Just 50 mm short of being allowed to use it with the t-stock removed. That being said, I used red loctite to semi-permanently affix it in position so there won't be any trouble out in the bush if I meet up with a Conservation Officer. With the t-stock set to a LOP of 14", the overall length if the rifle is 33.25". Completely collapsed, it is 32" long. (That's about the same length as my 10/22 which also has a 16" barrel.) Completely collapsing the t-stock, removing the barrel and placing the two parts side by side gives me an overall length of 17.5" which is plenty short enough to stow just about anywhere.
So let's get into the range report. Like all .22s, this one likes and dislikes different types of ammo. I didn't do extensive testing with dozens of different types, the stuff I can find locally, mostly bulk pack stuff. The ammo I tested was:
Winchester DynaPoints
Winchester Xperts
Winchester 333
CCI Standard Velocity
CCI Sub Sonic
CCI Velocitors
CCI Stingers
CCI Blazers (both bulk pack and standard packaging - yes, there is a difference)
When I first got the rifle, only the Blazers, Stingers and Velocitors worked with no malfunctions. All the others either lacked the power to cycle the action properly or they got hung up to to their large hollowpoints. This is too bad as the Winchester 333 ammo is the cheapest stuff around here and I love to shoot cheap ammo.
So I hit the internet to see if there was anything I could do to modify the rifle to be able to shoot a larger diversity of ammo. The first tip I found was to remove one of the recoil springs. I think this is a mod that may work in the ArmaLite and Charter Arms AR-7s, but it does not in the Henry. It ejected the shells just fine, but often lacked the spring power to fully seat the next round in the chamber.
Then I caught a tid-bit of info that mentioned something about cutting the length of the recoil springs. It didn't give any specifics about how much to cut so I figured I'd start off small and work my way up. I started by cutting exactly 2 coils off each spring. Well wouldn't you know - I have only had three feeding and extracting malfunctions since, and we're talking thousands of rounds of ammo. The rifle will now shoot all the ammo in the above list with virtually no problems. A quick demonstration for you:
[youtube]k_Tl_QXzAco[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Tl_QXzAco
So that brings us to accuracy. Just because the gun will cycle all of the above ammo, does not mean it will send it down range with any degree of accuracy. In fact, the only ammo that it really liked was the CCI Blazers in the standard packaging. I got groups of just under 1.5" at 50 yards using the peep sights. Group sizes were slightly better with the scope if I concentrated really hard, but it was impossible to get a good cheek weld. The bulk pack Blazers printed closer to 6" at 50 yards. I have no idea why they would turn out two different rounds with the same name, but they did. Stingers were the other big disappointment with shotgun like patterns. All the others did OK, hovering around the 2" mark, but the real winner here is the 50 round box of CCI Blazers.
So that, in a (very large) nutshell is a quick review on the Henry US Survival Rifle. Overall, I give it about a 7 out of 10. It's light, easy to break down and pack, unique, and (after mods anyway) quite reliable. It suffers a bit in the accuracy department, but as long as you limit your plinking or game taking to 50 yards or less, you'll be fine. The other thing I'd like to see changed is the barrel. having a plastic shrouded barrel is a great idea for weight savings, but lousy for durability. Even a steel barrel encased in aluminum would be better. At least then you could have a real front sight ramp screwed in place instead of a plastic one molded right in.
So I hope you found this review useful or helpful and as a reward for reading it all the way to the end, here are a few more pictures:
The rifle comes from the factory equipped with a plastic, over-sized stock as seen at the bottom of the following picture:
We'll get to the custom made stock in a little bit, but suffice it to say, I was going for function, not form.
All the components of the rifle fit in the factory plastic stock for a nice compact package - that floats! Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool too. Now I won't worry so much when I'm out kayaking or canoeing.
The receiver is simplicity itself. Made up of only twenty-eight - yup, you read that right, 28 - individual parts including springs, washers and screws. Here is how it breaks down:
Remove the cocking pin and the bolt slides out the front:
Flip it over, remove one screw and the internals are revealed:
Assemble in reverse order.
The barrel has an indexing pin on the top that fits into a slot on the receiver to ensure that you put it on the right way. It really is fool proof:
Here's a shot of the breach end:
Notice the chamfering on the bottom. (left side of the pic) This is a common modification that is done to earlier models of this gun to help prevent loading malfunctions. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it now comes this way from the factory. The barrel is comprised of a very thin steel tube that contains the rifling, what appears to me as an aluminum piece that mates with the receiver and a polymer covering. It's very light which is great if you're carrying it all day through the woods, but I get the feeling that this is not a barrel that you'd want to just toss around.
Here's the muzzle: (sorry about the cat - he was sleeping)
The front sight is windage adjustable by sliding the blaze orange blade sight right or left. The rear sight is elevation adjustable by loosening a screw and sliding it up or down.
The sights work quite well as all peep sights do. I won't get into how accurate it is or isn't right now but I will say that I shot better groups at 50 yards with the sight then I did with the scope - although that may have had something to do with the fact that it was really hard to get a comfortable cheek weld with the scope installed.
The magazines hold 8 rounds each and look to be well constructed. I hear that the larger capacity mags that are available for ArmaLite's and Charter Arm's AR-7s will not work in this model.
Too bad really as a 15 or 30 round mag would be a lot of fun.
So that's a brief overview of the rifle itself. As I mentioned earlier, it comes with an oversized plastic stock that keep the rifle afloat if you drop it overboard. The downside to this is that in order to keep it floating, the stock needs to be quite large. Being as large as it is, I find it quite uncomfortable to shoot. I have to crane my neck over just to see the sights properly. Not good. I initially thought that I'd pick up a kit from ar-7.com
but they do not ship to Canada.
So I hit the workshop one weekend and after scrounging around in the "leftover paintball gun parts" bin, I found a collapsing t-stock, adapter and a set of grips. I fabricated the pistol grip itself out of a chunk of maple (I think) that I had laying around from an old bed post and then put it all together. It's not too pretty, but it works and it's quite solid.
As you can see, the t-stock screws into the end of an adapter that is screwed directly into the pistol grip. With the t-stock removed, it measures 24 inches or 610 mm. Just 50 mm short of being allowed to use it with the t-stock removed. That being said, I used red loctite to semi-permanently affix it in position so there won't be any trouble out in the bush if I meet up with a Conservation Officer. With the t-stock set to a LOP of 14", the overall length if the rifle is 33.25". Completely collapsed, it is 32" long. (That's about the same length as my 10/22 which also has a 16" barrel.) Completely collapsing the t-stock, removing the barrel and placing the two parts side by side gives me an overall length of 17.5" which is plenty short enough to stow just about anywhere.
So let's get into the range report. Like all .22s, this one likes and dislikes different types of ammo. I didn't do extensive testing with dozens of different types, the stuff I can find locally, mostly bulk pack stuff. The ammo I tested was:
Winchester DynaPoints
Winchester Xperts
Winchester 333
CCI Standard Velocity
CCI Sub Sonic
CCI Velocitors
CCI Stingers
CCI Blazers (both bulk pack and standard packaging - yes, there is a difference)
When I first got the rifle, only the Blazers, Stingers and Velocitors worked with no malfunctions. All the others either lacked the power to cycle the action properly or they got hung up to to their large hollowpoints. This is too bad as the Winchester 333 ammo is the cheapest stuff around here and I love to shoot cheap ammo.
So I hit the internet to see if there was anything I could do to modify the rifle to be able to shoot a larger diversity of ammo. The first tip I found was to remove one of the recoil springs. I think this is a mod that may work in the ArmaLite and Charter Arms AR-7s, but it does not in the Henry. It ejected the shells just fine, but often lacked the spring power to fully seat the next round in the chamber.
Then I caught a tid-bit of info that mentioned something about cutting the length of the recoil springs. It didn't give any specifics about how much to cut so I figured I'd start off small and work my way up. I started by cutting exactly 2 coils off each spring. Well wouldn't you know - I have only had three feeding and extracting malfunctions since, and we're talking thousands of rounds of ammo. The rifle will now shoot all the ammo in the above list with virtually no problems. A quick demonstration for you:
[youtube]k_Tl_QXzAco[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Tl_QXzAco
So that brings us to accuracy. Just because the gun will cycle all of the above ammo, does not mean it will send it down range with any degree of accuracy. In fact, the only ammo that it really liked was the CCI Blazers in the standard packaging. I got groups of just under 1.5" at 50 yards using the peep sights. Group sizes were slightly better with the scope if I concentrated really hard, but it was impossible to get a good cheek weld. The bulk pack Blazers printed closer to 6" at 50 yards. I have no idea why they would turn out two different rounds with the same name, but they did. Stingers were the other big disappointment with shotgun like patterns. All the others did OK, hovering around the 2" mark, but the real winner here is the 50 round box of CCI Blazers.
So that, in a (very large) nutshell is a quick review on the Henry US Survival Rifle. Overall, I give it about a 7 out of 10. It's light, easy to break down and pack, unique, and (after mods anyway) quite reliable. It suffers a bit in the accuracy department, but as long as you limit your plinking or game taking to 50 yards or less, you'll be fine. The other thing I'd like to see changed is the barrel. having a plastic shrouded barrel is a great idea for weight savings, but lousy for durability. Even a steel barrel encased in aluminum would be better. At least then you could have a real front sight ramp screwed in place instead of a plastic one molded right in.
So I hope you found this review useful or helpful and as a reward for reading it all the way to the end, here are a few more pictures:
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, and I am excessively jealous and wishing you could cook one up for me as well! My previous attempts to use an AR-15 pistol-grip as the basis on a home-made replacement stock were met with only mixed success, and I've since abandoned the idea, but....
