Last night, a friend had a surprise 70th birthday party. One of the presents was a Henry Big Boy. It is a handsome, well balanced rifle, and he was anxious to try it out today. We went out this morning, just plinking. His twelve-year-old garndson was with him. We threw empty drink cans on his pond (there is a bluff on the other side of the pond) and tried to bounce the cans across the pond. My 94 Trapper did just fine, but he had a lot of feeding problems, especially the lifter hanging at the start of its upward motion. The Henry is a pleasure to shoot, its extra heft making it recoil less with 240 grain factory loads than my 94 did with 180 grain loads. On the other hand, he and his grandson probably ejected about 12 cartridges trying to work the lever. If he had offered to swap, I would have had to say, thanks but no thanks. I prefer a rifle that works.
Question for you Henry owners: is this just a fluke incident, or are there problems with the company's quality control?
