Henry X Model .357 and .44 Magnum: Classic Meets Modern

hey guys chris baker here from luckygunner.com if you have followed our lever action series so far then you have seen these rifles before henry repeating arms very kindly loaned us a pair of their big boy x models to use for this video series the two guns are identical except that one is chambered for 357 magnum and the other is a 44 magnum they were our test rifles in the 357 versus 44 video today i am taking a more detailed look at the rifles themselves let's start with a quick overview of the basics we've got a 17.4 inch barrel a tubular magazine with a 7 round capacity and i was able to fit eight rounds in there with 38 and 44 specials polymer furniture with accessory attachment points on the fore end fiber optic sights an enlarged lever loop the muscle on both rifles is threaded with a 5 8 by 24 pitch so you can run them with a suppressor like all of henry's tube fed rifles these can be loaded from the top of the tube but the x models also have a side loading gate in the receiver the listed weight for these rifles is 7.3 pounds that was spot on when i weighed the 357 version but the 44 actually came in closer to 7 pounds even of course that makes sense because the larger bore size means less material in the barrel henry also has a 45 cult version of the big boy x model and i would expect that one to weigh roughly the same as the 44 version some of the naming here might be a little confusing if you're not already familiar with henry's product lineup the big boy series is their line of pistol caliber lever actions they've been making those for a long time the big boy x models are the newer rifles with the more modern features like the polymer furniture and the threaded muzzle and all that stuff they've got a couple of other guns outside of the big boy series that have also gotten the x model treatment one is a 410 lever action shotgun and the other is their 4570. there is not a 3030x model yet but i would not be surprised if they rolled out something like that in the future since the company launched in 1996 one of the things henry's rifles have been known for is that top loading magazine tube now this is not something you can usually find on rifles being made today with the exception of a few 22s to load the mag tube you first have to remove this rod that contains the mag spring and the follower then you can drop the rounds into the tube then replace the rod if you want to unload the rifle clear the chamber then just remove the rod and tilt the muzzle down to dump out all the rounds this is a much more convenient and safer method of unloading the gun than cycling all the rounds through the action like you would have to do with most lever guns but the loading process is not always ideal it's slow and tedious especially if you just want to load a couple of rounds or top off the mag tube after firing a couple of rounds until very recently that's how you had to load a henry because none of them had side loading gates obviously this is not really a big deal for a lot of shooters or henry would not have become as successful as they have but for others myself included not having a side loading gate in the receiver is kind of a deal breaker i wanted to like henry lever actions for a long time but no loading gate made that difficult and i know i'm not alone in that then last year for the first time henry introduced new versions of a couple of their more popular models that included a side loading gate following that the x models were announced at the beginning of this year and they are the first henries to bring the side gate to their pistol caliber lever actions and it sounds like that's been a welcome change because just in the last week henry announced that they are adding the side gate to all of their steel centerfire models so it looks like the loading gate might be the new normal for henry going forward at first glance the x models kind of resemble some of the other black lever actions that have hit the market lately like the marlin dark series and the rossi triple black those might be nice guns but i think there are a few things henry did better let's start with the lever loop it is larger than a standard loop but smaller than a lot of the oversized loops that are in vogue these days now i like standard size loops but they can feel a little cramped if you shoot with gloves or if you have large hands you can usually get around that by shooting with your little finger outside of the loop like that but everybody thinks they would rather just have an extra large lever loop instead until they actually try to use one the opening on a standard henry lever is about an inch wide the big loop for this marlin dark series is about two inches in the middle the really big loops can slow you down if you like to run the action fast if the action gets a little hung up part way for some reason your hand is more likely to fly right out of a big loop but the main issue is really comfort with a big loop instead of kind of pushing the lever open you end up smacking it open with the back of your fingers since the back your fingers are basically just skin and bones that's not particularly comfortable when you're running the action vigorously on this marlin and on the rossi triple black they have addressed this problem by adding a paracord wrap to the lever to access kind of a cushion for your hand that's not a bad solution but i would argue that it introduces a potential failure point if the wrap were to work its way down the loop and into this area it could prevent the lever from closing all the way which essentially disables the gun until you fix it now the one on this marlin it does seem nice and tight i don't think it's going anywhere for a while but that is something i've had happen with an aftermarket lever wrap in the past henry has kind of taken a middle road with the x models they simply use an enlarged lever loop that's not quite so big the opening is about an inch and a half here in the middle so it's got more room than the standard loop but it's not massive it definitely cuts down on the abuse your fingers get over a long range session the henry action is pretty smooth right out of the box anyway so there's not as much resistance when you're trying to run the lever to begin with the other thing i think henry got right is the stock the x models four end and stock are polymer marlin and rossi both went with wood furniture that is painted black now i love a nice woodstock and the henry would look fantastic with something like a checkered dark walnut but for a rifle that's actually going to get some practical use plastic makes a lot of sense there is no wood finish as far as i know that's as weatherproof as polymer you don't have to baby a polymer stock or worry that it's going to get scratches or dings when you drag it through the woods it's just a simpler solution the other advantage of polymer is that it can be molded into shapes that would be impractical for wood so in the buttstock they have molded this little recessed area with a snag free attachment point for a sling swivel but the fore end has the real distinctive feature of this rifle on the bottom we've got a standard picatinny rail and a second sling mount and then on the sides these slots are actually in-lock accessory slots so you've got three places you can attach accessories directly to the fore end and it doesn't make the gun look like it's a prop from a low budget sci-fi movie i've set these rifles up a couple of different ways just to try them out with some different accessories this one is the 357 magnum x model the 4n rail is ideal for attaching a light if you're using this gun for personal protection either in the home or outdoors positive target identification is an absolute must so i've got a streamlight tlr-1 i can stick on here kind of as needed now this is intended to be used on a handgun but it works great for this application too really easy to take on and off without any tools i might worry about a light like this kind of working itself loose on a larger caliber rifle but the recoil of the 357 and the 44 are pretty light relative to the weight of these rifles and this thing hasn't moved after i've stuck it on here and fired like a full box of magnums on the buttstock here i've got an ammo carrier now this is probably the easiest way to keep ammo on the gun so you can top the mag tube off without digging through your pockets the best part about these things is that they don't have to be made specifically for lever actions or the model that you're using you just have to make sure the ammo loops are the correct size for the cartridges you're carrying aside from that pretty much any generic leather ammo carrier will probably fit the gun there are some mass produced ones but there are also tons of small time leather workers that make them i got this one on etsy from a seller named wild wild dill it's not made from the most premium grade leather but it is plenty functional and it doesn't slide around on me on this x model i also changed out the iron sights i removed the original fiber optic sights and i installed this ranger point precision aperture sight the receiver is drilled and tapped from the factory so this takes about 90 seconds to install if i was planning to leave this on here permanently i would get some kind of filler to protect the dovetail up here the ranger point rear sight is fully adjustable for windage and elevation i got lucky and it was almost perfectly zeroed right after i installed it so i had to adjust it very little so fortunately the ranger point rear sight is compatible with the x model factory front sight now there are other rear apertures available for the henry's like the well-regarded skinner sites they might also work fine with the henry factory site but i can't confirm that i got the version of the ranger point precision site that comes with a traditional small aperture insert that's easily removable and then you're left with a big ghost ring i personally prefer a ghost ring over a small aperture on a rifle that's going to be used at short range like this one i also think a ghost ring is easier to use in low light than a typical bladed rear sight however the factory fiber optic rear on the x models is not bad at all it's a lot easier to use in dim lighting than the traditional buckhorn sights that you'll find on most lever actions i went a slightly different route with the 44 magnum x model i threw my wilderness tactical rhodesian sling on here instead of switching out the iron sights i've got a vortex viper red dot mounted on a picatinny rail a few companies make picatinny rails for the henries i got this one from ranger point precision but only because i was already ordering a bunch of other stuff from them you could just as easily drop a magnified optic on here but as far as i'm concerned a simple red dot is perfect for a gun that's very rarely going to be used beyond about a hundred yards it keeps the weight down and it handles better than having a big scope on here on the fore end i am using one of the m lock slots with a magpul offset mount to attach a modlite okw these lights are completely insane a little on the pricey side but worth it if you need something that can really reach out it has a super concentrated beam that will light up a target out to 300 yards and more it's actually designed to be used with designated marksman rifles with low power optics obviously you're not going to be taking 300 yard shots in the dark with a pistol caliber lever action the modlite okw is complete overkill for this gun but if you're using your x model for something like pest control on your property or a farm you probably do want a light that has a lot of throw as opposed to a wider beam if you're accustomed to shooting marlins you might notice the lack of an external manual safety on the henry it also doesn't have a half [ __ ] position for the hammer however it does have safety features when you [ __ ] the hammer you can see the rear of the firing pin in the back of the receiver there and then if you look at the striking face of the hammer you will notice a corresponding recess cut out in the middle of it when you press the trigger a transfer bar slides up into that recess and that bar is actually what strikes the firing pin but if i press the trigger just briefly to release the hammer and then take my finger off the trigger the transfer bar stays down so now if the hammer falls the gun won't discharge and when the hammer is lowered all the way the gun cannot discharge from an impact on the hammer this essentially does away with the need for a half [ __ ] notch and really for a safety in general after you chamber around you can carefully decock the gun and then carry it in the field that way when you're ready to shoot you just [ __ ] the hammer and go with ammo in short supply i have not had as much range time with these guns as i normally like to have for a review i've run about 300 rounds through each gun so i do have some initial impressions like i mentioned earlier the action is very smooth you can get a marlin or a winchester tuned by a gunsmith and it'll be even smoother but for something right out of the box the henry action is really nice the 357x model has run like a top it has cycled every round i've run through it without the slightest hiccup most of that has been a soft point magnum ammo but i did fire a box of 38 special fmjs and those cycled fine too some lever actions have a hard time with the shorter cartridge length of the 38s but this one did okay at least with the full metal jackets there is one little quirk i ran into the hornady lever evolution rounds with the polymer tip ftx bullets they're difficult to load through the side gate and i can't really tell exactly what's going on there somehow the rounds are getting hung up if you don't load them at just the right angle once they're in there they cycle just fine but if you wanted to keep some rounds handy for a quick reload just be aware the ftx bullets might slow you down the 44 magnum x model gave me some problems early on it would not release a shell from the mag tube onto the carrier so i would try to cycle the action and the lever would just kind of stop before it got all the way out every now and then i could kind of coax it into working but clearly something was not right so i sent that one back to henry and they returned it with a new carrier apparently the first one was out of spec i haven't run into that problem again so i guess that fixed it besides that i have had a couple of minor ammo related issues with the 44 the first one was with fiocchi flat nose 44 magnum you can see it happen a couple of times in this clip sometimes the round will be angled a little high on the carrier as it approaches the chamber that flat nose hits the top of the chamber and just gets stuck there it's pinned between the bolt and the chamber mouth if you let the action back out the round will fall back on the carrier and he usually goes in on the second try the other ammo issue was with remington led round nose 44 specials those bullets are pretty soft and it seems like that was causing them to occasionally get hung up a little bit when they came out of the mag tube but you know it is hard for me to fault the rifle for these issues we're talking about lever actions firing cartridges that were designed to be fired out of revolvers revolvers don't have to feed they don't care what shape the bullet is or how long it is for lever actions ammo sensitivity just kind of comes with the territory except for that issue with the original carrier on the 44 these rifles have run about as well as i would expect a pistol caliber lever action to run accuracy is probably not your first priority when you're shopping for a pistol caliber lever action but it's worth talking about just briefly i had the chance to shoot plenty of bench rest groups with these guns when i was doing the ammo testing for the 357 versus 44 magnum video the five 357 magnum loads were pretty consistent with an average five shot group size around 1.8 to 2.8 moa that translates to groups roughly in the neighborhood of one to two inches at 50 yards three of the 544 magnum loads had similar performance with groups averaging 1.5 to 3 moa the other two loads were a little over 5 moa so a bit more variation with the 44s overall that is not bad for these cartridges especially when you consider that at least half of the loads i tested are not exactly premium top shelf target loads you might have to experiment a little but you should not have to go through a whole lot of trial and error with these guns to find a load that will get you decent groups at 50 to 100 yards there is one change that i think would make the henry x models a lot better and that is the length of pull i've measured it at 14 and a quarter inches that is just way too long i like my lever action stocks short just like my shotgun stocks i'm five foot nine i want the length of pull to be about 12 and a half inches that allows me to bring the gun off my shoulder and closer to the center line that way you get less movement when you're cycling the action and i think it helps you run the lever more aggressively when you've got it closer to the middle but even if you shoot with a more traditional bladed stance that length of pull is going to be super annoying to anyone who's less than about five and a half feet tall and that's a shame because a low recoil gun like this would be otherwise perfect for a smaller statured person the long stock kind of negates that benefit you might be able to cut the stock down or see if a gunsmith will do it the more user-friendly option would be for henry to to ship the gun with a shorter stock and just include spacers for people who want to be longer overall though that is a fairly minor complaint henry set out to try something different than what they normally do with the big boy x models and i think it's an absolute success they could have just added some black paint and paracord to an existing model if they wanted to compete with the other so-called tactical lever actions instead they went above and beyond especially with this foreign design they came up with something that is actually more practical than the competition in a lot of ways most importantly at least as far as i'm concerned both of these rifles have been a ton of fun to play with at the range as a bonus there is plenty of aftermarket compatibility if you want to experiment with different configurations the msrp is 970 bucks that is priced right in between the marlin dark series and the rossi triple black i think the henry x model is probably the best value of the three maybe the best rifle overall with the caveat that i have not handled one of the rossi's yet if you've been thinking about a pistol caliber lever action and you want some modern features the x model should definitely be on your short list

Channel: Lucky Gunner Ammo

Views: 530,542

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Id: pA4jfV5LkIQ

Length: 19min 5sec (1145 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020