Last week I recieved a new Blued Henry 30-30 that my local dealer had ordered.

The good news is that the gun had very nice external fit and finish as well as walnut worthy of a very fine custom rifle.

The bad news is the gun has multiple major issues with regard to function.

Firstly, it is inposible to sight in the rifle with factory ammo. The point of impact is about six inches high at fifty yards with the rear sight in its lowest position. The Front sight is not dovetailed and can not be removed or replaced with anything higher.

Secondly,the magazine tube is very difficult to load with more than two cartriges,it keeps sticking,and is an abortion in form and function.

Thirdly,frequent failures to feed from the magazine,in fact the gun is currently hopelessly jammed with the lever open and a 30-30 cartridge stuck in the action.

Fourth,the lever often pops open after the action has been cycled,in a Marlin,savage,or winchester this can be fixed by closing the lever,but the Henry can not be reclosed once it has been opened half a milimeter. This design prevents checking to see if the chamber is loaded,and in concert with the propensity to pop open and the faulty magazine tube renders the gun virtually imposible to funtion.

In short,the Henry looks like a nice lever action 30-30,but seems to have more design and manufacturing flaws than any rifle in it's price range that I've had the misfortune to experience.

Buy a used Marlin,or even a decent muzzleloader,either would be a lot more useful than one of these things.

Cerebrus strikes again. Gotta love them Freedom Grope mofos.

I don't know who owns Henry,but if they are yet another Cerberus takeover,then it does sort of fit the pattern.

Hate to hear that doc, I miss Marlin so bad! See my sig line!

I have several Henry rimfires that have been flawless but have no experience with their centerfires.

I have heard nothing but positive things about their customer service from several people, both in person and online, so I would give that a shot.

I am sure that they will sort out the issues you are having, and do it quickly.

I've been going with the pre safety Marlins with the "JM" proof mark. What about the Mossberg 464? I have not heard anything about them.

Pre-2010 Marlins are usually a safe bet.

Doc, thanks for the post. at the moment I am without a 30-30 and was looking at henry. now i'll just look for a Winnie or a marlin. to old to deal with those kinds of problems. ps Henry is a family owned co in Bayonne (sp?)New Jersey.

Send it back. They will make it right

Don't tell us, tell THEM. Henry has a good rep for customer service, give them a chance to fix it.

Then, if it comes back all fouled up, THEN it would be a good time to rant.

For the record, I don't own a single Henry, and have no plans to buy one.

They aren't involved in Henry...

Sell it!!!!!!!

Not here-the word is out on this gun.

I don't look to buy anything with the notion that customer service will make it right; I want it to work correctly from the start. I appreciate hearing about products that do not provide this.

My first impression of a Henry goes back several years, to their original lever action 22. And it hasn't changed much since then.

Considered them to be junk then and the only slight adjustment I've made since, concerns the one I was given as an award a few years ago. It looks okay, shoots much better than I would've thought and since it was a heart-felt tribute to my awesomeness, guess I'll keep it?



Would I ever buy a 30-30 Henry? Hell no, times a bazillion. Too many nice, used Marlin 336s and M94s around. I've seen several nice Marlins lately in shops, for $350 or a bit less.

I've only seen their advertisements about being USA made,
and I suppose that "should" mean quality.

These issues from the OP are significant, and are a large
concern.

I do hope some satisfied users of the Henry chime in, do they
only make levers?

That would be one I would entertain a thought of. Like you, I've not heard too much about them, which may be good. You tend to hear a lot more reports on negative issues than when something is working like it should.

I sure do miss having the old Marlins and Winchesters sitting on the rack at the store. It almost seems like an era has passed.

It sure does. I never would have guessed the '94 Winchester would be gone in my lifetime. When I was a kid, everyplace that sold rifles had 94's on the shelf and they were still very popular with local deer hunters. My first deer rifle was a 94. I still have two and would never part with them.

LGS around the corner has a 45/70 that he just got in. Price a little on the high side more then a Marlin. Now that I read this thread would not even consider one.

My first one was a '94 also, and I use it to this day.

It was 1970, I was 13, wanted to go deer hunting, and asked my father to take me. He said he would but didn't have a rifle. I had worked hard for the last couple of years delivering papers and cutting grass, so I had some money.

I went down to the local Sporting goods store, picked out two M94s and told the man I'd be back soon with my mother because she had to sign for them. Took them home, handed him one and told him "Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, whatever you want to call it, but let's go hunting".

Both are still in my safe, and mine, as I said earlier, goes every year.

Vic:

Now that is a very nice story, and I hope others can say
the same thing some day. Those were the days.

I had the same problems with my Henry 30-30. After the 3rd time shipping it back, I asked for a full refund. The lady in Customer Service was very gracious and agreed to my request for refund.

The Henry 22 caliber rifles are fine because the design and engineering is from ERMA of Germany. But the Henry 30-30 is their own design with flawed engineering. I recommend seeking a full refund for this poorly designed rifle.

Sherwood

Anyone know if this carried over into their new 45/70 ?

The 45-70 is built on the same reciever and shares a lot of common parts. It is pretty much the same gun,just in a different chambering.

Call up Henry and let them know, they will do something about it. A friend of mine had a buddy that had issues with a new Henry 22, the guy called the owner who agreed to meet him at a local diner for breakfast (we live in New Jersey) and Henry took back the old rifle and gave him a new one.

I have two other Henry rifles. A 22 and a 22 magnum,both are decent guns that were designed and made by Erma of Germany before Henry began to manufacture them.

The 30-30 is different,the design is fundamentally flawed. And you just can't fix stupid. I called Henry and they told me the action is designed so that if opened to a tiny degree while loaded,the bolt can not be closed. This works in concert with the fact that the action tends to pop open a couple of millimeters when cycled with enough effort to get the thing to feed from the magazine.

Furthermore,the rifle can not be sighted in with factory ammo. The front sight is too short and since it is not replaceable,as no other sight to fit is available from the factory or an aftermarket source.

I plan on returning it to my dealer,I hope I can get a refund because the rifle is an abortion from a design point of view in my honest opinion.

If pioneers had tried to fight plains Indians with this thing,a lot of us would still speak Comanche.

One of my co-workers has a .45-70 henry and he had a lot of function problems with it. Sent back several times, eventually replaced. He likes the fit and finish and the accuracy once he was able to shoot it.