Any writer get your hands on one yet or know when you might? Looking forward to a review

They look, for the most part, like a clone of the tried and true H&R/NEF Handi-Rifle or the old Savage 219. A basic/simple design that would be pretty hard to screw up.

With a MSRP of over $400 per unit, I wonder how well they will sell, given that break-action American-made single shot CF rifles have traditionally been priced at, or near, the bottom of all CF rifles. If I had $400 to spend on a NIB 223, 243, or 308, I can't envision a single scenario that would put this Henry product ahead of a Remington 700 ADL from Wal-Mart or a Ruger American Rifle.

Looking at the MSRP of their lever actions and then checking gunbroker and online dealers for what they are actually asking shows retail prices at about 25% below MSRP. I would imagine these single shots could be had for around $300 or possibly a bit less, making them price competitive to the RAR's of the world which are currently going for the mid-$300 range for blued models.

The folks who buy purely on price will still wander into Walmart for the Savage scope combo packages no matter who offers anything else.

But those who want a decent single shot because they want a decent single shot shouldn't be deterred by the price. And this is blued/walnut. At 7 pounds for the rifle and a tad over 6 1/2 for the shotgun it's not a lightweight so there must be a fair amount of steel and walnut in there. I haven't seen one and AFAIK no one else here has to really comment on the quality of the wood, metal finish and overall function of the trigger, lever and such - I'd love to hear first hand accounts if anyone has.

I have to admit I've turned my nose up at Henry's products as cheap clones of Marlin (plus I can be snob sometimes) but apparently they are well made and well finished so I might have to give them a look. Those 16 1/2" lever action carbines are interesting. I had a Marlin 16" .45 and IMHO that little short barrel was the perfect match for pistol caliber rounds - very fast handling but with enough barrel to squeeze out as much velocity as those rounds can give.

Anyway, kudos to Henry for offering this, I hope it sells well for them. More choices is always better than fewer choices.

Agree with Jim , which is the reason for this post.
Walnut and blued steel, short rifle, iron sights included, Henry quality, having something different...we all have our preferences

Back to the original question, does anyone have access to them and can we expect a review?

I've owned H&R 158s in 22 Hortnet and 30-30, H&R/NEF Handi-Rifles in a variety of chamberings, and a couple of Savage 219, so I'm fairly familiar with them. I think that they were exactly what most of them were built to be, entry-level economy-grade utility rifles. I'm not a Henry fan, have yet to see a Henry that I'd want to own, so their success or failure isn't even on my radar.

Since the Freedom Group is a for-profit business, you'd have thought that if they were making a profit on the NEF Handi-Rifles, they would have kept them in production. OTOH, we're talking the Freedom Group, so the exercise of common logic can easily be suspended. I mean, why would they suspend production of a sweet platform with a lot of potential like the Marlin X guns if they were exercising common sense?

BTW, if anybody has a need/want for a minty NEF Handi-Rifle in 280, I've got one that is getting dusty and can be had for $225.

260RemGuy,

Why is it that American break-action single shot CF rifles have 'traditionally' been priced near the bottom of CF rifles? Other single-shot actions command premium prices, and in Europe, some truly deluxe rifles are built on break-open actions. Anyway, would you say the Contender Carbine is near the bottom?

260, delete some pms, I can't leave you messages you're out of room

I'd avoid him like the plague.

I hope they do well, but I have personally yet to see a single product from Henry that enticed me.

I suspect that H&R/NEF and Savage sold their break-action SS CF rifles for as much as they felt that the market would allow them to. I would say the T-C sold the Contenders frame as the basis of a multi-barrel rifle, while the H&R/NEF and Savage 219 weren't marketed that way. Even though H&R/NEF sold additional barrels, they required that the frame owners send their frames to H&R/NEF for fitting. I believe that was done primarily for product liability purposes, as I doubt much actual fitting was required.