Won this in a gun show raffle. Which floored me, I never win anything... I'm choosing take it as a sign from above that I don't have enough guns yet.

Henry Golden Boy in 22 Mag. Have to say, I'm fairly impressed with the overall gun. Exceeded my expectations for a gun from New Jersey, that's for sure.

It would be better with a case colored lever.

I have one in 22LR. I think they are top quality for the money.
I'm not impressed with the looks of the larger Henry rifles or the blued versions, but I do like the 22 Golden Boys.
Congratulations!

I have one in blue .22 LR. The more you use it the smoother it gets. With three Grandsons it is smooth as butter. Enjoy it looks to be a keeper.

I had one of the early Goldenboys in 22 Mag for a few years back 20-ish years ago. It was smooth as silk and pretty accurate with CCI Maxi Mags, and the Remington Premium VMax ammo. I sold it to a buddy of mine to finance some other gun purchase, and he's still got it and uses it.

Only Henry I currently have is one of the BBS carbines in 32 that I picked up a few years ago. It handles very nicely and is extremely accurate, but it's also really hicuppy feeding and fairly jam prone.

I good $500 day!

Well

You couldn't beat the price.

What???? Couldn't get a refund in your raffle ticket?

It was a VFW auction for a veteran's fund.. I think I bought $100 worth of tickets. I forgot I'd bought tickets, actually. If you'd asked me about that gun show, I'd have remembered I sold two books and bought a tenite stocked SxS Stevens 12ga.

I did snag a NIB Henry blued 22LR rifle a couple years ago when I ran across one in a Cabela's gun library. It was in the box and still had the hang tag attached, but was priced about 40% below the retail price of the ones out on the "new guns" shelves. Figured it'd be a cheap lever action to practice with. Still haven't shot it, tho.

If you shoot either of them, you'll probably like them. Their rimfires are generally fairly accurate and trouble free. One of my bigger gun regrets is not buying one of the Henry pump 22LRs back in the day when they were about $150 at Walmart.

The centerfire levers are hit and miss; some of them are great, others are junk straight out of the box.

My buddy won two guns at a gun bash and didn’t like them, they let him trade them for a Henry 17 HMR, he loves it.

I still have my mid 80’s browning bl22. Love that little rimfire. My kids are shooting it.

I'm holding out for an original Henry. I guess I better not hold my breath too. If I hit the Powerball I'll buy each of yez one.

I remember hearing about the new Henrys when they first appeared and getting excited that a U.S. manufacturer was finally doing a reproduction. Disappointment fell onto my soul when I discovered that they weren't actually Henry rifles. What a maroon. The couple I've shot (including Joe's friend's, and mine, John's) have been delightful guns. Impressively slick and seemingly accurate, if the plinking targets were any indication.

I don't remember if I ever shot Johns? After shooting your German 22 Hornet, anything else is just smoke drifting over the mountain, to be forgotten.

Have had a Henry Golden Boy (22LR) pushing 14 years. Very well made, accurate, and crafted, smooth as silk. I like it, my Gkids love shooting it. Although my Marlin 39M that I've had new since 1970 holds a higher degree of affection and choice between it and the Henry. A Savage 99 in 22LR would have been "Goodie". Would have been a heavy 22 unless of course it had been scaled down. A detachable 10+ round rotary magazine could have been fabricated like the Ruger 10-22. Surprised Savage never did one, would have been a good seller I believe and a hot item today.

A fella could make a .22LR Savage 99 if he put his mind to it. JeffG....? CTW.....?

Remove the rotor, cartridge guide and cutoff. Affix a Ruger 10-22 magazine in its place, in a position high enough and far enough forward for the bolt to strip rounds out of it. Make the extractor such that the rounds pop up under it and be held there as the bolt moves forward to chamber it. Limit bolt travel to just enough to move back and forth to pick up and eject cartridges, and alter the geometry of the trigger/sear and striker accordingly.

A new barrel, and a lot of cussing and swearing and calling gnoahhh bad names for giving you the idea, and Presto! Done!! Fame and fortune awaits you. Or not.

gnoahhh's idea------- !!!! Well ya, a good week-end project

It'd be a good fit to go with an 1899 that loads and feeds 410 shells.....

The Henry lever and pump 22's are a well proven design(s) that were first made by Erma-Werke in West Germany. I'm not to familiar with the full history but I have a West German made example that was marketed under the Iver Johnson name as the Wagonmaster and the pump version was the Trailmaster. From what I've read the design was acquired from Erma by Louis Imperato was is said to be the original designer and he and his son started Henry. His son is currently listed as President and owner of Henry. he previously worked for Iver Johnson. The only patent I can find relating to this design is a US one not by Louis Imperato, so I have to question him being the designer, the patent is not for the complete gun - uspto.gov/03813803 Note the patent references patents by Andrew Burgess from 1899 for a gas operated semi-auto pistol, uspto/00636196, and a Marriner A. Browning patent from 1938 assigned to the Browning Brothers Co. in Ogden Utah, uspto/02118536

The third patent referenced in the Erma patent is for a recoil operated semi-auto rifle using a lever to charge the action that was applied for in 1889 - uspto/00454993

If you compare the bottom of the pump and the lever actions the pump appears to be the same but with the lower part of the lever cut off which is the reason for the (s) in design(s).

The Ithaca Model 72 was also a version of this design.

Thanks for that bit of patent history Gene. It speaks of how a great idea evolves through many different great minds.

...speaking of which, I LIKE Gary's 22-99 ideas! but I probably don't have near enough skill or imagination to enter that conversation. I'm sticking with my plans to fit a 15 rd banana clip on top of my Savage/Ithaca model 49,... may need to go with side-mount sights though...

There is a 22 lever action that was part of the R & D collection, it looked more like an Winchester 88, or like the full stocked R & D version of the 99 that David ended up with. It used a 5 shot clip in magazine that was a slightly modified version of the one for the 1919 NRA's. I saw it at Tulsa once many years ago.

Jeff, remember some of Arthur Savage's first designs were repeating Martini type actions, your Model 49 might be a good platform to start with to make a 22 cal. version, or use a Savage/Stevens Model 89 -
uspto/00366512
uspto/00378525
uspto/00460786
Arthur Savage was not the first to design a repeating Martini type action -
uspto/00119115
uspto/00128208

Here's the one you should try to copy first - uspto/00326676

WooBoy! I could probably enlist some Krag-lover for that side-loading Burgess design!

More like a stray followed you home.
Happens to the best of us.

Henry has been pretty successful as of recent.
Quite an accomplishment in the firearms industry and in these times in particular.
Henry has/is expanding production here in WI. Wish I lived closer.......

Henry News

Gene, as always thanks for the great info!

Rick, that's kind of cool they are up there. Big facilities, too. Maybe they'll close their NJ plant and move all the production up to you. Can't say I'm thrilled with the NJ stamp on the barrel. Yuck.

Seems like it was New York in the early days. Double Yuck to that.

I'd have to have my buddy dig it out for a look, but I'm pretty sure the Goldenboy I had was NY on the barrel. My BBS was made in WI.

Yessir, Gene, thank you for the info. If Savage had ever developed and marketed a 22LR based on the 99, it would have been a good one, longingly sot after, and probably be big $$ item. I'm also a Remington Model 8/81 fan and in John Henwood's book on the rifles, he wrote of and provided pictures of a Remington 22 LR prototype that Remington was doing in their R&D based on the Model 8. Never hit the production faze, but another bet it would be a high dollar collector item now as a 22LR Savage 99 type would be. Oh-the could-have-been's!!!!!!

The marlin model 56 in 22 is about as close to looking like a savage 99 in a 22 that you will find. There real little short stroke 22's. See we can stray even more !!

Those 56s are slick. I haven't seen one in many moons.

A 62 in 256 Mag was on my to-buy list for a long time, but a 99 in 250 scratches the same itch better with less brass headaches, so I sort of kicked the 62 lust to the curb.

*added*

The Ruger 96s had a really short throw and handled slick, but I had a couple of them and in my experience they just were not very good rifles.

There's the Winchester 250 also. Had one for a while, decided I didn't need a Winchester in the safe.

Marlin 56:


Winchester 250:

I'll stay with my 39A, Bl-22 and 9422 you guys can have my share of the Henry's. Mb

If a Savage Man was going to stray, couldn't go wrong here.
A cool tribute rifle and a tribute to one of the first and most prolific master engravers in the U.S.
The record of some of Nimschke's engraving which he assembled himself has not been lost to history whereas most others have.
R.L. Wilson's "Nimschke" book contains these patterns as well.
Scroll through the record and see Ballard, Sharps, Henry and many more...

Engraved Henry Rifle

L.D. Nimschke Record

My experience with Henry’s has been excellent. They have their detractors for various reasons. Mostly comparisons to older classics. As a functional, affordable and accurate rifle I’ve been impressed. Certainly more so than the Marlin 56 and 57s I’ve been around.