Henry H001 Classic Lever Action 22 LR Rifle 18.5 in. – Superb Walnut Plinker

Description

The Henry H001 Classic Lever Action is the rifle Henry built the modern company on, and it remains the one most people mean when they say “a Henry”. Eighteen and a half inches of blued round barrel, an American walnut straight-grip stock, and a tube magazine that swallows fifteen long rifle cartridges.

There is nothing clever about it, and that is the appeal. A lever gun in 22 has no magazine to lose, no safety to forget and no manual to read. You load the tube, work the lever and shoot, which is why the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action has taught more people to shoot than almost any other rifle still in production.

Three cartridges, one rifle

• The Henry H001 Classic Lever Action feeds 22 Short, 22 Long and 22 Long Rifle interchangeably, which very few modern rimfires will do.
• Capacity runs 15 rounds of Long Rifle, 17 of Long, or 21 of Short.
• 22 Short is quiet enough for a backyard where local law allows it, and cheap enough to shoot all afternoon when you can find it.
• There is no detachable magazine, so nothing to misplace or buy spares for.
• Loading is through the tube under the barrel, which takes a moment longer than a box magazine and never jams on a follower.

Sights, scope mounting and handling

• The Henry H001 Classic Lever Action arrives with open sights fitted: a hooded front and an adjustable rear, ready to shoot out of the box.
• The black aluminum receiver is grooved 3/8 inch, so any set of standard rimfire rings mounts a scope without drilling.
• At 5.25 pounds and 36.5 inches overall, it suits a smaller shooter without being a youth rifle.
• The straight-grip walnut stock and the lever loop are sized for adult hands but short enough in the pull for a teenager.
• 1:16 twist, which is the standard rimfire rate and happy with everything from 29-grain Short to 40-grain standard velocity.

Henry H001 Classic Lever Action specifications

• Caliber: 22 Short, 22 Long and 22 Long Rifle
• Capacity: 15 Long Rifle, 17 Long, 21 Short, tube magazine
• Barrel length: 18.50 in, blued round
• Overall length: 36.50 in
• Weight: 5.25 lb
• Rate of twist: 1:16
• Receiver: black aluminum, grooved 3/8 in for scope rings
• Stock: American walnut, straight grip
• Sights: hooded front, adjustable rear
• Action: lever
• Manufacturer part number: H001-22
• UPC: 619835011411

22 Long Rifle is a standardized cartridge with dimensions and pressure limits published by SAAMI, but rimfire ammunition is inconsistent by nature and every rifle has preferences. A lever action is far less fussy than a semi-automatic, because the action does not rely on the cartridge to cycle it, so the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action will happily shoot subsonic ammunition that would choke a 10/22.

For volume through the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action, a 1,500-round jug of Winchester Wildcat 40 gr is the cheapest way to keep one fed. When you want more out of it on squirrels or rabbits, Armscor 36 gr high-velocity hollow point is the step up.

If you like the pattern but want a nicer one, the Octagon-barreled 22 is the same rifle with a heavier octagon barrel and better wood. In centerfire, the H1 X Model, the Frontier and the Bandit carry the same lever action into serious calibers.

Every Henry is made in the United States, and the company still answers its own telephone in Bayonne, New Jersey. That is worth something when a rifle is meant to last three generations.

Loading the tube, and proving it is empty

There is no magazine to drop out and no follower you can watch, which is the one thing a tube-fed rifle asks you to learn properly. On the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action, cartridges go in nose-first through the port near the muzzle and the inner tube is pushed home behind them. Load one cartridge length at a time: the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action will feed Short, Long and Long Rifle, but mixing lengths in the same tube makes your count meaningless and gains you nothing at all.

Unloading is where people get careless, because a tube magazine cannot be checked with your eyes. The only honest way to prove a Henry H001 Classic Lever Action is empty is to work the lever until it stops lifting cartridges, then hold the lever open and look into the chamber and the carrier. Do that every time, in that order, and treat a tube gun as loaded until you have.

One rule about bullet shape matters far more here than on a box-fed rifle. In a tube, each bullet nose rests against the rim of the cartridge ahead of it, so flat-nose and round-nose ammunition only. Pointed and polymer-tipped rimfire has no business in the magazine. Both of the loads suggested above are correctly shaped for a tube, which is not a coincidence.

A grooved receiver makes scope mounting easy, and a straight answer about 22 Short

The receiver is grooved 3/8 inch for tip-off rings, the old rimfire standard, and it is quietly one of the best things about the rifle: no base to buy and no screw holes to align. The TRUGLO 4×32 duplex is sold with 3/8-inch rings already fitted, so it goes onto a Henry H001 Classic Lever Action with nothing else required. That is worth spelling out, because the same rings will not clamp to the Weaver base on a Ruger 10/22, and buyers get caught out by it regularly.

There is also an honest note owed on the three-cartridge versatility this rifle is sold on. We list five 22 Short and CB Short loads and every one of them is out of stock as this is written, so while the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action will genuinely fire all three lengths, we cannot put the quiet ones in your hand today. Ask us and we will order them in. What we hold deep is Long Rifle, which is the number the tube is counted for anyway.

Why the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action earns its place

• Shoots Short, Long and Long Rifle from the same tube, which almost nothing else does.
• Grooved receiver, so a scope costs you rings and nothing else.
• American walnut and blued steel at a price that is still sensible.
• Nothing to lose, nothing to forget, nothing to break in normal use.
• Made in the United States with a lifetime of parts support behind it.

Be honest about what a lever 22 is not. It is slower to reload than a box-magazine rifle, and if your interest is rimfire steel matches or timed drills, a 10/22 will serve you better. The tube takes the better part of a minute to fill by hand, and there is no shortcut.

What the Henry H001 Classic Lever Action is, instead, is the rifle that gets handed to the next person in the family. It is the one that lives behind the door at a cabin, goes out with a coffee flask on a Saturday morning, and still shoots the same groups in twenty years. Very few guns at this money can say that.

In stock now at MAG5 Firearms in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Transfers to your FFL, and we answer the phone.