Though a relatively new company compared to
some rifle manufacturers, Henry Repeating Arms has been
producing quality leveraction rifles in the USA for many years
now. Beginning two decades ago with the production of a
reliable, accurate, and affordable 22 levergun, Henry has grown
into the largest producer of leveraction rifles in the USA. My
first experience with a Henry leveraction was with a handy
little 22 Magnum that I bought for my Dad years ago, and I
have since owned and fired many Henry leverguns. While other
brands of leveraction rifles have stumbled, and even failed,
Henry is constantly growing; producing a full line of
leveraction rifles for hunting, fighting, and recreation. While
Henry also produces pump, bolt-action, and semi-automatic
rifles, as well as leveraction pistols, they
are best known for their leveraction rifles and stellar
customer service. With manufacturing facilities in New Jersey
and Wisconsin, Henry Repeating Arms is a company that is growing
and prospering, amazingly with neither an AR-15, 1911, nor a
plastic pistol in their product line. Henry is building their
reputation on the most-American of rifles; the levergun. While
on the topic of the Henry Repeating Arms Company, before moving
on to the rifle that is the subject of this review, their
company motto is, “Made in America, or not Made at All”, and
the company, under the leadership of Anthony Imperato, has been
very generous to veterans, youth, and to the shooting industry.
With rifles in the product line to cover most
any hunting need, until now, all Henry leverguns used
traditional tubular magazines, chambered for rimfire or
centerfire cartridges that work very well in such designs, but
the topic of this review is their new Long Ranger, chambered
for, at this time, the 223 Remington and the 243 and 308
Winchester cartridges. The rifle shown here is chambered for the
latter, which is an excellent all-around cartridge for hunting
most all North American big game, excepting the large bears.
While the 308, properly loaded, will certainly do the job, for
large beasts with teeth and claws, I prefer Henry’s 45-70
levergun.
The Long Ranger is a thoroughly modern rifle,
with a traditional look and feel. Technically, the Long Ranger
is a lever-operated bolt action, as it has a six-lug rotating
bolt head with a secure lock-up into the barrel extension that
is rugged and reliable. The lever drives a geared bolt to feed
cartridges from a detachable box magazine, and the rotating bolt
head contains the extractor and ejector to quickly and reliably
clear the chamber of a spent cartridge case. The Long Ranger
wears a twenty-inch tapered barrel. The barrel wears no sights,
and the two-piece walnut stock features a forend that is pretty
much free-floated under the barrel, with just the slightest
tension felt while sliding a piece of paper between the barrel
and forend. The stock wears a satin finish and the buttstock is
fitted with a very functional recoil pad to attenuate the felt
recoil on the shooter’s shoulder. The barrel wears no
mechanical sights, but the aluminum receiver features side
ejection, and is drilled and tapped for the included two-piece Skinner
Sights scope mount bases. The scope bases will accommodate
any standard Weaver-pattern rings.
The Long Ranger looks very similar to the
excellent Browning BLR rifle, so we might as well get the
comparison done now. Both wear two-piece stocks and utilize a
gear-driven rotating bolt, but the rifles are not identical. The
Henry trigger does not travel with the lever as it does on the
Browning, and in my limited experience with the Henry, it has a
better trigger pull than does the BLR. The Henry also wears a
satin non-glare finish on both the metal and wood, and, as
mentioned above, the Long Ranger has no mechanical sights. The
BLR has either a straight stock or a semi-pistol-grip stock,
while the Long Ranger has a straight stock, and they are priced
within just a few dollars of each other. Both are excellent
rifles, but only the Henry is built in the USA, if that is
important to you. It just comes down to personal preference.
The Long Ranger balances and handles very
well. Weighing in on my scale at seven and one-quarter pounds
with an empty magazine, the lightweight aluminum receiver and
excellent balance make the rifle feel lighter in my hands. It
comes to the shoulder quickly, like a good bird gun. Being
lever-operated, the action can be cycled quickly from either
shoulder, without taking the gun off target. The steel box
magazine holds four cartridges, for a total loaded capacity of
five in 243 or 308, with one more in 223 Remington. The magazine
is removed by pressing a large flush-mounted steel button on the
right side of the receiver. The magazine loads easily and
functions well.
While built for hunting, the Long Ranger is
touted by Henry to offer exceptional accuracy, so for shooting
the rifle, I reached for the good stuff; meaning match-grade
ammunition from Buffalo Bore, Winchester, and Sig-Sauer. I
tested the rifle for function with every type of 308 Winchester
that I had available, and for accuracy with the above-mentioned
match ammo, as well as various types of hunting ammunition. For
accuracy testing, I mounted a scope sight that is well-suited to
the performance capabilities and likely uses for the Long
Ranger; a 3 to 9 power Leupold VX1. The variable power makes
this scope and excellent choice for use either up close or at a
distance. The VX1 is a quality American-made riflescope with
good glass and click-adjustable turrets, that is both reliable
and affordable. I like its light weight and low profile on a
rifle such as the Long Ranger. It only adds eleven ounces to the
package, keeping the rifle well-balanced, while offering the
capability of engaging game at long distances. I would rather go
afield under-scoped than over-scoped, and this 3 to 9 Leupold
seems to be an ideal choice for a quality hunting rifle such as
the Long Ranger. The scope was secured atop the Long Ranger in
Leupold Rifleman vertically-split rings. These rings are
lightweight and low-profile, and hold the scope securely.
All
accuracy testing was done at an elevation of approximately 541
feet above sea level at a distance of one hundred yards with an
air temperature hovering around the eighty-six-degree mark with
a relative humidity of sixty-seven percent. The Long Ranger was
rested on the bench in a Target Shooting,
Inc. Model 500 rifle rest, to eliminate as much of my human
error as possible. Velocities are listed in the chart below, and
are listed in Feet-per-second (FPS). Bullet weights are listed
in grains.
Ammunition |
Bullet Weight |
Velocity |
Sig-Sauer Match |
168 |
2589 |
Set Point Custom SMK |
175 |
2560 |
Buffalo Bore Sniper |
175 |
2550 |
Buffalo Bore Soft Point |
150 |
2964 |
Handload - Barnes XLC |
168 |
2549 |
Winchester BST |
168 |
2622 |
Cor-Bon Match |
168 |
2530 |
Lehigh Defense Chaos |
110 |
3292 |
Federal Gold Medal Match |
168 |
2594 |
Federal Soft Point |
150 |
2846 |
Hornady SST |
165 |
2718 |
Accuracy,
as expected, was excellent. Most three-shot one-hundred-yard
groups measured under one inch, with some groups measuring half
that much. I did fire one three-shot group into the same hole at
one hundred yards with the Sig-Sauer ammunition, but could not
duplicate that feat, so that particular group is not pictured,
as it is not representative of that ammunition in this rifle.
However, every group with that Sig ammo went under one inch.
Federal soft point ammo averaged just over one and
three-quarters inch, but all other ammo tested did better than
that, with the exception of the Lehigh. This rifle just does not
like that lightweight bullet as well, but still exhibited fair
accuracy for out to one-hundred-yard targets.
The box magazine loads easily, and the
cartridges chambered smoothly. Every cartridge fed, fired, and
ejected flawlessly, after an initial ejection problem early on
in the testing. Sometimes, an empty cartridge case would not
clear the ejection port. Applying a drop of lubricant to the
ejector cured the problem, and the rifle ejected as it should
after that. As mentioned above, with good ammunition, the Long
Ranger would group three shots into an inch or better at one
hundred yards. Who says leverguns can’t be accurate?! The
trigger released crisply with an average of 4.7 pounds of
resistance initially, but lightened up a bit after use.
The Henry Long Ranger is very comfortable to
shoot. It mounts quickly, and the excellent stock design allows
repeated firing with no discomfort. The stock is well-checkered
for a positive hold in all weather conditions, and the non-glare
finish is ideal for a hunting rifle. The leveraction is the
most-ambidextrous of repeating rifle designs, and the Long
Ranger works just as well for left-handed shooters as it does
for right-handed shooters.
The new Henry Long Ranger is an excellent
choice for the hunter that is wanting an accurate, smooth, and
reliable levergun that is, like all Henry rifles, “Made in
America, or not Made at All”. The suggested retail price of
the new Long Ranger is, as of the date of this review, $1014.95
US.
To look at the extensive line of quality
Henry rifles and accessories, go to www.henryrifles.com.
For the location of a Henry dealer near you,
click on the DEALER FINDER at www.lipseys.com.
To order the Long Ranger online, click on the
GUN GENIE at www.galleryofguns.com.
For a closer look at the full line of Leupold
optics, go to www.leupold.com.
To
order quality ammunition, go to www.buffalobore.com, www.doubletapammo.com, www.lehighdefense.com, www.midsouthshooters.com, and www.luckygunner.com.
Jeff
Quinn


Got something to say about this article?
Want to agree (or disagree) with it? Click the following link to
go to the GUNBlast Feedback Page.