Hooray!

So attentive readers will remember me talking about leaving my Henry’s magazine tube at home when I went on vacation in Montana, relegating me to single-shot status. At the time I thought I knew where it was, but when I got back to Colorado, it was nowhere to be found. So, thinking about all the places the gun had been, I figured I must have left it at my grandpa’s or uncle’s place way back the last time that Mr. R visited. So when we were (briefly) down there last weekend before my mother’s shenanigans requiring X-ray machines, I asked around–and no one had seen any 22 caliber brass tubes, Made In America or otherwise. Having a hunch about the last time I had seen it, I asked my uncle to check his little runaround (front end a top-chopped Dodge Neon, rear end 80’s Toyota pickup, painted Allis-Chalmers orange–great fun!), and there it was, under the seat. Caked with dirt and dog hair, and with rust coating all the steel parts. Brought it home and cleaned it up a bit, and it doesn’t seem the worse for wear, besides the pitting on the steel knob and some discoloration on the brass in a few places. We’ll see how it shoots the next time I take it out, I guess, but for now I’m just glad I have it again, and it’s out of the rain!

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Buy A Gun Day!

I know that I bought my BAG Day gun waaay early, but it was still purchased with my tax return, so it counts!  Here’s a picture of the my little Henry .22 out in the field:

What did you get?

Sunday Music

Not Muse today, I’ll annoy you with more of that tomorrow.  But Sundays are sabbaths, right, so we’ll take a break for something else:

Relient K – Sunny with a High of 75

I know I’ve done this song sometime in the distant past, but today the forecast really is sunny with a high of 75. Planning on going to the early church service and then hitting the road to visit my grandpa. Perhaps the little Henry will get to come and enjoy the nice weather with me…

Henry .22 Lever Action: A Short Range Report

Over the weekend I had a chance to run a few round through my new Henry while down at my grandpa’s farm.

All I can say is “wow.” I now know the real definition of fun. Swing that lever, and pop those cans! I thought my 10/22 was good–and it is, don’t get me wrong–but it’s got nothing on the lever-action.  I mean, when you’ve skinned your knuckles from working the action so many times, but you still keep going, you are really having a ball.

Then it got even better. I loaded up 21 CB .22 shorts. No hearing protection needed–you hear the fall of the hammer, and for a split second wonder if the round actually fired, and then you are rewarded with the sound of the bullet hitting the can. 21 times, as fast as you can work the lever. I was shooting from around 25 yards, and it was actually hard to miss.

Out of the whole time, I only had one problem, one .22 short, the last one in the tube of mixed CB .22 shorts and CB .22 longs, got its nose munched up when trying to load it into the chamber. I fished it out and dropped it in manually, and it shot just fine.  I would somewhat expect a problem like this to pop up from time to time while shooting the shorts, since they have a longer distance to travel when sliding out of the magazine and thus more opportunity to get off at a slight angle.  Not anything to worry about–my 10/22 does the same thing with 22LR’s sometimes.

My Grandpa said that I’ve ruined my life, that now I have nothing else to look forward to.  But that’s not strictly true–I now can look forward to the next time I get to shoot my Henry!

 

I wasn’t going to take it apart, I swear!

The manual says not to, even!  But then, I say, well, I’ve got a screwdriver right here, and it’s good to get all the little metal shavings from the factory out before you shoot it…

I guess I’m just too much an engineer…

Henry Repeating Arms .22 Lever Action

Well, yesterday I said that nothing followed me home, but then I got a phone call from the shop saying that the Nearly Endless Bureaucratic Papertrail System had finally cleared, so I ran back down there and picked it up. So it didn’t really follow me home, but it got here nonetheless (please excuse any poor quality pictures, between a cell phone and a point and shoot camera that’s 6 years old, don’t expect any miracles):

This is the gun that I would have gotten very first, when I was first starting out three or so years ago, if there had been a single one in stock anywhere in town. There wasn’t, so I went with the 10/22, a decision I have never regretted, but I still had the nagging feeling that I needed something with a tube magazine and wood furniture… and what pretty wood it is.

And a little different angle:

And just because I had it sitting around at the same time, a pic with the ORC308 (for which I am still awaiting the front iron sight from Bushmaster, grrrrrr…)

The same length, but the little Henry weighs half as much!

Like I said yesterday, the cost after tax was nearly identical to what my state income tax return was, so , while this is rather early, it is my contribution to Buy A Gun Day is for 2012.

I can’t wait to get out and shoot it, but it may have to wait till next weekend the way things are shaping up here…

Well, nothing followed me home today…

…but it was no fault of my own or the gun shop’s.  The CBI/NICS background check thingy was running like a stampede of turtles through molasses… in January.

So tomorrow I ought to be able to walk in and pick it up.  As a sign of good omen, the price was almost exactly the same as my state tax return, only a few cents off.

And what is “it” you ask?  Well, for that you’re going to have to wait and see…