Meet the Henry Slide Action
Henry’s Pump Action Octagon, also known as the Model H003T, is one of several non-lever Henry rifles, but it’s the only slide gun. Reminiscent of olden days’ shooting galleries at carnivals and competitions, this iteration uses a 20-inch blued steel octagon barrel.
Buyers have a choice of versions in either .22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle (S, L, LR) or the more powerful .22 Winchester Magnum (WMR). Capacity varies by chambering, with the LR holding 15 rounds compared to 21 Shorts. The Magnum, meanwhile, has a lesser capacity of 12 rounds in the same tubular magazine. Regardless of caliber, the rifle weighs an even 6 pounds empty.
Sights are a classic style with a brass bead front sight and fully adjustable semi-buckhorn rear with a white diamond insert. The receiver finish is a basic black over alloy, akin to the company’s entry-level rimfire lever guns. The internals, meanwhile, are steel. The gun is dressed with an American walnut stock of above-average quality. The buttstock is smooth, without checkering, while the forend wears vertical ribs.
While the irons are capable, the receiver is grooved at 3/8-inch for common rimfire scope mounts. The 14-inch length of pull is topped with a simple polymer buttplate. It’s worth noting that there’s no manual safety, but rather an old-school quarter-cock mechanism. The grooved action button sits at the right front of the trigger guard to release the forend and open the action.
Range Time
On the range with the svelte pump, it took us a few magazine tubes of .22 LR to gain comfort with running a pump, having seldom done so in recent years. The gun is quite stiff out of the box, due in part to its tight tolerances, and benefits from a quick clean and lube job before commencing range day. We ran a healthy mix of ammunition brands, weights, and types of projectiles, including CCI, Federal, Aguila, Browning, and Remington.
The pump doesn’t care what you feed it, it simply performs. However, it’s worth noting that within the first 50 rounds, we experienced several failures to fire, which we quickly learned was due to not running the tight action with enough authority. This is not a rifle to be babied. Like any other pump, it’s a tool that’s meant to be used as such.
The throw of the action is surprisingly short. Once things loosened up a bit, we even threw in a few CCI .22 Shorts. While the snap is noticeably less, the gun never knew the difference. All rounds ejected with authority. Loading through the cartridge-shaped magazine tube is a breeze as is rapid unloading.
That’s one of the allures of the relatively simple pump-action rifles. They have a reputation for running, plain and simple. The actioned wore into a smoother groover after several hundred rounds downrange, and it certainly feels like it could become a trusted old pal with repeated use.
The only thing we weren’t crazy about, and that stands for all the lower-priced rimfires, is the black receiver finish, which stands in contrast to traditional blued steel. Through several hundred rounds and multiple shooters, however, the finish has held up just fine. Besides, we’re not worried because Henry would certainly provide a remedy if we ever had an issue.
As for range practice and accuracy testing, we opted to go straight iron sights, even though adding an optic would be a simple affair. We fired offhand at 15, 25, and 50 yards. While the 50-yard target opened up considerably, that was more due to freehand movement. Shooting at 25 yards easily put all rounds into less than a 2-inch circle.
While certainly not a target trigger, the pull did break under 4 pounds. We also didn’t note any issues with the iron sights, and shooters wanting to upgrade for greater accuracy potential without going to a full-on optic ought to look at Skinner Sights’ peep-style upgrades for Henry rifles.
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