As some of you know, I am having my Henry Small Game Carbine threaded so I decided to tear it down and save myself $75. While there are no real surprises, there are a couple of things owners need to know about this rifle.
In my use, this rifle was usually shot 50 to 100 times each outing and then the action was cleaned. That cleaning consisted of putting nitro powder solvent on a Q tip and cleaning the breech face, the bolt face and what I could get in and around the lifter area. I never cleaned the bore unless accuracy started to deteriorate and then I used a bore snake on it. It has always been pretty accurate out of the box with CCI SV ammo. in the 3000+ rounds since it was new, the lever has worked extremely smoothly and I have not had any feeding or failure to fire problems.
Upon taking off the Zamak receiver cover, I could not believe the amount of crud in there. It is lodged in areas that you can't get to through the ejection port. Carbon and unburned powder were found all around the bolt face, under the bolt and in the lifter assembly. These areas are not easy to get through the ejection port. The bolt and adjacent area should be cleaned periodically either ultrasonically or by dropping it in a jar of solvent and cleaning with a brush.
Inside I was surprised to find poor finish on the bolt and firing pin. This I cleaned up with a stone until the rough spots were smooth.
The lifter assembly was very cruddy. I guess the natural lubricity of Zamack keeps things moving alone as I could detect no grittiness to the action at all. This is the last piece to take out so it isn't something you are going to clean often. I suspect if you keep the bolt area clean, you will get less crap down into the lifter assembly.
One thing you will notice when inside is that Henry uses the Chinese philosophy of making things. Anything they have to, they polish, anything they don't, they don't. None of the seems in the Zamak receiver under the cover were cleaned up. Additionally, the stamped firing pin had sharp edges and the pin holes had rough edges. As I said before, the gun was extremely smooth despite all that I found but I cleaned it all up just the same.
While the poor finishing goes against my gunsmith mores, the bottom line is these guns look good and mine is more accurate than any of the 9822's I have owned and most of the Model 39's as well.
I'm sure I will be cleaning it more often using a suppressor based on my experience with my other guns. Oh well, that's the price of silence.
In my use, this rifle was usually shot 50 to 100 times each outing and then the action was cleaned. That cleaning consisted of putting nitro powder solvent on a Q tip and cleaning the breech face, the bolt face and what I could get in and around the lifter area. I never cleaned the bore unless accuracy started to deteriorate and then I used a bore snake on it. It has always been pretty accurate out of the box with CCI SV ammo. in the 3000+ rounds since it was new, the lever has worked extremely smoothly and I have not had any feeding or failure to fire problems.
Upon taking off the Zamak receiver cover, I could not believe the amount of crud in there. It is lodged in areas that you can't get to through the ejection port. Carbon and unburned powder were found all around the bolt face, under the bolt and in the lifter assembly. These areas are not easy to get through the ejection port. The bolt and adjacent area should be cleaned periodically either ultrasonically or by dropping it in a jar of solvent and cleaning with a brush.
Inside I was surprised to find poor finish on the bolt and firing pin. This I cleaned up with a stone until the rough spots were smooth.
The lifter assembly was very cruddy. I guess the natural lubricity of Zamack keeps things moving alone as I could detect no grittiness to the action at all. This is the last piece to take out so it isn't something you are going to clean often. I suspect if you keep the bolt area clean, you will get less crap down into the lifter assembly.
One thing you will notice when inside is that Henry uses the Chinese philosophy of making things. Anything they have to, they polish, anything they don't, they don't. None of the seems in the Zamak receiver under the cover were cleaned up. Additionally, the stamped firing pin had sharp edges and the pin holes had rough edges. As I said before, the gun was extremely smooth despite all that I found but I cleaned it all up just the same.
While the poor finishing goes against my gunsmith mores, the bottom line is these guns look good and mine is more accurate than any of the 9822's I have owned and most of the Model 39's as well.
I'm sure I will be cleaning it more often using a suppressor based on my experience with my other guns. Oh well, that's the price of silence.
