- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Messages
- 5,497
Alright guys. Here is the new Henry US Survival AR-7 I purchased on Monday. I've wanted one of these for a long time. Mostly I hear that they have a lot of jamming and feeding issues, so up until now I have stayed away from them. These days I'm more than capable of fine tuning a firearms feeding and cycling myself so I decided to give one a go and see if I liked it. I had hoped that I could find one or two kinds of ammo that function perfectly and I wouldn't have to fix anything. Luckily, that was the case. I'm going to polish the feed ramp up a little bit, which is nothing more than a tiny bevel around the pipe and leave it at that.
Here is a post I made in the ESEE forum earlier today in reference to the rifle.
So now to get on with an explanation of the weapon and a review of ammo.
This is the weapon all nice and packaged up in its own buttstock. I have to say, This thing is not just a gimmicky package. Everything slips into handy fitted spaces inside the buttstock. The stock itself is kind of large and bulbous, but after shooting with it for a few minutes, you really get used to it and it's no big deal.
After I remove the buttcap on the stock, you can see how everything fits in there. To remove the buttcap, all you have to do is pull on the bottom side of it and it pops off. I've heard that these stocks are supposed to seal up nice and waterproof with the cap on, but if it was me personally (which it will be and this IS what I'm going to do) I wouldn't trust that and I'd run a strip of duct tape or something around that sucker just to make sure. It might very well be waterproof, but I'm not risking it. I'll ONLY do this when I'm planning on getting wet. Other than that, it's not good to seal firearms up. You want them to breath a little.
The receiver can have a loaded magazine in it while in the stock and you also have a space for the barrel and an extra mag.
Here is everything removed from the stock.
The receiver is held on by a long screw that is in the handle area of the stock. There is a handle for the screw to turn it at the bottom of the handle area of the stock. You slide the receiver into this slot, line it up flush, and start twisting the screw until it's tight. It's really simple and very hard to mess up.
The barrel is held on by a tightening collar that locks it down. There is a raised nub on the barrel that mates up with a notch in the receiver so that it is lined up correctly when mounted. All you have to do is line that nub up and twist the collar until it's tight. As you do this, you'll see that it's actually pushing the bolt assembly backwards.
The mags are pretty standard. They are extremely slim and tough. The magazines have an eight round capacity. If you don't want to throw one of the mags in your pocket after the rifle is assembled, just put it in the extra mag well in the stock.
The scope I got to go with it is a very inexpensive scope that I like to use on inexpensive .22 rifles. It's a handy little Tasco I found a long time ago and I've been plenty happy with every one I've purchased. They're pretty tough, stay accurate, and have a great sight picture. I love the TV reticle. To mount this one, I have to first have the barrel off the receiver. When I mounted it to sight it in today, I slid it all the way back. That way, any time I want to use the scope, all I have to do is slide it all the way back again and it's already sighted in for that spot on the rail. I might give up a tiny bit of accuracy, but for what this rifle is intended for, and the effective range, it would be minimal. I don't really plan on using this rifle outside 40-50 yds. Much closer than that if I can help it.
The charging handle for the receiver is pretty cool. It actually sits in the bolt assembly and you pull it out to use it. Its tucks in so that the receiver can fit easily in the stock. Also, pushing the bolt back slightly and removing the charging handle is how you disassemble the receiver. It's all a really cool design.
The finish on the stock is just like rhyno-liner for truck beds. I dig it. Very tough finish and I think it looks the part.
Yes, this is a candle sitting in a miniature wicker chair. Don't ask. My wife has a very unique decorating style.
In case you're wondering what knife and cigar are sneaking into all these pictures for a cameo, it is a Stainless Pocket Kilo made with 440C and it has a cool Jade G10 pin. The cigar is a Fuente. Not the giant Hemmingway I prefer, but still a damn good cigar.
Here are the types of ammo I tested today.I'm not going to name them all off. You can read the boxes. This was the variety I had on hand. Out of these, my favorite to shoot in my other .22 rifles are the Federal Target Grade Performance high velocity round nose, Remmington Target standard velocity, and the SK Standard Plus. That SK standard plus is some good stuff and typically used for competition shooting.
Here is one of the style of targets used for today.
Here is the lovely wifey demonstrating how to assemble the Henry US Survival AR-7. I wanted to use an outdoor range to do this testing today, but the wifey wanted to go and I knew she wouldn't let me go to the outdoor range. We went to Bullseye. They have a pretty decent indoor range. The length of the rifle lanes was enough to do everything I wanted to do today. The back wall of their range is about as far away as I get from small game if I can help it. I love to do target shooting for distance, but I like to do small game shooting up close.
To be continued.....................
Here is a post I made in the ESEE forum earlier today in reference to the rifle.
Dylside said:I found one at one of my local shops that is the older version, not the one with tactical looking rails and orange crap all over it. I beat them into giving me a pretty good deal on it. Somewhere along the lines, the shop had lost the extra magazine that originally came with it. I talked them into giving me a free extra mag, the scope I wanted, and the rifle all for $225 out the door, tax and everything. This is the version I got. The buttstock is basically coated in rhyno-liner.
The one thing I discovered right off the bat that I didn't care for was how the notch was done to index the barrel when you mount it on the receiver. It not just crazy tight in the little groove so the barrel can twist ever so slightly when yo're tightening the locking nut thingy down, thus making the sights just slightly off. I can't have that. For close up stuff, I can let it go, but for anything further away, I want a good sighting system that I know is pretty spot on. That being the case, I decided to get a small scope for times when I want that accuracy.
The scope I wanted for it is a simple, tough little .22 scope that has a tv reticle. I really like this cope for .22's. I put one on both of my Marlins that I'm saving for my handsom, powerful, successful, and manly sons. What I'm going to do is mount the scope and mark on the rail where everything is so I can mount it in the same place next time. Then, I'm going to sight it in at 50yds. At that point, I can take it off and put it in my handy little foam filled scope box and throw it in the tool compartment with the rifle. When I want to use the scope, all I have to do is mount it in the same spot and it's good to go. I doubt I'll be using the scope very often though. I just wanted one for it just in case.
So far I'm pretty happy with it. I'm taking it to the range today to do A TON of ammo testing. The only firing I've done with it as of yet was shooting it out the back door of Andy's house. Not exactly definitive testing. lol. I'll find out what all cycles through it without problem. I've got several different types of high velocity stuff, really cheap bulk and nicer stuff. I'm also taking a bunch of standard velocity and subsonic to see how that stuff runs. I know that they subsonic won't cycle the weapon's action, but I want to see if standard velocity will, and I also have a small experiement I want to try to see if I can get it to cycle the subsonic stuff. I'm going to do a good post in my forum about it. All in all, I'm pretty stoked about this rifle. I got it to through in the trucks locking tool compatrment and leave it in there.
So now to get on with an explanation of the weapon and a review of ammo.
This is the weapon all nice and packaged up in its own buttstock. I have to say, This thing is not just a gimmicky package. Everything slips into handy fitted spaces inside the buttstock. The stock itself is kind of large and bulbous, but after shooting with it for a few minutes, you really get used to it and it's no big deal.
After I remove the buttcap on the stock, you can see how everything fits in there. To remove the buttcap, all you have to do is pull on the bottom side of it and it pops off. I've heard that these stocks are supposed to seal up nice and waterproof with the cap on, but if it was me personally (which it will be and this IS what I'm going to do) I wouldn't trust that and I'd run a strip of duct tape or something around that sucker just to make sure. It might very well be waterproof, but I'm not risking it. I'll ONLY do this when I'm planning on getting wet. Other than that, it's not good to seal firearms up. You want them to breath a little.
The receiver can have a loaded magazine in it while in the stock and you also have a space for the barrel and an extra mag.
Here is everything removed from the stock.
The receiver is held on by a long screw that is in the handle area of the stock. There is a handle for the screw to turn it at the bottom of the handle area of the stock. You slide the receiver into this slot, line it up flush, and start twisting the screw until it's tight. It's really simple and very hard to mess up.
The barrel is held on by a tightening collar that locks it down. There is a raised nub on the barrel that mates up with a notch in the receiver so that it is lined up correctly when mounted. All you have to do is line that nub up and twist the collar until it's tight. As you do this, you'll see that it's actually pushing the bolt assembly backwards.
The mags are pretty standard. They are extremely slim and tough. The magazines have an eight round capacity. If you don't want to throw one of the mags in your pocket after the rifle is assembled, just put it in the extra mag well in the stock.
The scope I got to go with it is a very inexpensive scope that I like to use on inexpensive .22 rifles. It's a handy little Tasco I found a long time ago and I've been plenty happy with every one I've purchased. They're pretty tough, stay accurate, and have a great sight picture. I love the TV reticle. To mount this one, I have to first have the barrel off the receiver. When I mounted it to sight it in today, I slid it all the way back. That way, any time I want to use the scope, all I have to do is slide it all the way back again and it's already sighted in for that spot on the rail. I might give up a tiny bit of accuracy, but for what this rifle is intended for, and the effective range, it would be minimal. I don't really plan on using this rifle outside 40-50 yds. Much closer than that if I can help it.
The charging handle for the receiver is pretty cool. It actually sits in the bolt assembly and you pull it out to use it. Its tucks in so that the receiver can fit easily in the stock. Also, pushing the bolt back slightly and removing the charging handle is how you disassemble the receiver. It's all a really cool design.
The finish on the stock is just like rhyno-liner for truck beds. I dig it. Very tough finish and I think it looks the part.
Yes, this is a candle sitting in a miniature wicker chair. Don't ask. My wife has a very unique decorating style.
In case you're wondering what knife and cigar are sneaking into all these pictures for a cameo, it is a Stainless Pocket Kilo made with 440C and it has a cool Jade G10 pin. The cigar is a Fuente. Not the giant Hemmingway I prefer, but still a damn good cigar.
Here are the types of ammo I tested today.I'm not going to name them all off. You can read the boxes. This was the variety I had on hand. Out of these, my favorite to shoot in my other .22 rifles are the Federal Target Grade Performance high velocity round nose, Remmington Target standard velocity, and the SK Standard Plus. That SK standard plus is some good stuff and typically used for competition shooting.
Here is one of the style of targets used for today.
Here is the lovely wifey demonstrating how to assemble the Henry US Survival AR-7. I wanted to use an outdoor range to do this testing today, but the wifey wanted to go and I knew she wouldn't let me go to the outdoor range. We went to Bullseye. They have a pretty decent indoor range. The length of the rifle lanes was enough to do everything I wanted to do today. The back wall of their range is about as far away as I get from small game if I can help it. I love to do target shooting for distance, but I like to do small game shooting up close.
To be continued.....................
Last edited: