Henry Survival rifle

The advantages of the Ar-7 is its lightweight and compactness.
If you want a gun you can pop in your backpack and not notice the weight and forget its there (until you need it) then its a good choice.
I had a Charter Arms AR-7 for a couple of decades and factoring in its quirks i still like the design.
The quirks being you need to figure out what brand of ammo and bullet type it likes.
Mine would not feed hollowpoints or truncated cone bullets, it was a strictly lead round nose kinda gun.
Also after shooting two or three magazines you often need to hand tighten the barrel nut that surrounds the barrel and screws the barrel into the receiver.
In practice it takes about a 1/4 of a second to actually tighten it (takes longer to type it than to do it actually).
Really the gun is for opportunistic "survival type hunting" not prolonged match shooting.
Also none of the aftermarket magazines would work with the AR-7 i had , but maybe the new Henry AR-7's are different i don't know.
If i was specifically going out to hunt with a 22 i'd probably choose a Ruger 10/22 77/22 or a Marlin/Henry/Rossi/Taurus pump/lever 22. But for backpacking i still like the AR-7.
I might have to buy some kind of 22 again as at the moment i am currently without.
I'm in Canada but if i was living in the U.S i'd look into a getting a good 22 L.R pistol for backpacking/hunting.
You guys are lucky you can carry/hunt with handguns , up here the gov't doesn't allow us to hunt using handguns!
I've only fired handguns in formal indoor/outdoor range situations,
Theres no informal handgun plinking in Canada.
 
How about the little Henry Mini bolt from the same company? Not quite as compact but easy to take down and dead reliable. Also the stainless construction might hold up better. I am ancient and have learned a few things: The more moving parts it has, the sooner it will break :-) Good Luck
 
I bought one of the Henry's early last year from Wal-mart for around $150ish. The only major jamming I have had with it was the ammo I bought at the range. They were Remington Lightning .22, but since then I've bought CCI and have not experienced near the problems I had with the Remington.

As for accuracy, I couldn't tell you as I bought it cause it is cheap, light, can breakdown, and is a .22.
 
To bad Canada has those laws, the pistol on the bottom is a ruger 45/22 with an aluminum upper reciever made by tactical solutions. It is very light, very reliable and very accurate. When I had a red dot on it and with a rest rabbits were in the pot everytime out to 75yds or so, rested at the range was one ragged hole at 25yds with winchester dynapoints. Chris

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Very nice advice guys. I didn't even know what options were out there so thanks for all of the input.
 
Quietdude, I've been dreaming about one of the henry minibolts for a LONG time....maybe once I recover from my christmas deficit.
 
Take a 10/22, maybe buy a used one since the receiver is all you are going to keep.

Put a picatinney/weaver style rail on the receiver, get a Butler Creek synthetic stock (fixed, non folding as those are heavy) and a 16", carbon fiber, stainless steel lined barrel, standard contour with fixed sights on it.

Get a sling, the largest scope that will fit and you can afford, and 2 extra 10 round mads with a speed loader pouch made for a revolver to hold the extra mags.

The resulting rifle is one of the best .22's you can get and extremely light.
 
veryquietdude said:
How about the little Henry Mini bolt from the same company? Not quite as compact but easy to take down and dead reliable. Also the stainless construction might hold up better. I am ancient and have learned a few things: The more moving parts it has, the sooner it will break :-) Good Luck
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Very, very good advise!

I tried the survival rifle and sold it after a year of messing around with it. I don't have much patience with unreliable firearms. Go with a small bolt action.
 
There not the best choice,there are much better ones ;a 10/22 Compact,16" BBL,short stock;Springfield Armory M6 Scout 22 LR or 22 Hornet/.410,out of production;Savage 24C 22 LR/20 GA,out of production;CZ 452 Scout(youth rifle,16" BBL,will accept 5 and 10 rd mags).Good luck.
 
I have had a couple different makers version of the AR-7 and a marlin papoose. I still have the papoose. The stainless synthetic platform is very nice, and the papoose just feels better made. Plus, I was suprised at the accuracy the papoose showed with CCI minimags in the particular rifle I purchased. I can hit squirrels out to 40 yards consistently (no scope).
 
tgmr05 said:
I have had a couple different makers version of the AR-7 and a marlin papoose. I still have the papoose. The stainless synthetic platform is very nice, and the papoose just feels better made. Plus, I was suprised at the accuracy the papoose showed with CCI minimags in the particular rifle I purchased. I can hit squirrels out to 40 yards consistently (no scope).
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I shoot CCI mini-mags in my marlin 22 magnum bolt action. Shoots great in that as well.
 
Yes I had a Henry Survival rifle. It was ammo sensitive and the mags a bit fragile. Henry gave good warranty service. Finally I sold it and now use a 10/22 with a folding stock.
 
realstagman said:
I shoot CCI mini-mags in my marlin 22 magnum bolt action. Shoots great in that as well.
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If I understand you right you are shooting LR cartridges in a magnum chambered rifle. If you are, it is very dangerous, 22 LR and 22 magnum have a different diameter case, the magnum is larger in diameter. Every time you shoot, the LR case has to expand excessively to seal the chamber, you may not have experienced it yet but you will have head seperations and ruptured cases. Chris
 
I also owned one back in the 70's (honestly dont remember who made it but it was the exact style you linked to). It is a very neat little gun but like most have said here it was a jam o matic. I sold it for that reason. Nice novelty, compact, floats, etc: might get you out of a "JAM" pun intended, but I dont keep unreliable guns. I have a 10/22 and a ruger auto pistol. Both are very reliable and accurate but the pistol would be my pick for a pack due to the compact nature and the weight.
 
you can still find Springfield Armory M6 .22/.410 barreled long guns around at gun shows, shops , and pawn shops. pictured below is mine with the survival kit i built around it thanks to Jimbo/Vshrake for his website:

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they have not been made for years but i see one or two at nearly every gun show. good luck - Eric
 
borrowed time said:
you can still find Springfield Armory M6 .22/.410 barreled long guns around at gun shows, shops , and pawn shops. pictured below is mine with the survival kit i built around it thanks to Jimbo/Vshrake for his website:
they have not been made for years but i see one or two at nearly every gun show. good luck - Eric
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Hows the trigger pull on it? Looks awkward with a four finger trigger... How accurate? Patterns from the scattergun? I have been looking at one for a while and would like some info on it.
 
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