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Need a .22 pump or lever action

56K views 112 replies 22 participants last post by  eljay 
#1 · (Edited)
I find myself without a .22 and, living in the country, I feel I gotta have one. I'm looking for opinions/advice/experience.

I am ONLY interested in either a pump or a lever action, and I don't want a Henry. I would prefer that it be able to accept some sort of receiver mounted aperture sight (and NOT a tang mounted type).

Given those constraints, what should I be looking at?

Thanks,

eljay
 
#27 ·
Jim H said:
Here this should give you the info on the Marlin 56:

Marlin’s Levermatic Rifle Line
Offered Untraditional Design
by John Malloy
Contributing Editor to The New Gun Week
Wow! Now I know about the Marlin 56. Thanks for that! I wonder how often those show up in gun shops, or at the shows. If I make the big Dallas Arms Collectors show in Dallas next month, I may see one or more. If I'm ever going to see one, I suspect it will be there. In Texas, that's the granddaddy of all gun shows.

I also wonder...are they now considered collector's items, and priced accordingly?

Again, thanks for the info

eljay
 
#28 ·
Gismo said:
Ok, this does change things. Have you thought about a single shot for your grandson to start with, or would you still rather go the lever action way? Since he will start with the Daisy, then maybe the lever gun would be better. He will be used to working the lever by then.
He will not be going out by himself for quite a while, as I'm a strict and conservative teacher. So, in the interest of conserving storage space and cash, I want to get one rifle, that suits me, and that I can teach him with. I believe that any of the lever actions we're talking about, and probably the Remington pump, can be loaded single shot.

And so, I want to go that way. Hope it's a good decision.

Comments on this thread have convinced me to reconsider my position on the Henrys. The one I like the most (up until now) is the straight .22 lever action, I guess because it has the look of the 94 Winnie, of which I am EXTREMELY fond.

Thanks for your inputs,

eljay
 
#29 ·
william iorg said:
The Marlin Model 39 (we have the 39M - straight stock, shorter barrel) and the Remington are readily available new.
Slim,

Can you (or anyone else seeing this) tell me when Marlin stopped making the 39M? This is the Marlin I would want, if I could find one. If I go prowling gun shops/pawn shops/gun shows, I'm wondering how hard a time I'll have finding one.

Thanks for all your help,

eljay
 
#30 ·
eljay said:
Slim,

Can you (or anyone else seeing this) tell me when Marlin stopped making the 39M? This is the Marlin I would want, if I could find one. If I go prowling gun shops/pawn shops/gun shows, I'm wondering how hard a time I'll have finding one.

Thanks for all your help,

eljay
They stopped making the 39M in 1987.
 
#31 ·
I have a remington pump that Dad won somewhere in a raffle. I feel it shoots nice and I plan on getting my wife [city girl] to shoot some more. It's a nice plinking gun. Of course there was an old Winchester bolt w/ 5 round clip & tiny scope in 22 too but I like shooting the pump more.
 
#32 ·
Gismo said:
They stopped making the 39M in 1987.
Thanks. How likely do you think it would be to run across one of them at a gun shop, pawn shop, or gun show?

By the way (off topic!) I had read your thread about ghost ring sights on a Marlin, and wanted to mention to you that today I shot my 94 .44 Mag with the XS Ghost Ring sight installed, with the black plastic temporary front sight, which is used to verify the front sight height before installing it. The bad news is I need a different front sight than the one supplied, the good news is that it'll be shorter than the one supplied, which I like. I'll be swapping it out tomorrow in Fort Worth and then I can see if the wide white stripe on the wide blade is as good as I've heard.

What I wanted to say is, that for me, the ghost ring works just like I'd read. As long as I concentrated on just looking at the front sight and the target, it's very fast and accurate. The only time the group opened up is when I started consciously trying to center the tip of the front sight in the ring, which all advice I've read says will produce bad results.

Just wanted to pass that on to you.

eljay
 
#33 ·
Thanks eljay, Will keep all that in mind when my turn comes. Should be real soon.

About the 39M... you just never know what you will find at a shop or a gun show. Last year a local shop had 4 old 39A's and two 39M's. I was going to get one of the 39M's, but forgot all about it until you just asked about it. Now I will be looking again.
 
#34 ·
Gismo said:
Thanks eljay, Will keep all that in mind when my turn comes. Should be real soon.

About the 39M... you just never know what you will find at a shop or a gun show. Last year a local shop had 4 old 39A's and two 39M's. I was going to get one of the 39M's, but forgot all about it until you just asked about it. Now I will be looking again.
Okay, good. I think I'm going to do some prowling around. And, make that big show in Dallas next month.

Gismo, I only recently joined this forum, and I've got to say that it is, hands down, far and away the best I have ever seen. EVERYONE on it seems to be a serious gun person, and both sincere and helpful. Very, very refreshing. I'm glad I found it.

eljay
 
#35 ·
Gismo, I only recently joined this forum, and I've got to say that it is, hands down, far and away the best I have ever seen. EVERYONE on it seems to be a serious gun person, and both sincere and helpful. Very, very refreshing. I'm glad I found it.

eljay[/QUOTE]


Glad you like it here. We sometimes get into debates about our opinions, but you just have to look at everything everyone tells you and decide for yourself. There are many knowledgable guys here. Like I just read in another post... there will usually be someone in here with an answer to what you are asking. With all these guys.. someone will know.
 
#36 ·
eljay,
I just picked up a Henry H001T two days ago and took it to the range yesterday. This model is just like the Golden Boy, but doesn't have the brasslite receiver. Let me assure you that there isn't any plastic whatsoever on, or in, my rifle.

If you have handled a Henry, you already know it has the smoothest action on the market. What suprised me was the trigger....light and crisp with no creep. Best factory trigger I have ever squeezed. Finally, this thing is a real shooter!

JIm
 
#37 ·
DakotaElkSlayer said:
eljay,
I just picked up a Henry H001T two days ago and took it to the range yesterday. This model is just like the Golden Boy, but doesn't have the brasslite receiver. Let me assure you that there isn't any plastic whatsoever on, or in, my rifle.

If you have handled a Henry, you already know it has the smoothest action on the market. What suprised me was the trigger....light and crisp with no creep. Best factory trigger I have ever squeezed. Finally, this thing is a real shooter!

JIm

The H001T is the same model I have. Great shootin rifle.
 
#38 ·
DakotaElkSlayer said:
eljay,
I just picked up a Henry H001T two days ago and took it to the range yesterday. This model is just like the Golden Boy, but doesn't have the brasslite receiver. Let me assure you that there isn't any plastic whatsoever on, or in, my rifle.

If you have handled a Henry, you already know it has the smoothest action on the market. What suprised me was the trigger....light and crisp with no creep. Best factory trigger I have ever squeezed. Finally, this thing is a real shooter!

JIm
JIm,

Thanks for that input, and glad to hear you like the rifle. It's always rewarding when you buy a gun, and then find you like it as much as you thought you would.

I want to preface what I'm about to say by saying that I've never owned a Henry, only handled a lever and a pump in a store, and that's all the first hand knowledge I have. And it's true that those guns felt good to me.

That said, here's what I get if I try and summarize everything that I've been told by others about Henrys in addition to my reaction to the ones I handled.

1. I have never heard or read a single bad word about Henrys from people who own them. Every owner that I've heard from likes their Henrys.

2. Some dealers like them, some say they're "mediocre at best" (here quoting a dealer I've been buying guns from for about 25 years).

3. Most gunsmiths I've had occasion to talk to don't like them (This could well be an emotional response, I'll agree).

4. The lever action I handled was as smooth as a 9422 (the gold standard, in my opinion), but not smoother.

5. The trigger pull on the gun I handled was, perhaps, the best stock pull I've encountered. The 9422M in my family is equal, but out of the box had a lot of creep, for which I had to design a fix that would not create the possibility of the half cock notch catching the hammer on its way down, by adding metal rather than removing it.

So that's a summary of all the information I've gathered to date about Henrys. Surprising, and somewhat perplexing to me is that, if I search the forums, I can find more people unhappy with their 9422s than with their Henrys. And our 9422M, right now the sweetest .22 lever I've ever handled, took some serious work to get it that way, and I'm not talking about buying and installing a hammer and sear from Volquartson, either.

Also, today I had the opportunity to handle a couple of Marlin Golden 39s. I was really ready to like this gun, had never handled one. And I know that's a small data sample but, well, I guess our 9422M has me spoiled. On both of these Marlins the trigger would definitely have to have work, and the action was not as smooth as the 9422M (I should add, the action has been good on every 9422 and 9422M I've ever handled but on the newer ones, the trigger creep HAS TO BE FIXED).

I think what it is, I like 94s and 9422s. I like blued steel guns with Walnut stocks. But the engineer in me knows that good things can be done with aluminum, and bad things can be done with steel. And there are other woods out there as good as Walnut.

And I said, back when I started this thread, that I was looking for a plinker. Not a hunter, not a target shooter, and definitely not a collector's item. So, what am I gonna do?

Well, I'm going to sleep on it, but right now I seem to be pointing towards either a Remington Model 572 Fieldmaster Pump, or a Henry Lever Action, the standard model.

Strange, huh? Both have Walnut stocks (I think), but both have aluminum receivers, and probably triggers, and I don't know what else.

Oh and by the way...If there's anyone out there who owns, or has owned, a Henry, and is or was dissatisfied with it, JUMP UP AND TELL ME ABOUT IT! I cannot think of any gun I've been involved with that NOBODY was dissatisfied with, not even the S&W 27s and 29s and Colt Pythons that I used to use and work on.

Sorry, I didn't mean to carry on so, and I do appreciate all the inputs.

eljay
 
#39 ·
quote:
Strange, huh? Both have Walnut stocks (I think), but both have aluminum receivers, and probably triggers, and I don't know what else...



eljay,
The trigger in the Henry is steel. The Henry also does have a walnut stock. Sometimes you run into one with what looks like AA or AAA fancy walnut on them. Saw one at wal-mart a few months ago that had curl all in the stock. Nothing bad to say about them here.

I do agree that the older 94's were really good, but in the past few years, wood fit and finish was not the best.
 
#40 ·
Gismo said:
quote:
Strange, huh? Both have Walnut stocks (I think), but both have aluminum receivers, and probably triggers, and I don't know what else...



eljay,
The trigger in the Henry is steel. The Henry also does have a walnut stock. Sometimes you run into one with what looks like AA or AAA fancy walnut on them. Saw one at wal-mart a few months ago that had curl all in the stock. Nothing bad to say about them here.

I do agree that the older 94's were really good, but in the past few years, wood fit and finish was not the best.
Gismo, you're getting me closer and closer to going out for the Henry! The 9422M came into the family the last year they made them and, as it turned out, the 94 .44 Mag the same way. I guess that's enough "heritage" for one family. I was not intending to knock the Henry in my last post, I was just trying to summarize what I'd learned, or been told. And again, I appreciate you're input.

I'm going to make two gun shows this month, a small country one, and a very, very big one in Dallas. That is, unless I walk into a shop, pick up a Henry, and like it so much I walk out with it. And that might happen. I've not done well buying guns at gun shows.

eljay
 
#41 ·
It's a funny thing as much as I love lever actions ! I really love pumpactions when it comes to .22s .The little Remmington I picked up is a very early model very much like the browning,my step son was having difficulties with the lever (as he suffers from dexlior ) Yet with the Pump he took to it like a duck to water !

Dave
 
#42 ·
Gismo said:
eljay,
The trigger in the Henry is steel. The Henry also does have a walnut stock. Sometimes you run into one with what looks like AA or AAA fancy walnut on them. Saw one at wal-mart a few months ago that had curl all in the stock. Nothing bad to say about them here.

I do agree that the older 94's were really good, but in the past few years, wood fit and finish was not the best.
Gismo, can you tell me this: If I want to buy a Henry lever action 22LR, and I will want to put a Williams WGRS aperture on the back, and replace the front with a blade sight, what model I need to get? It appears to me that the baseline model has a front sight that incoroprates the sight with the barrel band, or something. In all of the reading I've done, you seem to be the most knowlegable on Henrys. Can you help me with this?

Thanks,

eljay
 
#46 ·
Gismo said:
Yes, but on which Henry model (.22 lever action) can I change the front sight? I THINK I have read on rimfire.com that the "T" model is the one with a metal barrel band and a dovetail front sight.

If only there were some good gun stores close to where I live, I wouldn't have to ask these dumb questions. ;-) Also if the Henry web page were a little more informative. about things like sights.

eljay
 
#47 ·
I have the octogan barreled one so I just called my dad. He has the standard model. The front sight is part of the barrel band. Maybe can still be used with the rear peep though. If you get one like mine, the H001T then you can get whatever front sight you want. Just have to know the height to match the peep.
 
#48 ·
Gismo said:
Can you just use the fron sight that is on the gun, or do you want to change it?
I THINK I will want to change it, as everything I've read, plus what little experience I have (Ruger Ranch Rifle), indicates that a blade front sight, as opposed to a bead, is the best thing for an aperture or ghost ring rear sight.
 
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