[Ironmagz]

Found and purchased a used black edition Henry Survival Rifle!
Not a mark on the gun itself and came with an extra 3rd magazine and a box of 100 CCI Mini Mags. I told him the ammo is almost worth the price of admission.

The guy said he'd shot about 150 rounds through it and it's been great. The stock has a slot for 2 mags, but you can keep the 3rd mag in the receiver and it still all fits inside the stock.

I loaded up a mag with some Winchester bulk 555 copper plated HPs yesterday and stepped out back. It shot perfect. I hung an 8" target up at the base of a tree and from my back deck, roughly measured out to 40 yards. The first 3 shots (standing free hand) hit one in the center ring and 2 others just inside the outer ring low and just right, an inch apart.

I'm far from a great shot these days but that impressed me for the first shots out of a new gun... once I get a better feel for it, I have a feeling it'll be great! :rating10:

A few pics:

 

[mukwah]

I got one of those 3 months ago, put a BSA reflex sight on it's good to go! Congrats on your acquisition!

Sent from my Droid Razr using my trigger finger.

 

[Texheim]

That's nice.


Sent from an undisclosed underground location by fingerless monkeys using Tapatalk.

 

[mingaa]

Yep - great design in a 22! Good find.

 

[carlstaurus]

congrats, that's a beauty. have fun with it. :thumb:

 

[Plano Mark]

Congrats! I had one when Armalite made them in the early 1980s. I traded it years ago, and been thinking of getting another.

 

[bubblehead]

nice! congrats it looks like new

 

[SteveZ]

Have had one for years. It's a good "50-100 yard" rifle, but can be very ammo-choosy. Mine works best with CCI mini mags.

 

[ccviper]

Congrats! Been looking to add one of those myself

 

[texastaurusguy]

Nice ! I would love to have one of these to just throw into the back of my truck and head out to squirrel country. ;D

 

[HD-Mike]

Congrats on the new firearm. Looks good to me.

 

[45 Forever]

Nice find, They are handy to have around. And are hard to find.

 

[Ironmagz]

Thanks all. I had been close to picking up a new one at a couple of gun shows this year. But they had been at marked up/post election prices, and the only thing extra I would be getting out of the deal was taxes and paperwork...

I hadn't expected to find one used, just got lucky.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ice]

Nice find!

 

[Camo]

Nice gun.

 

[BangBang]

These are great little guns but in order to get the best performance out of them you need to know a bit about them....

The feed ramp for the AR7 is built into the magazine and not on the rifle. Because of this the ramp can easily be misaligned during use. Early magazines had 2 little pinch marks at the top of the magazine body itself to help keep everything aligned correctly. The marks may be hard to see if the magazine has had a lot of use. Later mags had a little wire spring to keep the bullets lined up. It is also recommended that only 40 grain round nose bullets be used... any flat nosed bullet, including hollowpoints, may have a problem feeding consistantly.

The AR7 (all of them) are designed with a dual recoil spring which is heavier than just about any other .22 semiautomatic. Because of this the gun really needs high velocity loads. Subsonics and flat nosed bullets will work feeding them one at a time.

I have 4 of these little rifles in my collection... one original Armalite, 2 Charter Arms versions and a Survival Arms model made in Cocoa, Fl. On my list of .22's I am hunting is the Explorer II Pistol. It is the pistol version of the AR7 and was produced by Charter Arms. It kind of resembled a Broomhandle Mauser. The gun was offered with a 6, 8, 10 inch barrel and a spare magazine was stored in the pistol grip. Interestingly enough, the barrels for the AR7 and the Explorer II were built with different alignment lugs so you could not take a pistol barrel and make a SBR out of it.

There were a lot of variations of the AR7. There was a model built for the army of Argentina as well as an Israeli Military model. One of the most collectible versions was manufactured for Herter's and they used the AR7 receivers and barrels to make .22 replicas of the Broomhandle Mauser, Thompson Submachine Gun, and M1 Carbine. If I ever run across one of those it will go home with me!

Something a lot of folks don't know is there are different size magazines available.... originally thay were offered with 8, 10, 15, 25, and 50 round magazines. They are rare but you can find them at larger gun shows and I even found a 15 rd in a box of loose parts in a pawn shop in Tampa. Both CDNN and Sportsman Guide offer 15 rounders. You have to keep checking with them however because they sell out quickly.

You can buy accessories, parts, stocks, and whatever from AR-7.com . They carry everything from extended charging handles to bright orange front sights. The website is Home .

I guess I should apologize for hijacking your thread.... I'm serious about my .22's and I can't help sharing with others.

Don

 

[mukwah]

Thanks for the info bangbang! That's good stuff to know!

Sent from my Droid Razr using my trigger finger.

 

[Ironmagz]

No apology needed BangBang! Some interesting stuff I learned in that reply. I guess I kind of know what you mean about the 22 platform. I have purchased 3 22 rifles in the last 3 months, and own one handed down by my grandfather. It is a single shot Target Master? Remington I think? I believe it was one of those from out of Montgomery Wards type models. It's been awhile since I looked it up. But it's in great shape for it's age and I had done lots of shooting hunting with it since I was a youngster. I also bought a Browning Buckmark a couple of years ago.

Anyway,I had gotten online and read about the rifle and it's history the night I got it home. I didn't know the history of it or how long that history actually was. In fact I originally thought it was a fairly new concept, you know, to go along with the "survival" mentality these days. But maybe I wasn't too far off, as the "Survival Rifle" name was probably just recently termed for it when Henry started building them. And now I don't remember what year that was. 2003 or so?

I did read about the different versions of the standard mags, and did notice all 3 of mine were the latest with the double wire alignment device up one side. Supposedly that is the best design so far.

Although the higher capacity mags sound good and I'll probably pursue some, it defeats the purpose of the rifle a bit, since they won't be able to fit in the stock...

I appreciate the website you mentioned, I'll surely be on there soon and checking it out.

 

[mukwah]

I went on their site a couple of months ago and purchased a carrying case for mine. Not much bigger than the rifle and very handy to throw in the trunk of the car or back of the pickup.

Sent from my Droid Razr using my trigger finger.

 

[ELW00D]

Congratulations on your new firearm.