The H023 proved to be super reliable (Travis Pike for TTAG)

It’s a new year, so we got a new Henry. Last year, Henry introduced us to something fairly radical in the form of the Henry Homesteader. The Homesteader is a 9mm carbine. This year, they’ve swung hard and hit us with something new and grand in the form of the H023. How they went from the creative names of the Homesteader and Big Boy to the H023 is beyond me, but I’m not here to complain about names.

The H023 – A Modern Lever Gun

Lever guns have always been a bit limited by the projectiles they fire and the tubular magazine. The H023 diverts from the traditional rifle by introducing real rifle cartridges like the 5.56 and .300 Blackout. Henry had the Long Ranger, so a .223 Lever gun isn’t new, but the H023 is quite a bit different. Instead of using a dinky, expensive, low-capacity magazine, you can just toss a P-MAG into the gun.

The Action is super smooth (Travis Pike for TTAG)

Yep, an AR-15 magazine.

It also uses a rotating bolt for clear and consistent extraction. The gun’s lever is ultra smooth and light. It’s a real treat to activate. The magazine release is an ambidextrous design that sits beneath the gun and is pulled downward to free the magazine. At the rear sits a tang safety that’s identical to the model found on the Homesteader. The barrel is also threaded, and they had models with suppressors at the Range Day.

A suppressed lever gun with subsonic .300 Blackout is nice and quiet. There is no action moving back and forth, so it’s about as quiet as a proper rifle gets. The H023 comes with big open sights but can easily accept a scope rail and scope. The iron sights made it easy to hit targets out to fifty yards, which is about as far as the range went.

The H023 proved to be super reliable (Travis Pike for TTAG)

The H023 hasn’t even popped up on Henry’s website, so we are lacking a few details. Hopefully, it won’t be priced too high. Henry makes good stuff, and the H023 is a radical departure from the traditional lever gun. I need a few hundred rounds and a few days at the range to really figure out and maybe Henry will abide us in the coming months.

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51 COMMENTS

  1. It’s easy for a gun writer to go to the Shot Show while the rest of us have to work. I love the looks of their 9mm, but it’s been plagued with numerous feeding problems. Pretty gun but marginal quality and wayyyyy too expensive! Think I’ll pass on this one too!!

    • I agree but it would still be at least a grand in ILLANNOY. And my favorite gun shop has Mini 14 non tacticool in stock. With the wood stock & 10 round mags so as not to scare dims🙄

  3. That is different.
    Good to see someone thinking out of the box.
    Will it sell, only time will tell.

    • Too expensive and will be recalled for some reason in a few months. Even their single shot was recalled !

      • “Even their single shot was recalled.”
        Well how about that JWTaylor, and my Winchester mod 20 is still working just fine.

    • A little too ‘outside the box’, if it’s true there’s no hammer to de-cock the thing…

      • I noted Travis’ comment about this thing offering “real rifle cartridges”. I guess the venerable .30-30 isn’t considered “real” anymore. That cartridge has taken down more deer and Old West undesirables than any other.

        I’ll stick with my lever action in .30-30, and keep the 5.56 & .300 BLK with the ARs. Mix ’em up if you wish and tickle your fancy, but it’s not for me.

  4. Now if someone would just come up with better, larger capacity aftermarket magazines for the Browning BLR…

  5. Just tried to post, but did not go through.

    Henry uses model numbers in the format H###, usually with clarifying letters after the last number.

    I expect they will soon announce a name for this one as well.

  6. “H023” is almost certainly the Henry model number. All their rifles have a similar “H###” model number, most also come with qualifying letters after.

    For example, H009 is the traditional 30-30 lever action rifle.
    H009G is the same rifle with the side gate loading port.
    H009GL is the same rifle with the side gate loading port AND the large loop lever handle.

    Etc.

    I would expect Henry to soon come up with a name.

  7. Before falling in love nowadays one has to ask themselves which one is the go-to when 3 armed intruders are beating the door down, the Henry or an AR-15?

    • If you live in a communist state like California or Washington (and you lack grandfathered AR15s), then you grab this Henry.

      • Unfortunately, barring a new precedent set by SCOTUS, many of those states use the removable magazine as one of the disqualifiers, which means this rifle would be just as “banned” as the others.

        • I think that only applies to semi-autos. Almost everything uses detachable magazines these days. For example, I bought a bolt action Ruger American hunting rifle last year sometime after the assault weapon ban went into effect here in WA. It has a detachable magazine, and there is no problem with that.

          Here in WA a person using this Henry would be limited to ten round AR15 magazines (unless like myself he or she had bought regular AR mags before the mag ban hit a couple years ago). Then again, I have ARs so I don’t need this Henry.

          Speaking of WA, it should serve as a lesson to everyone. Ten years ago, our gun laws were about average for the country (and better than Texas or Florida). In the last decade, our gun laws have gone to crap. Washington is now one of the worst States in the Union for gun laws. That’s what happens when Democrats control the state legislature, senate, and governor’s office. They wreck the state.

        • “that only applies to semi-autos”

          I’m honestly not sure. I do seem to recall that some states define the ban based on a gun having any of a list of attributes, one of which is the detachable magazine. I guess we’d have to do some research, but I’m not gonna take the time.

      • This is a huge use case. An AR for people who can’t have big scary guns. Rate of fire is the only downside, but it taking P mags is awesome. Now bring on the 308 and 7.62 that takes AK mags.

    • Or a double barreled shotgunm.
      Just racking the slide should scare them off. If it doesn’t you can blast through the door or two shots off the balcony.

    • A lever action would not be my first choice in any kind of defensive situation. There isn’t always an option though. That doesn’t mean I don’t want it.

      • Big Caliber Leverguns are the rifle of choice carried by guides in areas that have a Large ( Brown and Grizzly/Snizzly) Bear population.

  8. This looks and sounds almost exactly like the Fightlite Herring Model 2024, which is coming out this spring but was announced last year.
    It sounds like Henry copied the idea from Fightlite.
    But the Fightlite Herring Model 2024 has one huge advantage over the Henry, because the Herring Model 2024 is compatible with all standard AR-15 uppers, so it’s multi-caliber just like an AR-15 rifle is! You can have one Herring 2024 “lower” and then get multiple uppers in different calibers, not just 5.56 and 300 BLK (which will be their initial offerings that come with the rifle), but any caliber of your choice, such as 450 Bushmaster, 350 Legend, 6.5 Grendel, 400 Legend, 6.8 SPC, or whatever your heart desires. If I provide a link, it will get sent to moderation, so just Google Fightlite Herring Model 2024.
    The Herring Model 2024 is also over a pound lighter than the Henry at only 5.7 pounds (I found another review that said the Henry is 6.8 pounds).

    I do like the looks of the Henry better, as it’s wood, which helps those of us stuck behind the iron curtain to avoiding being charged with excessive force for using an “evil scary black rifle” to defend against home invaders!
    But the Herring Model 2024 is more practical, with their upper having a full-length top rail and an M-Lok on all other sides like an AR-15, which lets you accessorize it much more easily (but that also gives it a tactical look that many lever-action rifle users dislike, so that’s not necessarily an advantage to everyone’s eyes).
    I’m sure Ranger Point Precision will eventually come out with a tactical M-Lok forearm for the Henry H023 like they did for the Henry Long Ranger.

    Obviously, Henry designed theirs to compete with the Fightlite Herring Model 2024, but Henry will also be competing against their own Long Ranger rifles! I used to have a Long Ranger, but I quickly sold it because I disliked the expensive proprietary magazines that only hold 4 or 5 rounds, the magazine release button which didn’t work well (it was a real struggle to change mags, and the mags rarely dropped free), and the overall length and balance of the rifle. Hopefully this new one will fix all those problems.
    Specs? Barrel length? Overall length?

    Bottom line: Living in a blue state, I’d get the Henry (because it doesn’t look like an “evil scary black rifle”), but if I were in a red state, I’d get the Fightlite Herring Model 2024 for versatility (being able to use any AR-15 upper on it) and the M-Lok forearm.

  9. Don’t forget the Browning BLR, or FDR’s favorite, the 1895. They’re also available in real rifle calibers.

    • Yes, the name has been all over the place.
      I suspect if you’re there, and you don’t know, all you gotta do is ask…

  12. My sons Henry .22Youth Model had a weak trigger return spring, had he not had the muzzle pointed in a safe direction he could have killed someone when he cocked the gunm. I took the gunm apart to fix it and was disappointed, talk about lipstick on a pig.
    After that No Thanks on a Henry.

  13. This is a very cool idea.

    The rotating bolt thing kind of reminds me of a Savage or a Browning BLR (I’ll have to look those up).

    Making it work with a conventional stick magazine is just genius. Reloading a lever gun can be a little slow & cumbersome.

  14. Ew.
    I thought Hornaday solved the spitzer problem with their Lever-Evolution line.
    If you absolutely must have a detachable magazine for a lever action I propose a removable tube magazine. And no hammer, come on!

    • Just as an experiment, I took my Marlin444 out of the gun safe, taped a sanding sponge (about the same size, nowhere near the same weight) in front of the lever to simulate this…. and absolutely HATE what it would do to a nice handling rifle. This would definitely be a “Try Before You Buy” gunm. Thanks, but No Thanks, Henry.

    • Not all possums are the same. Some are armadillos and curl up in balls at noises.
      Some deshoulder and the finger comes off the trigger and they try and remove themselves by lowering it so much they almost drop it.

    • Not really, but I’d like to blame Daisy Red Rider Air Rifles. Probably 80% of us had one as our first lever gun. You had to tip those up for a BB to fall into the chamber, and the spring was tough for a young kid to cock without taking it off the shoulder for more leverage.

      In reality, sloppy manual of arms.

  16. I’m actually gonna take a look see at them. Not every gun is a working or fighting gun. Some are for fun or hunting or plinking. I even have a Henry 357 just because I like it.
    My truck rifle rack holds 2 so if it goes full Red Dawn while I’m feeding cattle I’ll still be able to stay in the fight for those here who are worried. You see here in Free America we aren’t limited by anything except budget and spouses.

  17. could have included a better picture of the gun, other sites showing this model at least took a pic of it on the table, etc. Its difficult to really see anything on what this post shows.

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