I’m a big fan of pistol-caliber carbines. I know a 5.56 rifle is better, but 9mm is a lot cheaper to shoot. I blame the restrictive nature of my home range maxing out at 100 yards. Maybe that’s why I love PCCs.

Admittedly, most PCCs are predictable. Base it on the AR design and and make it take GLOCK magazines. At SHOT Show range day, however, we were greeted by a new entry in the class from none other than the lever gun maestros at Henry.

That’s right…Henry has released a semi-automatic 9mm carbine that has all the charm of a Henry rifle.

That charm is in the wood furniture and classic layout that makes me think of the early Marlin camp guns. It’s simple, but simple is good.

The Homesteader has the same beautiful finish you get on most Henry guns and it’s offset by what appears to be a stainless steel bolt. The gun is simple, but packs all the features of a more modern platform. It’s like a retromod take on a 9mm PCC.

Inside the Homesteader

The Homesteader is more than pretty wood furniture. The gun features a forward peep sight mounted to the barrel, which is quite fast and precise to use. I’m not sure if I’d prefer open sights for speed, and it would take more lead downrange to figure it out.

If you decide you want a red dot, the receiver is tapped and ready for a rail. The Homesteader features a tang safety reminiscent of the Mossberg 500 series shotguns more than bolt action rifles. It’s quick and easy to push and pull in and out of action.

In front of the trigger sits an ambidextrous bolt release. In front of the magazine sits an ambidextrous magazine release. It’s odd, but I feel like I could get used to it.

The magazines vary. Henry has five- and ten-round proprietary magazines, but the magwell is modular. You can get options to take (yes) GLOCK, Smith & Wesson M&P, and SIG P320 magazines. That’s a very smart move.

The barrel is threaded with the industry standard 1/2×28 threading for easy suppressor attachment.

The gun uses a blowback action, but they must be using some kind of tuning or a great recoil spring. You don’t have the same recoil you expect from blowback guns. It’s light and friendly, much like the Ruger PC Carbine with its dead blow blowback system. The Homesteader is a sweet shooter and had some real classic charm to it.

American walnut just appeals to me. This gun was a total surprise, but apparently, they briefly introduced it at NRAAM as a Friends of the NRA model. It flew under my radar, but no longer. Full review to come when we get our hands on one.

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69 COMMENTS

    • Back in the ’70s car manufactures came up with the lamest car designs.. Remember the “K” car?? That’s what this rifle looks like…

      • And they sold a ton of them. Just a simple design. Looks like it does not have a lot of unneeded crap.

      • Were it not for Iacocca’s K-Car, Chrysler would have been dead by the mid-80’s. Pretty is as pretty does.

      • Shut up!

        I had a Chrysler K car, and at the time, was the damns’t little thing around. 15,000rpm at 60mph, yet gave 30 mpg and was reliable.(for a dodge)

        Lol, luv ya, but don’t make fun of my 40 years ago ride!!

        The gun? Sweet I’m sure, but could never got off the coin they are asking for one.

        Picked up a Ruger PC Carbine for $440.00 when they came out, zero complaints on something I didn’t need, yet I’ve grown quite fond of it as a potential SHTF weapon for about 150 yards max.

        Cheap to feed, reliable, predictable, and hell bent for strong little rifle, carbine thingy.

        Fun factor alone – it’s a keeper!!

  2. Sweet. I’ll bet it will get sold in CA. That receiver reminds me of the old sporting Browning Automatic rifle. It was one hell of a rifle in .300 win mag.

    As you get older a PCC fills a niche.

    • Yes, it is one of the very few California legal PCCs. (Because, like the Ruger Mini, it doesn’t have a pistol grip.) Very interesting. Though without seeing it in the flesh, I can’t say that I am enthralled with the wood–it looks like plastic.

  3. I was really going to try not to spend so much money on cartridge unloaders this year (only bought two so far and January is half over!) but now this comes along. Looking better than a camp carbine.
    I must have one. If the mag well is modular, one fitting the old 59 series s&w pistol mags would be cool. Or make this carbine in a .45 to take 1911 mags.

    • Holy crap, I hope it is better than the Marlin POS. I had the 45 version. Taking a good idea and making it worthless was the obvious intent on somebody’s part. And no way to fix it. The bad part was baked in…

      I think Henry is better than that, and hope they stay that way. .

    • Speaking of additional calibers, I wish they would offer this in .40 S&W and 10mm Auto as well as .45 ACP.

      Little known fact about .40 S&W in carbines with 16-inch barrels: you get a pretty significant velocity boost.

      Little known fact about 10mm Auto in carbines with 16-inch barrels: you get a very significant velocity boost.

      Contrast that with 9mm Luger where you don’t get much of a velocity boost out of 16-inch carbine barrels.

      • Short of 50-90 grain cooper solids don’t most 9mm loads tend to plateau in velocity gains around 10 inches of barrel? Neat re 40 will need to investigate that one but remember 10mm

        • Hi point made it happen but no idea how well re carbine or pistol. 357 sig is oddly difficult to work with in comparison for pcc.

      • That’s really dependent on the burning rate of the powder. The slower burning rate powders that are suitable for what we used to call 9mm “SMG” ammo definitely give very significant velocity boosts with longer barrels, at least when we’re going from a 4″ pistol barrel up to the 8″ or thereabouts barrel of an SMG. 200+ ft/sec is the norm and depending on bullet weight and powder 300 is entirely possible.

        Going up from 8″ to 16″ tends not to gain us much, or any, additional velocity, though here I am talking specifically about something like the old 115gr FMJ RN loaded with a stout charge of something in that burning range from Unique to Blue Dot. Herco used to be favored for loading ammo with 115s and 124s for open-bolt SMGs that had heavy bolts and stout springs, back when hobbyists were able to obtain them, back before the Hughes Amendment made them unobtainable. 147s loaded with very fast burning powder are often 50+ ft/sec slower from 16″ barrels than from 4″ due to bore friction, but I don’t know if that’s a common combination these days. To put it another way, with 147s there are very few powders that will give you more velocity out of a 16″ barrel than a 4″ barrel, at least when we are restricted to 9mm case capacity and 9mm pressures, and none of them gives much more.

      • Well that explains why they left the price out.
        I’d have to take a look at the innards before I’d buy another Henry. The youth model .22 was junk IMO after my son came in the house and told me the trigger wasn’t resetting.
        I took it apart to fix it and was quite disappointed in what I found. Oh shes a beaut on the outside but cap gunm on the inside.

      • Over $900 for a no-frills semi-automatic pistol-caliber carbine? That is a hard pass.

        I would be incredibly hard pressed to spend $600 on this carbine. Spending $900 is completely out of the question, especially when there are perfectly functional alternate models available from other manufacturers at a substantially lower price.

    • CC,

      From the article above,

      “Henry has five and ten-round proprietary magazines, but the magwell is modular. You can get options to take … GLOCK, Smith & Wesson M&P, and SIG P320 magazines.“

  8. I want to know how much this carbine weighs and how it balances. Light weight (4 pounds or less) and balance rearward (balance point toward butt stock, not out front) make for a carbine that responsible children and elderly people can handle effectively.

    In my personal opinion, pistol caliber carbines are the ideal home-defense firearm. They are compact and maneuverable. Most carbines allow at least 15-round magazines and carbines which accept Glock magazines have options for 22-round and 29-round (or thereabouts) magazines. They produce negligible recoil which enables rapid and accurate follow-up shots. They have decent “stopping power”. And those carbine-length barrels significantly reduce the loudness of gunshots compared to handguns, shotguns, and rifles.

    • “Stopping power” is a meme kept alive by gun store commandos. It doesn’t exist. There is only tissue destruction, and by that metric no pistol cartridge can compete with 5.56, not even 5.56 out of an SBR. Only .44 Mag can even come close, and to do it you have to roll up hot handloads and shoot them out of a rifle.

  9. The “Gun 2.0” folks will be the ones to take the industry into the 22nd century. I look forward to putting optics on revolvers and M Lok furniture and bayonets on lever guns. And perhaps something with a 40 watt range???

        • I have that sequence burned into my brain for some stupid reason.

          terminator: “12 gauge auto-loader”

          terminator: “.45 long-slide with laser sighting”

          terminator: “phased-plasma rifle in the 40-watt range”

          gun store clerk: hey, just what you see pal

          terminator: “Uzi 9mm”

        • @Uncommon–it’s not stupid! “You know your weapons, Buddy. Everyone of these is ideal for home defense.”

  10. Very pretty, now instead of just producing an ever increasing variety of guns, maybe you could produce a few more of the ones you already have on you product list?

    Been waiting a year for two Henry Rifles already.

    • Ugly and expensive . Exile Armory had one in today’s video for $1650. Very hard pass on that. If the new Henry proves reliable they will sell tons of them. That it takes Glock magazines too was a very smart move.

  13. DO ANOTHER TAKE , DO A 360 , SHOW SIGHTS , IF OTHER OPITIONS FOR OPEN SIGHTS , SCOPE MOUNT ?

    THANKS INFOR ALWAYS
    PS WHEN TO HENRY ONLINE SIGHT NOT LISTING IT YET

    • Article says it has a peep sight and is drilled and tapped to add a rail–and then you can add whatever optic suits your fancy. With 9mm, a fixed 4x sight would be all that is necessary.

  15. Gun companies can’t make enough of current offerings for folks to buy so they make new models. Ammo companies can’t produce enough current cartridges for folks to buy so they make new cartridges.
    They’ve all gone stupid

    • I am sure there is a way such a thing could be made to work but could it be done at a competitive price and still be reliable?

    • Damn, the thought of This hurts my brain, but ok if that’s your swing..

      Why da hell not? This is freaking America still, for now..

  17. Nice looking carbine. At first sight it looked like a Browning. Will wait until I can finger one in person. Hard to beat a Ruger 9mm carbine. Time will tell. Kind of steep price for a 9mm. Also waiting for Ruger, who now owns Marlin to produce a new Marlin 357 lever action carbine. Wait and see. …

  19. A forum I’m on has a thread about what guns you want for 2023. I hadn’t posted on that thread because I didn’t know that I wanted any new guns (shocker, I know.) Well… I now have one to add to the list!

  21. Henry should offer a .45acp model too. Marlin made a “Camp 9” and a Camp .45acp semi auto rifle years ago. Had a guy offer me a like new Marlin Camp 45acp for $900.00 the other day AAMOF

  22. I definitely would love one of these, it looks like it is straight from the 1970’s. Living in a bedroom community where the houses are relatively close together, other choices for home defense present potential safety issues or have other factors that make them less than ideal. A 12 gauge in close quarters is incredibly loud, a 5.56 carbine runs the risk of unnecessary collateral damage, and handguns offer less power. A PCC seems like a reasonable compromise between all of these, especially with such a nice aesthetic.

    • Carbine length barrels do not lift the 9mm up to the level of 5.56. They don’t even come close. 5.56 tends not to penetrate excessively in animate targets. M193 Ball yaws and fragments very rapidly and rarely goes past 13″ to 14″, about the same as most pistol ammo that is intended for duty or defense. If you are that concerned about it, 55gr softpoints in .223 disintegrate instantaneously upon touching soft tissue and penetrate quite a bit less than most pistol rounds, so much so that most of them don’t reach the 12″ minimum penetration in gelatin recommended by the FBI. M855 “green tip” is probably best avoided if you’re concerned about excessive penetration in soft tissue–sometimes it yaws and fragments, sometimes it doesn’t, which is a tradeoff the Big Army was willing to make in the 1980s in order to get better penetration against light cover like building materials and automobile chassis. Otherwise 5.56 poses the same or less overpenetration risk than 9mm.

      If we’re talking about penetration in building materials I don’t know what to tell you. Any projectile capable of reaching a man’s vitals will fly right on through any conceivable amount of plywood and drywall as though it were all a single sheet of newspaper, and that is every bit as true of pistol calibers as of rifle calibers. Watch your front sight. Don’t miss.

  23. I’ve been tacticool since my 2A journey began. something about this design calls to me though. It speaks to me about ranches. Maybe World war II. very Americana. like an alternate reality something. it’s new yet classic feeling. I think this is great

  24. I have to ask what this is for. I know, I know, it’s designed to sell, not to meet any real-world need, but hear me out.

    Plinking? 9mm is an awful lot more expensive than .22. Small game hunting? 9mm may be a bit too destructive, if you intend to eat the meat, anyway. Home defense? Are you smoking crack? Weight of a long gun, bulk of a long gun, awkwardness in narrow hallways of a long gun, and pissant pistol cartridge power–and it doesn’t even have the happy switch. If you’re kitting up for CQB and the long gun you chose to bring to the fight isn’t at least 5.56 or 12 gauge, you’re doing it wrong. At least it isn’t manually operated, or a .22 with a fixed tube magazine, or a break-open single-shot, I guess. It’s neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat and I do not grasp what purpose it is intended to serve that all manner of much less expensive and much more widely available designs don’t already do far better.

    Someone’s gonna say “but muh grandma, she’s ninety years old and she lives in the ghetto and she needs a gun.” Can Grandma’s arthritic 90 year old hands pull back the charging handle? Is she willing to kill in self-defense, or is the gun going to be just another prize for a home invasion gang? And why did you abandon her to the ghetto? Walk away from the house, move her in with you, and take care of her in her old age. She may even be able to cook and do laundry and help with the kids. “What kind of gun is suitable for Grandma? We abandoned her in a slum and it’s entirely possible she might need to fight for her life against rip crews from the Crips or raiding parties from MS13 out to hand the gringos the eviction notice on her block” is a bizarre and alarming question to ask, and one that would have shocked people a hundred years ago. Once upon a time extended families all lived in the same dwelling. One of the advantages of this was that if circumstances arose requiring someone to shoot bad people in the face, there were generally going to be some hard guys present who were up to the task. “What kind of gun should we get Grandma” is right up there with “what kind of martial arts classes do you recommend for our wheelchair-bound grandmother? Jujitsu or tae kwon do?” She shouldn’t have to fight for her life. Move her in with you and protect her yourself.

    • Breathe in, count to four, exhale, count to four, repeat. And you might want to consider laying off the juice…

      • I’m not the one talking about pistol caliber carbines as anything other than range toys in AD 2023, my dude. I’m not the one talking about how best to kit Grandma up for CQB, either.

  25. I work at Henry in Ric Lake Wi. This rifle is still in the early stages of production,and I will be getting 1 next fall.

  26. I think that a few of these reviewers need to remember that this is still the USA and you have the option of buying something or not. You can criticize all you want but the bottom line with this and all firearms is “if you don’t like it, don’t buy it!” I own Henry, Marlin, Glock, Winchester yada, yada, yada and I bought each based on #1 – need, #2 – will it fulfill the purpose I want fulfilled and #3 – is the price within my budget. Not all are pretty. Not all are good for every purpose but every one is good at the purpose that I bought them for. Yes, I love lever Henry’s and that beautiful Walnut but it’s the HENRY that matters. If I have to toss this into the bed if my truck, it’s going to show it but if it works, bees wax will fix most of the cosmetic and even if not, if it goes bang, that’s why I bought it. So be negative if you want but it’s your opinion and those are in a quantity directly connected to the person spitting them out. Yes, that’s as polite a way of saying a__hole as I can think of.

  28. What would be a reasonable price for the new Henry Homesteader if I bought it with the Glock Adaptor and with a decent scope and a suppressor ?

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