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| Meet my new brush gun ... Henry! |
Howdy-do!
Hope everyone is enjoyin’ this awesome spring weather and gettin’ back
to doin’ some more time in the grime.
I’ll be headin’ back to Caddo Lake shortly, as well as hittin’ The Big
Thicket with my buddy big David Riojas hopefully sometime soon. And speakin’ of big … a couple of months back
I had decided that it was time for me to step-up the caliber of long-gun I use for
runnin’ ‘round out there in them woods. After
renovatin’ my vintage 1952 Tula SKS, it seemed that those pointy ‘lil 7.62 by
39mm’s looked a bit minuscule. Now don’t
get me wrong, they can definitely drill a brick as well as pack a Helluva wallop! But, considerin’ that there are much bigger critters out there than
feral hogs, I thought I might need to even-up the odds in my favor just in-case
…
After doin’ lots of
research, I chose the Henry H010 .45-70 … “Made
in America, Or Not Made At All”.
Folks, let me tell y’all what; when I finally decided on gettin’ a Henry over the Marlin Guide Gun, I was
not disappointed! This gun was a perfect fit for me, and I felt
much more comfortable holdin’ it … shoulderin’ it and crankin’ that lever than I
did with the competition’s arm. The
Henry has a pistol-gripped American walnut stock with an extremely ergonomic
rubber butt-plate which fit perfectly when shouldered. The overall length of this long-gun ain’t really
that long at all; at a mere 39”, it’s the perfect sized brush-gun for
throwin’-down on somethin’ big, hairy and chargin’ in heavy cover.
The Henry weighs only
7.08 lbs. unloaded, and holds 6 rounds … 5 in the tube and 1 chambered. Matter of fact, the biggest hurdle for me was
choosin’ Henry’s tube-feed over a loadin’ port.
Although awkward when I took it to the range for the first time, my
buddy Tod Pinkerton suggested I get some of them Pachmayr Snap-Caps to
practice my loadin’ skills on. That was
a big help, and I can now do it blindfolded.
Really! My wife laughs, but I
constantly practice sittin’ in my new Browning Strutter huntin’ chair while
blindfolded on our livin’ room floor. Hey,
laugh if you may … but I can chamber a round and be fully loaded and ready to
shoot in seconds. The addition of an
Uncle Mike’s neoprene butt-stock 6-shell holder helped; which, by-the-way does not slide out of position. With good shot placement, I don’t reckon any animal could survive takin' a round of .45-70, but havin' another 11 rounds at the ready damn-sure boosts my comfort level!
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| The .45-70 round dwarfs most loads ... |
My Henry’s first day at
the range was memorable; I was slightly unnerved due to the caliber, but even more-so
due to my unfamiliarity with this particular gun. The tactical crowd was already rockin’ &
rollin’ … but as soon as Tod and I took our first shots, every head on that range turned
to see just what in the Hell we were shootin’.
I had no problem shoulderin’ this beast, which was like unleashin’ the
Hammer of Thor! I went through an entire
box of Remington 405 gr., but those loads rainbowed as far as I was
concerned. Tod turned me on to the
Hornady FTX LEVERevolution he was usin’, which was only 325 gr. but seemed much-more
accurate. I was shootin’ open sights and
did not have any tools to adjust the windage or aperture. My shot placement was low and to the right,
but I noticed immediate shot correction as soon as I fired the Hornady. Tod had also let me shoot a couple of rounds of
his Buffalo Bore 420 gr., but even after shootin’ almost 40 rounds total for the day … I
wasn’t a bit sore, nor did my right shoulder bruise any the next mornin’.
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A dab of day-glow green is
easier seen by older eyes! |
The Henry is equipped
with an XS Ghost Ring rear sight, and a bladed sight on the end of its 18.43”
barrel. I painted the blade’s groove a fluorescent
green so it’s easier for me to view. Tod
had a Bushnell TRS-25 Red Dot Sight mounted on his Marlin, and after watchin’
him shoot, I thought it might be a nice future addition for my Henry. While my groupin’ that day was definitely nothin’ worth mentionin’ here; in my defense, I was
firin’ a new gun with open-sights. Tod
was well-grouped within an inch, which sold me on the idea of gettin’ that Red
Dot sooner than later. But before I purchase one,
I’ll have to find a Weaver 63B mount, which is what my Henry is tapped
for. I’m currently sittin’ on 6 boxes of
the Hornady to help me become more proficient on the range. I also picked up some Bufallo Bore 350 gr. JFN's, and the Grizzly .45-70 +P 350 gr. BCFP for out in the field. No, I ain’t goin' to be huntin’ bear; but with these
particular loads blastin’ outta my Henry, what doesn’t kill me ... better friggin’ run!
Lately, the majority of
my sloughstalkin’ has transpired at night, so for Christmas before last … my
beautiful bride had bought me a Redline Select Titanium flashlight from NEBO
Tools. I liked it so much that I decided
to pair the Hammer of Thor with the Green Lantern … so y’all check-out NEBO’s
iPROTEC LG170! This high-powered green
light clamps onto the loadin’ tube of my Henry and is activated by pressin’ a
sealed dual-mode pressure switch. This
awesome green light has four modes: High = 795 LUX for 8 hrs. at 240’, Medium =
330 LUX for 14 hrs. at 115’, Low = 75 LUX for 15 hrs. at 70’, or a high-powered
tactical strobe = 330 LUX LED for 72 hrs. at 240’! The NEBO iPROTEC is powered by three AAA batteries
… is water resistant and the bulb’s life is rated for 110,000+ hours. Check-out https://www.nebotools.com/ for more details.
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| iPROTEC mounted with the least amount of wire exposed ... |
As usual, I just cain’t
seem to use any gear that’s fresh outta the dang-box, so I had to make a slight
modification to my new green light. Due
to my decision on where to position the pressure-switch, the cord runnin’ to
the light on my new NEBO was just way
too friggin’ long. The last thing I needed was to snag the cord while in the field. Carefully dismantlin’
the back of the light, I noticed that the wires were simply soldered to a
switch plate. After measuring, I cut
off the excess cord, spliced the wirin’ and then ended-up spendin’ an
inordinate amount of friggin’ time tryin’ to re-solder them tiny-ass wires back
on to that dang switch plate! Well now ... it was simply insufferable tryin’ to solder those two friggin’ wires, which
were less than a ¼” apart on a switch-plate that was smaller than the diameter
of a nickel. Short of havin’ a mini-man
melt-down, the wires finally held and I was able to seal everything back up. But the hassle and temporary rush of high
blood-pressure was well worth the outcome.
Again,
I ain't hawkin' any of this stuff, but when I come across guns, gear, gadgets
& gizmos that I think are field-worthy, I'll be sharin' ‘em with y'all
right here. To be quite honest, so far I’ve only tested this new combo by
standin’ on my back porch at night. In
new moon conditions, I had shouldered my Henry and lit-up the back fence-line
with the iPROTEC … testin’ all four of its modes. We’re on just over an acre, and that
brilliant green light makes everything
stand-out. The real test will happen out
in the field at night in a real-live huntin’ situation. Let’s just assume that if anything fails, whether it's poor aim, bad shot placement or a failed light ... I
dang-sure won’t be able to blog about it!
But, I am very confident in this gear as well as my skills, enough to go
up against any quarry I may encounter. Hopefully,
that’ll be real dang soon …
