Compare Henry Repeating Arms products

Henry Repeating Arms is the rare American gunmaker that built an entire company around a single action type and refused to apologize for it. Lever guns are what Henry does, and almost the only thing it does, with a depth of catalog no competitor matches. For a US shooter, the appeal is straightforward: a classic American repeater, built start-to-finish in the United States, backed by a customer-service reputation that has become part of the brand's identity.

The name reaches back to Benjamin Tyler Henry's 1860 lever-action rifle, the direct ancestor of nearly every lever gun that followed. The modern company, however, is not a 19th-century relic. Anthony Imperato and his father Louis founded it in 1996, and it has since grown into one of the largest long-gun manufacturers in the country, producing rifles, shotguns, and revolvers under the motto "Made in America, or not made at all."

History & background

Henry started small in the New York City area and scaled up over three decades into a major manufacturer with facilities in Rice Lake and Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and Bayonne, New Jersey. By the mid-2020s the company employed well over 800 people and was producing hundreds of thousands of firearms a year, consistently ranking among the top US long-gun makers.

The "all-American" production claim is central to how Henry positions itself. Components are made and assembled domestically, under one roof per facility, which the company markets as a guarantee of consistent quality control. That message resonates with a particular kind of buyer — one who wants a traditional rifle and wants it built at home — and Henry has leaned into it harder than anyone else in the segment.

What they're known for

Henry's catalog is organized into a handful of clearly separated families.

The Golden Boy is the rifle most people picture when they hear the name. It pairs a polished brass receiver and butt plate with an American walnut stock and a 20-inch octagonal barrel, chambered in .22 LR (also .22 WMR and .17 HMR). It is a rimfire built for looks, smooth cycling, and plinking, and it has become an icon of modern lever-action Americana.

The Classic rimfire lever guns sit below the Golden Boy and deliver the core Henry experience — walnut stock, tube magazine, blued steel — without the dress finish. The .22 LR tube magazines hold up to 15 to 21 rounds depending on the model, a real capacity advantage over box-fed bolt rifles.

The Big Boy family moves up to centerfire pistol calibers: .357 Magnum/.38 Special, .44 Magnum/.44 Special, and .45 Colt, typically with a 20-inch octagonal barrel, brass or steel receiver, and a 10-round tube. These are the rifles that bridge revolver and carbine, popular for ranch work, woods hunting, and cowboy-action shooting.

The X Model line is Henry's modern, tactical-leaning take. X Models add a side loading gate — so the tube can be topped off without disassembly — along with synthetic furniture, M-Lok accessory slots, threaded barrels, and sling studs. The .357 Mag/.38 Spl X Model is among the most popular, with additional chamberings including .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, .30-30 Winchester, and the hard-hitting .45-70 Government.

Beyond the lever guns, Henry also makes the bolt-action and pump rimfires, the Homesteader 9mm carbine, and the popular single-shot and "All-Weather" variants — but the lever action remains the heart of the brand.

Buying guide — which Henry is right for you

Four questions narrow the field quickly.

What's the job? For casual range time and small-game work with a rimfire, a Classic Lever or Golden Boy in .22 LR is all most shooters need. For a do-everything pistol-caliber carbine — home and trail defense, hog hunting, CAS matches — a Big Boy or Big Boy X in .357 or .44 covers it. For deer and larger game in lever format, a .30-30 or .45-70 X Model delivers serious terminal energy at woods ranges.

Loading gate or not? This is the single most practical decision. Traditional Henry rifles load through the tube via a front cartridge follower; the newer side-gate models add a receiver loading gate so you can top off without dropping the magazine tube. If you plan to run the gun hard or reload on the move, choose a side-gate or X Model.

Brass, steel, or synthetic? Brass-receiver Golden Boy and Big Boy rifles are the showpieces — beautiful, heavier, collector-friendly. Blued or hardened-steel models are more practical field guns. The X Models' synthetic stocks and matte finishes are built to be used in weather and brush.

Optics? Classic top-eject Henry rifles aren't ideal for a traditional scope mount over the receiver. If you intend to mount glass or a red dot, look to the X Models and other drilled-and-tapped or side-eject configurations.

A common mistake is buying a heavy octagonal-barrel showpiece for a job a lighter round-barrel rifle would do better — the octagon profile looks the part but adds weight that matters on a long day. The flip side: under-gunning a deer hunt with a pistol-caliber carbine when a .30-30 or .45-70 is the appropriate tool.

Reputation & reviews

Henry's reputation in the US rests on two pillars: build quality and customer service. The Golden Boy and Big Boy lines are widely reviewed in the American shooting press as smooth-cycling, well-finished, and reliable, and the company's no-questions service handling is frequently cited by owners as a reason they buy. The X Model series has been received as a smart modernization — keeping the lever-action character while adding the side gate, threaded barrels, and accessory rails that today's shooters expect.

Henry Repeating Arms on US-GUNDEALS

Henry sits in the mid-tier of the market — more than entry-level imports, generally below custom and premium European long guns. Big Boy and X Model centerfire rifles typically land in the mid-hundreds to around a thousand dollars depending on finish and barrel, with brass-receiver showpieces toward the top of the range and steel/synthetic field models lower. Henry lever guns are compared across the shops on US-GUNDEALS, so you can line up street prices on a given Golden Boy, Big Boy, or X Model chambering and find the best current offer before you buy.

Sources: - https://www.henryusa.com/about-us/henry-today/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Repeating_Arms - https://gundigest.com/rifles/5-must-have-henry-rifles - https://www.americanrifleman.org/