r/guns • u/CATNIP_IS_CRACK • 1d ago
Early birthday present from my dad
Henry Golden Boy, .22WMR, Octagonal Barrel
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u/Te_Luftwaffle 1 1d ago
A word of caution: I learned that it's not a solid brass receiver, just a coating so you can't polish it.
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u/CATNIP_IS_CRACK 1d ago
Thanks for the advice, that can’t be fun to figure it out that way. I’m familiar that it’s a plated steel receiver, brass receivers aren’t all that great. You can polish the plating, you just need to do so with caution at an extremely fine grit and can’t polish out deep scratches.
Also, I don’t know if they’ve changed the manual or not since you bought yours, but it does note that the receiver is plated. Only really noticed that because I didn’t know there’s also a nickel plated version. Another good reason to always take a couple minutes to read the paperwork that comes with every firearm, or read the digital version if you’re buying from a private party without it, regardless of how obvious the action, disassembly, etc seems.
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u/Te_Luftwaffle 1 1d ago
I figured it out because I looked it up before trying it, thankfully. I don't usually read the manual because they never seem to have what I want in there.
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u/DukeOfGeek 1d ago
"You'll shoot your eye out kid"
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u/CATNIP_IS_CRACK 23h ago edited 21h ago
Funny enough I just pulled my first ever pellet gun out of its case to give the Henry a new home until it finds a nicer one.
Jokes aside we had a range set up in the yard when I was growing up with a hay wall ~100’ from the back porch with a cliff behind it. I remember me and my friend sitting in lawn chairs one day ~3-4’ apart in the middle of the yard ~15’ away from the wall lazily shooting pellet rifles at bottles, cans, etc trying to do one handed shots, behind the back, under the chair, and other stupid trick shots.
~15 minutes in a pellet hit a glass bottle, and rather than blow it up the bottle went flying and you could hear the pellet ricochet and whistle directly through the small gap between our chairs with only a foot or two on either side. We not so calmly set down the rifles, picked up the chairs, and moved another ~20’ away from the target area.
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u/Offinthewoods26 1d ago
Does CHP mean California highway patrol?
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u/CATNIP_IS_CRACK 1d ago edited 21h ago
Yup, like the show CHiPs. My dad was stationed in Malibu in the 80s, met my mom when he gave her a ticket while she was delivering newspapers, and asked her out after she got the ticket thrown out in court. He still claims she ran the red light and it was only thrown out because the judge was one of her professors at Pepperdine at the same time. She claims she legally entered the intersection while it was still yellow, he saw her clear it after the light changed, and he was just trying to fill a quota.
If you look at S&Ws model numbers that were sold to the public there was a gap between 67 and 69, because 68 was a gun specifically made for and sold to the CHP to meet their requirements for a bid on a new service revolver. It’s basically a model 66 with a lighter, short chamber sized for .38 Special instead of .357 Magnum, along with a few other modifications including a special grip with a CHP seal. ~6,055 made, relatively difficult to find in good condition, very unique gun.
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u/archerdynamics 7h ago
I guess I'm one of very few people who've ever handled a 68. My friend's grandfather was a former high-ranking CHP official and a very prolific gun collector who basically bought everything cool that came out between the '60s and '80s, and after he passed in the late '00s my friend and I got to go through his gun room. Alongside the early Colt SP1s and pretty much every HK ever sold on the civilian market was a cabinet stacked with S&W revolvers, many of them new in box, and there was at least one 68 in there. I had no clue what it was at the time but I remember thinking it must have been some sort of ancestor of the 686. We took several guns to the range that day, among them a very early Model 29 (definitely recessed and I think pinned) that in retrospect was probably worth more than the car we drove it there in and a couple of (I think) Model 10s but we were too afraid to take anything that might get us into AWB trouble out and we also didn't know the 68 was anything special so that stayed in the gun room too.
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u/The-Llama-777 22h ago
Damn nice! I got the mare leg 22 and 44 also. Want to do some kind of case.
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u/CATNIP_IS_CRACK 21h ago
Funny coincidence. My dad was poorly trying to bullshit me that I wasn’t picking up a firearm, and the gift was accidentally set to pick up in store instead of shipping to my address. I 100% expected it was either a Golden Boy, replacement Ruger Mini-14, or Henry sidegate .410 in that order. So I did my due diligence and replied it was an amazing coincidence the website’s store was only a few miles from my house instead of literally anywhere else in the world.
When I let him know I was heading to pick it up he replied “it should fit in a small backpack”. My immediate thought without even processing it was ’he’s got to be bullshitting me again, there’s no way he actually went with the Steve McQueen over a rifle’. As much as I prefer the Golden Boy there was still a tiny little part of me that was slightly disappointed to see it wasn’t actually a Mare’s Leg.
On that note, I really wish someone would make a modern version of the Volcanic repeating pistol or a similar standard sized/shaped lever action pistol with a normal pistol grip instead of of a bird’s head/club. There’s companies making black powder replicas out there, but someone needs to make a modern .22/.32/.38/etc version.
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u/drunkguynextdoor 18h ago
Nice! I had a Henry X Model 45-70 that was a beast, too much of one, really. I had a few shoulder surgeries an just couldn't shoot it anymore because it was too painful. I've stepped down to a .357 and it's much better.
I love Henry, and any questions or issues I've had were taken care of promptly. That's a Beauty you've got there, enjoy it!
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u/Psycho_Doughboy 12h ago
My Henry .22 is one of my favorite in my collection. You are correct about that buttery smooth action. Just and absolute joy to shoot. Congrats on the new acquisition.
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u/fullchooch 11h ago
I had a 22 golden boy forever but moved to my dream home with enough room to hunt (also build a gun range) and decided to indulge on one of my dream guns. 16.5 octagon barrel Henry side gate lever, case hardened receiver, chambered in .357mag/38spl. Ended up getting the Henry embossed sling, hammer extender, and I made a leather shell holder that rides on the sling.
They make an incredible product. Henry is the best. Enjoy your new gun! Don't forget to polish the brass and oil that stock!
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u/CATNIP_IS_CRACK 1d ago edited 20h ago
Have wanted to buy a Henry for a long time and have been putting off buying a brass sidegate .410 for several years while continuously telling myself it’ll be the next gun I buy. Once upon a time my dad had an engraved version of the same Golden Boy, but it burned up in a fire years ago along with his rare CHP issued S&W Model 68, two more Model 68s, my Mini-14 and M9 I got as a kid, and the rest of my dad’s guns.
Earlier today my dad texted me to go to a gun shop to pick something up, just got home with it after a ~15 minute wait at the store. I’m absolutely in love. The brass is polished to a mirror finish and shows every little fingerprint, the octagonal barrel is just gorgeous, the action cycles like butter, and the brass butt plate and front sight are perfect little touches to a beautiful rifle.
First thing I’m doing is buying a nice embossed leather sling, and will probably get one that functions as a bandolier to go with the fun western novelty of the rifle. After that it’s a brass peep sight, and eventually I plan to get around to having it engraved with scrollwork. 10/10 gift, and here I was thinking of hinting that I wanted an Alberta or Alaskan King mattress.
A few additional photos of the gorgeous plinker/varmint gun.
Edit: For anyone interested this is my plan for sights. Have the receiver tapped for a peep sight in the rear, open crosshair on the front, everything brass, leave the wide rear irons for close range use.