Just found out about these, apparently they were at SHOT show last month, but this is news to me, so all the media at SHOT dropped the ball not covering this. I mean, this is big news, albeit expected news that Henry was making a side gate lever rifle in revolver calibers.
I'm fine with this, it's a lot better looking than the similar Mossberg lever action that looked like an abortion. The synthetic stock and fore-end are fine, I have a classic Big Boy and I'm scared to death of scratching up the stock, but with this I wouldn't care. The addition of rail for a light is nice.
The threaded barrel is a great feature to have, but I don't care about it. The biggest improvement is the fiber optic sights because traditional sights on lever actions just suck.
Will I buy one? I've had a .45 Colt Rossi on the list for a while now and given I know the action can handle the Ruger only .45 power levels, I'm still going to get that, but for .357/.38? I would rather get the Henry as the barrels are likely more accurate.
With how semi auto guns have become the new machine gun to anti's, it's good to have alternative options for home defense should a ban come down in the future. A lever action rifle is no joke and until somebody starts making pump action centerfire rifles for under a grand, the lever is the way to go.