Son's Christmas rifle

SCOUT5

As I posted I was going to get him (he's 13) one of the new CZ 457 bolt action rifles. Nice rifles that would do anything a man's needs to do with a .22. But this son isn't interested in hunting, not at this time anyway, and a different platform would be a lot more fun just to plink with. So I bought him a Henry lever action . 22 rifle. Still can handle shorts and isn't semi-auto, two things I required. I do not have anything against semi-auto .22s but think an all around rifle needs to be something else.

Of all the rifles we shoot he seems to enjoy the levers the most, so it should be a good fit.

Cornflk1

Kinda my thinking as well as far as semi-auto are concerned. First rifle at the least should be a bolt action .22, learn to shoot first, before just burning ammo.

JimmyJack

I kind of agree, I love the Henry. My only concern is the hammer for a kid. Safety concern especially when you unload. I have rifles to give my grandson, but bought a bolt for him for deer hunting. I went with a Mossberg Patriot and he got two bucks with it at 13 also. It shoots as good as the best Model 70 I have. He will get my guns someday but I bet he will retain ownership in his own bolt. Your Henry will be the same.

jimdeere

Get him this one and while he?s growing into it, you can break it in for him.
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/843458330

toad67

I like this one:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/836603453

SCOUT5

JimmyJack wrote:

I kind of agree, I love the Henry. My only concern is the hammer for a kid. Safety concern especially when you unload. I have rifles to give my grandson, but bought a bolt for him for deer hunting. I went with a Mossberg Patriot and he got two bucks with it at 13 also. It shoots as good as the best Model 70 I have. He will get my guns someday but I bet he will retain ownership in his own bolt. Your Henry will be the same.

That is a concern for young-ens but he has handled other hammer guns and knows how. Plus he's 13 already. He knows what half cock is and how to set it, he'll be fine.

wolfpack

Fine choice. Your son will love that. Purchased one for my son at Christmas about two years ago, he was 24 at the time, and he loves it and so do I. Henry makes an outstanding rifle. I'm sure he will be very happy Christmas morning. Enjoy and be safe.

Rocky Raab

I always advocated a manual action and a low-power scope for new shooters. I usually got the objection "He should learn iron sights first." To which I replied, "He's supposed to start with the hardest-to-learn sights before he moves to the easiest?"

To those who advocated a semi-auto, I'd say "Let's pretend I'm little Johnny on his first outing." Then I'd shoot a pretend rifle and spin around with the "muzzle" pointed right at Dad's nose, my finger on the trigger, and say "I hit it!" Then say, "Bang."

bearman49709

Hey Rocky do you know you can load one at a time in those semi-auto's?

Rocky Raab

Yes I do. You ever see that done with the kid still happy? Not I. With many, you have to remove the magazine, load one round, insert magazine, then cycle action - every time. At best, you're fumbling with that tiny round and small ejection port trying to get it to lie just so in the open action to avoid jamming. All while the kid gets impatient enough to lose interest entirely.