Tag Archives: nra show 2023

Henry Gunfighter?

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Henry continues to add interesting new pages to its catalog with the new Big Boy series of double-action revolvers, chambered in the profoundly serious .357 Magnum caliber.

The Henry Big Boy .357 revolver came out of nowhere and was likely not on anyone’s bingo card when it was introduced earlier this year. Few companies these days elect to get into the medium-framed .357 Magnum caliber double-action revolver market, and some (looking at you, Colt and Rossi) have even tried to exit that space in recent memory.

Still, Henry is doing a lot of things right with its inaugural wheel gun. It is accurate, has a decent trigger, and borrows enough things from proven legacy designs to seem familiar while having a very “Henry-ness” about it at the same time. You just don’t see lots of brass-accented revolvers in a double-action format, but Henry has pulled it off while still delivering a very solid-feeling and capable handgun to the market.

Chambered in .357 Magnum, the Big Boy also runs the slightly shorter .38 Special and is meant as an easy complement to the company’s popular Big Boy Brass Side Gate rifle in the same caliber. The Side Gate has an octagonal 20-inch blued steel barrel, American walnut furniture, and a polished hardened brass receiver. It has a 10-round capacity via its underbarrel tube magazine and feels like shooting a .22 Magnum.

One use I could see for the Henry Big Boy revolver is as a sidearm for outdoorsmen – particularly bow hunters in states that allow it – headed into the backwoods where interactions with black bears, feral hogs, or hostile bipeds can occur.

I’ve been putting one of these medium-framed wheel guns through its paces for the past few months and have a full breakdown of this new gem in Henry’s crown over in my column at Guns.com.

A Closer look at the FN 15 Guardian

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For the past couple of months, I’ve been working with FN’s most entry-level AR-15, the Guardian.

It shares a lot of FN’s M4 DNA and has a great barrel– I’m talking a 16-inch nitride-coated specimen made of 4150 chrome-moly-vanadium (CMV) steel. FN tells us it is MIL-B-11595 high-pressure tested and subjected to magnetic particle inspection after proof firing. It runs a 1:7 twist rate, which is one of the most common twists on AR-15s today and great for stabilizing heavier bullets, which have become more popular.

Now, it uses a slick-sided NBS-made billet upper, which does away with the jam enhancer (forward assist), on a forged lower, and carries the same general furniture as seen on the company’s TAC3 series which costs twice as much. Everything else (trigger, charging handle, etc) is mil-spec.

At a $999 asking price – typically much lower with retailers – the FN 15 Guardian delivers a lot of performance for half the price of the company’s $1,889 TAC 3 and likewise comes in at a fraction of the cost of the $2,439 DMR3. In fact, the Guardian is the most affordable FN 15 in the company’s catalog, coming in at a price point lower than the $1,359 Patrol Carbine, its former “budget” offering.

I’ve only got a few hundred rounds through it thus far, but it is holding up well and I haven’t had a single jam even with mixing 14 wildly different loads across four different style mags.

The revolver is dead, right?

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Just 20 years ago, revolvers were dead. Colt and Dan Wesson had stopped making revolvers altogether. Taurus had just bought Rossi and was closing their revolver lines. Smith was trimming down their wheelgun offerings as was Ruger. Anyone forecasting what was to come would have surely pegged the downward spiral as one that would continue.

Well, a funny thing happened. Turned out, folks liked revolvers.

Colt is back making more than ever before. So is Smith. Two of Ruger’s top-selling product lines are the Wrangler .22 and the LCR, announced in 2017 and 2009, respectively. The biggest splash at SHOT Show 2016 was that Kimber was making revolvers. Rossi came back to the wheelgun world at this past SHOT Show.

Now, Henry, who has been a stalwart rifle and shotgun maker since they were re-booted in 1996, is making a .357 magnum revolver– and you know that I had to get one to try out.

The Big Boy is very S&W K-frame but with a brass backstrap/trigger guard.

A six-shot double-action/single-action medium-frame six-shooter, the Big Boy revolver is meant as a complementary wheel gun to the company’s popular Big Boy Brass Side Gate rifle, which carries an octagonal 20-inch blued steel barrel, American walnut furniture, and a polished hardened brass receiver. Likewise offered in .357/.38, it has a 10-round capacity via its underbarrel tube magazine.

More on what I have found out about the Big Boy in my column at Guns.com.

14 Shot Tip Up .380: Meet the EAA Girsan MC 14T

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At first look, the EAA-imported Girsan MC 14T appears to be a clone of the original circa 1970s Beretta Cheetah series, now a classic.

However, you will note that the EAA carries an M1913 Picatinny accessory rail on the dust cover for mounting lights and lasers– a feature never cataloged on any old-school Cheetah variant.

Using a simple straight blowback action, it is chambered in .380 ACP and uses a double-action/single-action trigger with a manual frame-mounted safety lever.

The EAA Girsan MC 14T, left, compared to a Beretta Cheetah. Note the Girsan is slightly longer, and we’ll get into that. Of note, it uses the same magazine as the double-stack 13+1 round magazine of the Beretta 84.

This extended barrel length is to allow a “tip up” barrel easily actuated by a one-push lever on the right-hand side of the frame. For the gun nerds out there, Beretta briefly made a tip-up .380 Cheetah, the Model 86, but it was a single stack, and collectors, due to its rarity, tend to drive prices on those into the $1,500 region.

This is comparable to Beretta’s pipsqueak mouse guns such as the Model 21A Bobcat shown here in .22 LR.

More on the MC 14T in my column at Guns.com.

Henry Has Entered the Wheel Gun Game

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Wisconsin-based Henry Repeating Arms continues to grow from its traditional lever-gun line and on Thursday introduced a pair of new 357 Magnum six-shooters.

The company’s first two entries in what is dubbed the Henry Big Boy Revolver line are both medium-framed double-action/single-action guns with swing-out cylinders. Each features a 4-inch barrel and is chambered in .357/.38, with the difference coming in the grip– one ships with square Gunfighter-style grips while the second has rounded compact Birdshead-style grips.

Featuring polished blued steel finishes and deluxe American walnut grips, these new wheel guns are meant more for target shooters and collectors. Note the exposed ejector rod and barrel profile that are very much akin in styling to a circa 1950s Colt Official Police.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Peanut butter Hellcat travels

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I wouldn’t classify myself as a Springfield Armory fanboy, but after spending a lot of time and brass with the Hellcat Pro, I may become one.

Springfield introduced the Hellcat 11+1 round 9mm series in September 2019, becoming one of the first real competitors to SIG’s P365, a 10+1 round micro compact 9mm of about the same size that hit the reset button on the carry market the year prior.

Then, in 2022, Springfield updated the design with the Hellcat Pro series, which brings a 15+1 capacity and an optics-ready slide to the platform.

I’ve been kicking around one with a peanut butter (officially Desert FDE) hued finish since around Thanksgiving and have well over 2K rounds through it.

The full details after the jump.

Ruger does what it should have done in the first place

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When the Ruger Wrangler popped out in 2019, it was a basic no-frills .22 LR single-action revolver styled on their well-liked Single-Six but cheaper. 

Made with a zinc alloy frame and finished in Cerakote, it had basic fixed sights but it worked.

I handled the above early model at NRAAM four years ago and thought it was okay, but wished it had better sights, a longer barrel, and was sold with an option to swap out the .22 LR cylinder for a .22 Mag, which would make it a lot more capable. After all, Heritage makes their little single-actioned rimfires in Georgia with much the same convertible option, and for a bargain basement price.

Well, Ruger has heard me and legions of others and today, I can share that I have been evaluating the new Super Wrangler. As you may have figured out, it has better sights, a longer barrel, and is sold complete with a .22 LR cylinder and one for a .22 Mag.

Behold, the Super Wrangler! Notably, it comes in at half the price of Ruger’s Single-Six convertible.

More on the new Super Wrangler in my column at Guns.com.

Ruger makes it official on the Marlin 336 Reboot

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First introduced when Henry Truman was president, the 336 was a staple of Marlin’s catalog, most commonly chambered in .30-30 Winchester or .35 Remington. Sold through a variety of store brands in the 1970s such as the Glenfield Model 30, the simple lever gun was a go-to for sportsmen across generations.

The 336 is a classic as it is…

However, when the Marlin collapsed under the house of cards that was the old Remington Outdoors back in 2020, the 336 fell out of production for the first time in 72 years.

Then came Ruger, who purchased the brand and its assets as part of Remington’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale. After moving production from Remington’s shuttered plant in Huntsville, Alabama to a new line set up by Ruger in Mayodan, North Carolina, the Marlin Model 1895 in .45-70 returned to the market in December 2021.

Now, Ruger President and CEO Chris Killoy has kept his past promises to keep rolling out those Marlin favorites to the riflemaker’s huge fanbase.

“The legendary Model 336 helped to build Marlin Firearms into the iconic American brand that it is today,” said Killoy this week. “We have worked for many months on every detail to ensure that Ruger’s reintroduction of this iconic rifle lives up to its stellar reputation.”

I first ran across the new “Mar-ger” 336 in .30-30 at SHOT Show earlier this year some two months before it was “officially” released.

Chambered in .30-30 Win., the Model 336 Classic sports American black walnut furniture with checkering on both the stock and forend. The stock’s black pistol grip cap is inset with a Marlin Horse and Rider medallion and the forend is attached using a barrel band.

I had hoped the new 336 would be more affordable than the $1,479 Model 1895– after all, the “JM” marked 336 of old could be had in big box stores for $299 (with a Simmons scope included!) as recently as the 1990s.

Well, spoiler alert, it is $1,239.

Oof.