We’ve been excited about the Lever Action Supreme Rifle ever since rifle maker Henry first unveiled it at the 2024 SHOT Show in USA, but the trouble was, no rifles were available. It wasn’t until this year’s SHOT Show that Henry — famous for its motto, “Made in the USA or not at all” — finally released them for sale.
Finally, limited numbers of these innovative new rifles are finding their way to Australian stores, initially through Cleaver Firearms, who provided one for this review.
As a lover of lever-guns, I was very keen to see if the Supreme would actually live up to the hype. Why all the noise over another lever gun?
Most lever rifles are very traditional, featuring a tubular under-barrel magazine and firing blunt-nose bullets with quite limited range. I love them but there is not much that’s new, despite the advent of tacticool versions with metal handguards, adjustable stocks etc. These models are sometimes practical but they destroy the inherent ergonomics which made lever rifles so popular for the past 150 years or so.
The only major innovations in the past 50 years have been the Browning BLR and the Henry Long Ranger rifles, which have detachable magazines and shoot pointed spitzer-type rifle rounds in a variety of calibres more common in bolt guns.
So when Henry announced and showed a completely new approach that combined classical wood-and-steel looks with a truly new operating system, many lever-rifle enthusiasts took notice.
The Henry Supreme features a Magpul P-Mag magazine — a detachable and commonly available 10-rounder — plus a free-floated barrel and user-adjustable trigger. These last two are essentially unheard of in a factory lever rifle so I was intensely curious to test this out.
This particular rifle was chambered in .300 Blackout, but Supremes are also chambered in the more popular .223 Remington and Henry is working on other calibres.
Ignoring the polymer magazine hanging below the receiver, the rifle has a classic look to it, with a nicely fitted, genuine American walnut stock and fore-end.
The first thing I noticed when I picked it up was that it balanced really well and felt lighter even than its 2.9kg (6.4lb) weight would suggest. It just feels right and comes up to the shoulder smoothly, almost like a good shotgun.
I worked the lever to check the rifle was empty and could not believe how smoothly the action functioned. I was so surprised at its lightness that I took a trigger gauge and hooked it to the lever (I know that is not what they are for but I was curious) and it showed less than 1.5kg (3.5lb) of effort to fully work the lever.
This would be less than half the weight of many others I have tried and it’s very smooth throughout.
As we shot over 200 rounds through this rifle in testing, the lever seemed to get even smoother, if that is possible, leaving us with silky movement that is easily run without removing the rifle from your shoulder.
This means virtually no movement off target, in turn meaning faster, more accurate follow-ups on game when required.
Henry advertises an adjustable trigger, something I have never seen on a lever rifle before, but when I tried the trigger as it came, it was as smooth as many bolt guns and broke consistently at just 1.24kg (2.75lb) — and even that reduced slightly after all the rounds we put through it and a good clean.
This is by far the best trigger I have ever experienced on any lever rifle. It’s simply excellent and a real help for shots requiring a bit more precision.
Speaking of cleaning, one of the challenges with many lever rifles is the cleaning process. In many cases there is no choice but to clean from the muzzle, not ideal as you do risk damaging the crown if you’re not very careful. Also, on many lever rifles, getting to the actual mechanism is a nightmare and best left to a gunsmith in some cases.
However, Henry learned from the takedown setup on AR15s and other modern designs and so the rifle can be taken apart very simply with just two pins. You will need some type of punch and a soft hammer, but it is explained well in the manual that comes with the rifle.
The Supreme then separates into two parts, much like an upper and a lower, so you can clean the barrel from the chamber. You can also clean the bolt and mechanism.
One caveat, however, is that if you decide you also need to detach the bolt completely (not needed for general cleaning), getting it back together is almost assured to take you a few attempts and some head scratching until suddenly it just clicks back into place. Ask me how I know that!
This simple system of takedown for cleaning (compared to other lever rifles) makes life much easier if you are going to shoot yours a lot and my bet is that you will do exactly that, as this rifle just begs to be used.
The best description I would give the Supreme is supreme fun.
It is a compact, carbine-length rifle, with the .300 BLK having a 42cm (16.5”) barrel and the .223 offered with a 46cm (18”) tube.
The Henry was completely reliable throughout more than 200 rounds and we only found one type of ammo that did not run smoothly; it was still reliable, but made the lever a bit stiff and required more effort.
It is a joy for plinking, and I did get to take it out one night and spotlight a couple of hares. Apologies for having no pictures but a .300 BLK at under 50 metres on a hare is devastating, to say the least.
We consistently rang steel targets out to 200 metres and found it great fun to bounce empty shotgun shells along the ground at 50-75 metres.
The magazine catch is ambidextrous and very easy to use so changing magazines when empty was a breeze.
Cleavers had equipped the Henry with an MDT 20 MOA pic rail which mounted a beautiful Leupold VX3-HD 2.5-8×36 scope, which is a brilliant hunting scope and suited me well for accuracy testing.
Once I had completed bench testing, I installed an Aimpoint red dot and if I was able to keep the Henry (I tried but the importer demanded it back) I use it this way or with a compact 1-4x scope.
The lightweight, compact nature of this carbine really shines with a red dot, which I found it plenty accurate out past 100 metres and quite a bit faster on target than the scope.
But I am sure different users will have differing requirements, and the nice thing is the versatility.
Unfortunately, due to the height of the rear base I could not use the excellent iron sights, but they are well made and fully adjustable with a unique design. I believe they will work well if you prefer irons, or if you just like having a backup for your optics.
Henry claims this is a 1 MOA rifle, a pretty big claim when you consider some traditional lever guns sometimes struggle to shoot into 3 MOA.
Henry has designed this rifle with a free-floating barrel to aid accuracy, using a very clever mechanism that will become apparent when you remove the fore-end via a long bolt located at its front.
Unscrew this bolt and the sling swivel will drop out and then the fore-end slides of a very substantial metal hanger that holds it away from the barrel.
This also fixes a very common problem on many types of rifles, that of the front sling swivel rotating on you from the pressure of a sling as you use it. Henry addressed this in a way I have never seen by having the attachment bolt run through the centre of the sling swivel pin, meaning it is impossible for it to ever rotate or loosen even under hard use. A round of applause for this from any of us who have ever had problems in the field with loose swivels.
We set the rifle up on our handy Caldwell Stable Table Lite and having found four brands of .300 BLK we went to work to see if the Supreme could live up to Henry’s 1 MOA claim.
We achieved groups just under 1 MOA with Hornady 110gn Black brand ammunition and groups just over that with Hornady Custom, so the Supreme does indeed live up to Henry’s claims of accuracy.
This is exceptional for a lightweight hunting lever rifle. Remember, we are not dealing with a target bolt gun here and lever guns never perform to their best on a bench with their two-piece stocks etc.
The Henry Supreme is an ideal rifle for Australian conditions, where there are, sadly, severe restrictions on semi-autos and even restrictions based on the appearance of many modern rifles.
It is a lightweight, handy hunting rifle that fires popular modern cartridges, is able to be taken apart for maintenance and is accurate and reliable with inexpensive detachable magazines so you have virtually everything you will need in a good looking, sleek package made by a highly respected, quality US manufacturer.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Manufacturer: Henry Repeating Arms, USA
- Calibres: .300 BLK (tested) and .223 Rem
- Magazine: 10-round detachable P-Mag
- Barrel: 42cm (16.5”), 1:7 twist rate, free-floated, threaded muzzle (46cm/18”, 1:8 in .223)
- Finish: Hard-anodised black
- Sights: Blade front and fully adjustable trapezoidal rear; drilled and tapped for scope mounting
- Stock: American walnut with rubber recoil pad
- Weight: 2.9kg (6.4lb)
- Length: 93cm (37”)
- Price: $2400
- Importer: Cleaver Firearms (note that OSA Australia will also be distributing them)
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