# General > General Guns & Ammo >  Ruger 10/22 or Henry Lever Action?

## HikerLWT1010

I am considering the purchase of a .22 Rifle.  Been quite a few years since I sold my Winchester 22.  

Purpose:  General light duty hunting, plinking, and as a low-cost survival rifle.

Contenders (based on price, reliability, and local availability):  Ruger 10/22 ($200.00) and Henry lever action ($260.00).

I am favoring the Henry due to its increased mag capacity, reliability of a lever action, and looks (I like the overall "look" of a lever action), but would appreciate any input from you guys/gals before I make a purchase.  Especially interested in previous owners of Henry lever actions.

Thanks.

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## Rick

I've never owned a Henry so I can't saying anything about them. I've had a 10/22 for decades. I don't think you'll find many firearms on the market today that have as many after market accessories available as the 10/22. There's a reason for that. People like the 10/22 and a lot of them have been sold. As for mag capacity, you can buy just about any size of a mag you want for a 10/22.

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## crashdive123

I don't own a Henry either.  Mag capacity is not an issue if you want a higher capacity with the 10/22 as Rick said.  I don't think you would go wrong with either (I'll probably add the Henry to my collection at some point).  Just to throw another wrench into the works - look at the most popular selling 22 rifle in the world.  Marlin model 60.  I picked a used one up about 20 years ago and it's a real straight shooter.

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## SARKY

While both are dependable, The availability of large capacity mags for the 10-22 gives it just one edge over the Henery. Quick followup shots without having to move anything other than your finger. I'd go with the 10-22

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## OhioGrizzLapp

I buy, sell and fix both Rugers and Henrys in my gun shop. Overall, the Ruger 10/22 is lower cost, esier to fix or modify, mag cap up to 100rd with $30 magazine(s), more accessories and mods than I can count....there is even a new Thompson look a like as well as a AK-Krinkov look a like kit, gatling gun kit, arrow shooter kit......the list just goes on and on. My personal 10/22 has well over 50,000 rounds through it and it looks and works as new. The Henry is fairly diffacult to repair, expensive and low cap magazine makes it a no starter for me. I also like Rugers customer service much more, less hoops to jump through. The one gun from Henry I do like is their newly designed AR-7 Survival/Explorer rifle, that to me is their only good valued firearm. 

One other thing, usually a lever gun will feed and shoot anything, bulk ammo with loose bullet tips of any brand does NOT function well in any Henry I have had here in the shop, I have had to gunsmith almost all of the ones I have sold to shoot cheaper ammo. The smithing takes about 1 hour and Henry will not perform it, it will be a back and forth of the gun to and from them wasting time, money and reduces satisfaction of my customers. 

I love levers too... I have a very good real Winchester collection of all makes and calibers, but my honest opinion of Henry firearms is, they fall short on quality where it matters and they are very expensive for what they are.

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## Sourdough

I go the other direction. I say you (Everyone) should own a top quality .22 Rimfire. Other than flights of fantasy I see no need for Hi-Capacity "Magazines" in a .22 Rimfire. The bottom line for .22 Rimfire is a quality trigger. Quality costs more to manufacture, but for me it is worth the one time cost. There is just something very reassuring about knowing you can hit a "Dime" 100% of the shots at 25 yards.

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## OhioGrizzLapp

Henry triggers blow, they require lots of fairly expensive custom work to work right..........if I were to buy ANY .22lr it would be a Savage/Anschutz old or new, but that was not the ops choices, of the ops choices, the Ruger is better quality and reliability than the Henry hands down and the Henry costs a lot more. 60% of all the Henrys I sell are sent back for various quality issues, some, fairly major/safety. 

In catagory.......In a lever for .22, I would go with a Marlin 39a old or new (stay away from the new Winchesters 9422 lots of issues, recalls). In a Bolt, Savage Arms Mark II-FVXP or the Ruger 77/22, in an semi-auto Ruger 10/22, Browning .22 older take down  or an OLDER Marlin 60.

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## hunter63

IMHO
Personally, I like/have all three.

Ruger 10/22(I just like Rugers), for all the reasons listed. Mags, Mods, dependability.
I would "Pay" for a Ruger 10/22, or several, and if given a choice would be number one on my list.

I would bet if you took a poll, that 10/22 would beat all others hands down.

Henry lever gun, because they are "cool", I like lever guns.
Mine is a Golden Boy that was a raffle prize. (makes you 'lust" after the Henry Big Boy, lever .44 or .357)
Would I pay for one, no,..... looked at them for a long time, because they are cool, but wouldn't buy one, unless I had the itch and ran out of other stuff I would want more.  Even I have limits....today.

Marlin Model 60, jury kinda out, as it was also a raffle prize, have shot it, seems OK, so far, but haven't formed a opinion, other than would I buy one, no.
Stainless Steel and scoped DU model, so might be a good porch gun....for varmints.

My most shot .22 rifle,.... Savage single shot, first gun, and will be my last.
Would I buy one, again,... probably not, nor would I buy a Czech trainer (all .22 discussions seem to have some one bring it up).
I wouldn't buy a Weatherby .22 either, or high-buck target, bull barrel .22.
I don't need to shoot a .22 that bad.

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## MidWestMat

I love my Henry .22, my kids, the nieces and nephews, and everyone else I have let shoot it love it also.  I have never had a problem with it in almost 15 years.  Well, aside from when I first got it I had to Dremel in a deeper notch for the feed tube spring, they had shipped it flat and the spring kept popping out.

I used to have two 10/22s.  I shot many rounds through them as well, hated their magazines, I got lots of hung rounds in them inducing failure to feed.  Only way to fix it was drop the mag and unhang the bullet.  Of course that has been over 15 years ago so they may have fixed that problem by now.

Due to my experiences, I would go with the the Henry, although it is probably a weaker option goes as far as the 'survival rifle' aspect.

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## Sarge47

...Ohio Grisslapp!  Ruger's Warranty is great!  One of my brother's bought a MK 2 pistol back in the '60s.  My cousin came back from "Nam, a Marine, who roomed with him for awhile.  One day they were both drunk & my cousin asked my Bro. if he'd ever stripped the gun down to clean it.  My brother said that he didn't know how.  My cousin said that there wasn't a gun made that he couldn't tear down & put back together Blindfolded.  Well, he must have needed the blindfold 'cuz he got it all tore down, but couldn't get it back together!  My brother stuck the pistol, minus a bunch of parts, back into it's holster, hung it up on his gun rack, and just forgot about it.  Then, over 20 years later, my late father-in-law buys it off of him for $20.  He buys all of the parts & finds out that their are several that have to be factory installed.  He saves up a bunch of money, then takes the gun to a gunsmith & has him send it in to Ruger.  Sometime later he gets a call that the Gun has been fixed & returned.  The cost?  Under $2 for postage.  The reason?  The gun has a lifetime Warranty...even for drunken Marines!  I own both the 10/22  & a Mark II today!  While I also have some large capacity mags for the 10/22 I use only the factory 10 round clips.  I agree with Sourdough that a good hunter doesn't use the "spray & pray" method, but, rather, "1 shot, 1 kill."     A side note, I DO own a Henry .22 AR-7 Survival Rifle. :Sleep:

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## klkak

I have a 10/22, Marlin 60 and a Browning BL-22. The Browning is the only one I use. It's really light, easy to carry, very accurate, totally reliable and will shot any brand or quality ammo I put in it, to include shorts, longs and long rifle. Of course it is also and expensive weapon to buy new. Over $500 here in Alaska.

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## SARKY

Fine, you want to talk about triggers on 22s, I have installed Volquartsen trigger groups into my 2 10-22s and my 10-22magnum. I have also installed about a dozen into my friends 10-22s. If you have the money and 2 left hands, you can get the whole trigger/mag group to install in less than a minute. OH by the way the Volquartsen kit break like ice with no over travel.

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## Sourdough

> Fine, you want to talk about triggers on 22s, I have installed Volquartsen trigger groups into my 2 10-22s and my 10-22magnum. I have also installed about a dozen into my friends 10-22s. If you have the money and 2 left hands, you can get the whole trigger/mag group to install in less than a minute. OH by the way the Volquartsen kit break like ice with no over travel.


Sarky........do you know WHY Ruger dropped the 10-22 Magnum.........????????? I would love to own one.

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## SARKY

For some reason it wasn't a big seller, same with their .44 mag auto loader. I would like to see them do limited runs of the 10-22mag and the .44mag autoloader (maybe also chambered in .357 and .41)

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## dscrick

I have a Marlin 60 (it was my first .22, I received it for Christmas at age nine, which makes it 40 years old. And it shoots). I've purchased 10/22s for my sons, they love 'em. I have a couple of Ruger 77 bolt guns (.22, .17HMR). I don't have a .22 lever gun, but I love the older Browning BL22 and the Marlins.

If you could find one, Ruger used to make a more modern lever action (along the lines of the Savage 99 rifles) in .22, it used the same magazines as the 10/22.  They are no longer in the Ruger catalog

If I had to pick one, it would be the 10/22 in stainless

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