Henry's All-Weather Side Gate .45-70 Lever Gun: Review

This Henry rifle is a great side-loading .45-70 lever gun built for the 21st Century.

September 21, 2024 By Patrick Sweeney

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Everyone knows Henry rifles, right? The nearly indestructible, offered in a host of calibers, tube-loaded lever action rifles, right? Well, be prepared to step out of the box, because the All-Weather Side Gate is here. Henry took their excellent rifles, and using the heat-treated alloy steel model they plated it with a layer of industrial hard chrome. Why? Because stainless isn’t. If you make a stainless steel alloy stainless enough that it won’t rust, you can’t harden it. In doing so, you will have larded in so much nickel and chromium that it won’t take a heat-treatment process and harden up. If you lean out the mix to the point you can harden it, it will rust. Well, actually stain and corrode, but that’s not what we expect out of “stainless” now, is it? So, they make their rifles out of properly hardened steel, and then give them a protective coat of hard chrome. This isn’t your decorative chrome that might still be used on the trim of automobiles. Hard chrome was developed to cover and protect the cutting tools used in industry before their adoption of harder materials like carbide or ceramic inserts.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-02 — The Henry All-Weather Side Gate, in this case in .45-70, is everything the model name promises.

Now, we all know Henry as the “tube-load rifle guys” right? Well, not any longer. They still offer their original line of tube-load rifles, but the big news here is the side gate rifles. Offered in the brass receiver, steel color case-hardened, and blued, the Side Gate lets you load your Henry the way lever action rifles have been loaded since the start of all this, when the original Henry, (a different company, I might point out) was updated by the model of 1866. The reason is simple: while loading up from empty with a tube-loaded rifle is not problem, if you want to top-off your magazine, having fired a round or a few, it is easier and handier to shove them in through the side gate, than to ground your rifle, remove the tube, and drop more in. With those details in mind, let’s take a tour around the All-Weather Side Gate. On the receiver, we have the ejection port and loading gate, both on the right side. On top, Henry has done the smart and current thing, and the All-Weather came drilled and tapped for a scope mount base. You have an embarrassment of riches when choosing your mount system, as the top deck and the hole pattern is the same as that of the Marlin 336 series. One might go so far as to say that the hole and deck pattern of the Marlin 336 is the definition of “commonly found.” You can depend on a scope mount maker offering at least something in that pattern, because if they don’t, they are passing up on a lot of potential sales.

Speaking of the Marlin, I have to point out that Henry, in the spirit of proper engineering and design, did not see the need to re-invent the wheel. While the screw sizes and thread pitches might be different, the layout is the same, so if you know a Marlin 336, you know the Henry Side Gate. With that in mind, and for our readers whose familiarity with rifles extends only to AR-15s, let’s touch on the layout and disassembly of the Henry Side Gate. Let’s start with the dual-load aspect of the Henry Side Gate, because it comes in handy. I asked the boss at Henry why, if they were adding the side gate for loading, they kept the tube design on the Side Gate models. “To unload.” was his simple reply. Well, didn’t I feel silly? Yes, when it comes time to unload, you simply undo the tube, pull the tube out, and then pour the rounds out of the magazine tube. If there’s one in the chamber, then open the lever to eject it. Done. OK, you now have an unloaded Henry Side Gate (in this instance the All-Weather) for the next step you use a properly-fitting screwdriver, and unscrew the screw on the curved part on the bottom of the receiver. This releases the lever. Pull the lever out of the action and now you can grab the bolt and pull it to the rear, out of the receiver. Fair warning: when you do this, the ejector, a spring-loaded tab set in the receiver, will usually fall out at the first opportunity. The ejector is simply set into a groove in the receiver and is located by a circular tab on it resting in a hole drilled in the receiver wall, that you can now see on the left side.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-03 — Henry moved out of New York City, and is now hap- pily making first-rate rifles in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. The buckhorn rear is meant to be fast-enough and accurate-enough, in woods hunting. It does that. The Henry All-Weather is drilled and tapped for scope mounts. These are in the Marlin 336 pattern, which is easy to find.

If you are interested only in cleaning, then this is as far as you need to go. You can scrub the bore from the chamber end, as the bolt is out, and run a brush and or patches down the bore, and the magazine tube. Scrub the bolt, and then reassemble. If, however, you want to disassemble the Henry Side Gate completely, you’ll need more screwdrivers. (This is not at all a common need, and I only had to do this as a gunsmith, on Marlins, when there was something seriously wrong inside. Like home gunsmithing gone awry.) Unless you have taken a spill into salt water, fallen into a slimy bog, or silty river, or other such hideous experience, don’t go further than this, as it will take five more screws, each a different size, and that’s even before you get to the “don’t even think about it” removing the handguard. A word to the side: leave the rest alone. Back to the features.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-04 — The Henry All-Weather keeps the Henry tube loading gate, because that makes it easy to unload. The front of the magazine tube is held by a loop dove- tailed into the barrel. The tube stays in the magazine by means of the small steel pin you see in the notch. One of the screws you’ll need to remove (bottom right), if you attempt to detail strip the Henry. A word of advice: leave it alone.

The barrel is heat-treated alloy steel, and the magazine tube, riding in the front loop (itself dovetailed to the barrel) is also steel. Inside, there is a brass tube, with a self-contained spring and follower to drive the rounds to the feed system when you work the lever. The tube has a small steel pin projecting from it at the front end, behind the knurled gripping hub, and this steel pin rides down the groove in the loop, and then you turn the tube to secure it inside the loop. Simple and durable. The stock and handguard are stained hardwood, and while they are durable and good-looking, I’m going to be making some changes to this one in the future. More on that at the close. The stock and handguard have sling swivel studs installed, in the stock the stud is on the bottom line, past halfway to the rubber recoil pad. The recoil pad is a waffle-pattern design and of goodly size and softness. The front sling swivel is secured to the steel band that caps the handguard, encircles the magazine tube, and rides up underneath the barrel. Underneath the receiver is the lever. The loop is a small one on the straight-stock version of the All-Weather, and a larger loop on the pistol grip stock pattern. Oh, the stock patterns? They also correspond to the two calibers the All-Weather is offered in: .30-30 and .45-70.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-05 — The recoil pad is thick and soft, just what you need to handle the recoil of the heaviest .45-70 loads. There’s a sling swivel stud in the stock. The front sling swivel stud is screwed into the steel band that holds the forearm in place.

That’s right, boys and girls, you can have your matte silver finish All-Weather Henry in either .30-30 or .45-70. Our boss, being the manly man he is, and wanting only manly men writing for him, said “Get the .45-70 and write it up.” This does not cast aspersions on those who choose the .30-30 to hunt with, as it is fully capable of taking pretty much anything you might want to hunt in the Lower 48. No, he wanted to see if a lever action rifle in .45-70 could take the guff. (Never mind your poor reporter.)

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-06 — The XS Sights picatinny rail and Ghost Ring rear sight combo, ready to be installed on the Henry.

Now, chambered in .45-70, the Henry All-Weather Side Gate offers us many paths to recoil, and almost all of them are fun. And thank goodness for the recoil pad they build it with, as I would have passed on the project if the All-Weather was only made with a plastic or worse, steel buttplate. But, we have to consider the matter of sights. The sights on the Henry came, as they all do, with a blade front (in this case, with a brass bead on its rear face) and a buckhorn rear. The buckhorn sight is an open notch, but with the notch machined to have a smaller and a wider section. The smaller section is your aiming portion, and the wider notch is to allow you to see more of the target as you are aiming. As sights go, these are entirely up to the task of aiming the Henry and using it for hunting. They are not by any stretch of the imagination long-range sights, but they will do out to 100 yards, if your eyesight is up to the task. For most hunters using a .30-30 or .45-70, 100 yards is a reasonable distance. Here in the Midwest, hunting is done in clearings in woods, or the edges of farmer’s fields. Sometimes in tree stands. It is not often you can hunt along a power line cut, and as a result, most shots are within 150 yards, and most of them actually are inside of 100.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-07 — The XS Sight Picatinny rail replaces the buckhorn rear. The front sight is a blade with brass bead at the top.

Good eyes and some practice makes 100 yards with a buckhorn sight not a problem. Now, if you want something better, you can mount a scope on your Henry. I’ve got to warn you, however, a .45-70 recoils, a lot with some loads, and if you aren’t careful with your scope mounting, you could end up bleeding on your rifle, and sport an interesting scar over your aiming eye, from where the scope hit you. A bit of advice: only in romance novels do women swoon over guys with facial scars. (Not that I’ve read any, mind you, I’m just going by what I’ve been told.) I could see putting an LPVO such as the one currently on your AR-15, onto the .45-70 All-Weather Side Gate, and doing good work in the hunting fields.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-08 — The various loads tested, which ranged from “Soft to shoot” to “What did I just unleash?” Even with a modest pressure ceiling, the.45-70 can deliver some serious thumping on the other end. While the factory loads run the gamut from easy to strong you should save your brass, because the .45- 70 has been around a long time, and does not look to go away soon. You’ll want to load up some fun practice ammo, and get good at running a lever gun.

Or, you can track down XS Sights, and get their Henry Optic Mount, and Ghost Ring combo. This gives you both a pic rail to mount a scope or red-dot optic on, and a ghost ring rear sight, for your iron sight work. It replaces the buckhorn mount, and bolts into the scope mount holes already drilled and tapped in your receiver. A suggestion: use Loctite, .45-70 recoils a lot. Starting out, I used the buckhorn sights for the chrono work, and the preliminary accuracy work. The Black Hills cowboy load is nice, soft-shooting ammo, and if I were going to school someone up on the .45-70, this is where I’d start. The heavier loads have recoil you should work your way up to. And if you really need the stoutest, Buffalo Bore offers lever gun ammo with bullets in the 350-400 grain range, going at or above 2,200 fps.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-11 — For hunting and big game, the Hornady LeveRevolution is powerful and accurate. The softie Black Hills cowboy loads were fun to shoot, and plenty accurate.

OK, those who are new to lever guns are looking at the controls, and asking “Where is the safety?” Simple, there’s an internal transfer bar safety. The transfer bar is levered up to allow the firing pin to travel, when you press the trigger. If the trigger isn’t pressed, but the hammer somehow falls, the transfer bar isn’t there to let hammer hit the pin. No bang. Also, the firing pin is a two-piece design, and the locking block, pressed up by the lever, has a part to play. If the locking block isn’t fully up (the lever is hanging loose) the bolt isn’t locked. Firing then would be a bad thing. But it can’t fire, because the rear firing pin only lines up with the front firing pin when the locking block is fully up and pressing the rear firing pin into alignment. So, the All-Weather cannot fire unless both the lever is pressed up to the bottom tang, and the trigger is pressed which, as it happens, is what your hand is doing when you want it to fire. Old-timers are saying “No problem, I’ll just put in on half-cock.” Nope. There is no half-cock, because the transfer bar handles the task of keeping the Henry All-Weather on safe. Ease the hammer down all the way, and as soon as the hammer clears the trigger, let go of the trigger, the transfer bar drops out of alignment, and viola, you’re on-safe. Now, the All-Weather in .45-70 strikes me as the perfect bear gun with the right loads, either hunting or protection when doing something else. You could simply leave the chamber empty, and lever a round when you need it, but that means a four-round rifle. By chambering a round, and then lowering the hammer you get five. You just have to learn a new skill and habit, and be competent.

In testing, I shot the .45-70 ammo I could find. At the low-recoil end, I had a supply of Black Hills cowboy ammo, and Hornady Sub-X subsonic. The 405 and 410-grain bullets, going just under the speed of sound, were pleasant to shoot. The jacketed hunting loads, however, were pretty spicy. A 325-grain bullet going 1,840 fps generates a Power Factor of 600, not for the faint of heart in a seven-pound rifle. My first work was done with the factory sights, the buckhorn sights. I did the chrono work and preliminary testing with the buckhorn sights at 50 yards. Yes, the standard for rifles is 100 yards, but two factors changed that in this test. One, I do not view the .45-70 as a long-range cartridge. I know that the black powder metallic silhouette shooters would disagree, but they don’t shoot lever guns in those matches, and I‘m not shooting black powder. The other is eyesight. Even when I was sharper of eye than I am now (self reminder: I need to get an upgrade at the optometrists) shooting buckhorn sights at 100 yards would have been more a test of me than of the rifle. Considering that at 50 yards, even with buckhorn sights, I was able to shoot groups under two inches, even with the stout recoil of the top loads, this is an accurate rifle. And the XS Sights rails and ghost right combo promises to both improve accuracy and speed.

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-10 — Light loads or heavy loads, the Henry All-Weather side Gate in .45-70 delivered the goods.

As good as this rifle is, there are a few things I think Henry missed. One is the muzzle. As in, no threads. Now, the number of people who will put a suppressor on a .45-70 lever gun is pretty small. But, a threaded muzzle, as a place to put a muzzle brake for testing the most ferocious loads, would have been welcome. And, the smooth hardwood on the forearm. Again, with the heaviest loads, keeping a grip on the forearm wasn’t easy. The muzzle thing isn’t easy to solve. The front sight is too close to the muzzle to simply thread it, so I’d have to move the front sight, fill the dovetail, then thread the muzzle. Nope, not gonna do it. But a trip to Mag-Na-Port might be in the cards. The forearm, however, can be checkered. That, and the wrist of the stock. So, once I find someone who does checkering, in a pattern I like, in a reasonable timeframe, it is going to get that upgrade. I will probably have to re-stain and refinish the checkered part, but that’s easy. Why? Because this one stays here. No, I don’t; have a need for something this big, to drive the moose herds off of my lawn, but I’ve waited long enough to score a keeper .45-70, I’m not waiting any longer.

Reloading the .45-70

henry-all-weather-side-gate-review-13 — While the .45-70 can be a bit of work to load, and involve some extra steps, it isn’t nearly as difficult to load as some newer cartridges. You’ll probably want to re-size separately, then load on your progressive press.

Loading the big bore is pretty easy. The bullets are .458” in jacketed or plated, and .459” in lead or coated. In the heaviest of loads, you’ll find sizing the fired empties to be work, but un- less you go up to the moose-stompers your sizing task will be pretty easy. The case is tapered, so carbide isn’t an option, but lubing cases to size shouldn’t be a problem. It isn’t like you are loading in the volume of a .223, right? At the low end, you use the data “for Trapdoor rifles” and the pressure limit there is only occasionally over 20,000 PSI. That means a softy load like a 300-grain cast bullet, and 15 grains of Trail Boss, for about 1,200 fps. But if you want to load up moose-stomper loads, you go to the “Lever Guns” section of the loading data, and (If you can take the recoil) boost a 405 grain Wide Long Nose bullet to just under 1,800 fps. Of course, that takes 46 grains of powder, and a willingness to endure stout recoil. Even at the Trapdoor level, we’re talking about low recoil 12 gauge slug power. At the top end, you can (well you can, not me) accelerate a 500-grain lead-flat point to just over 1,500 fps. Have fun.