Henry Homesteader

Shooting

The trigger on our test sample broke at an average of about 6.5 lbs. and I’ll admit it has a bit of creep. This is clearly a field rifle, not one intended for gilt-edged accuracy of a bench some place so the trigger pull weight is appropriate. I did notice this one smoothed out a bit with use and I suspect it may smooth out even more as time goes by.

It’s been my experience 9mm carbines seem to be catch-as-catch-can regarding accuracy. I’ve had some AR-styles shoot more like shotguns, offering “patterns” rather than groups at 50-plus yards. Others seem to hold their own with close to 2″ or so at 50 and around 4″ or more (usually more) at 100. I did some study regarding rifling twist rates to try to get to the bottom of this. I found most use 1:10 to 1:15 or so and I think barrel quality and fitting has much to do with the accuracy of a particular gun. Interestingly enough, the Beretta M9 National Match pistols used at Camp Perry have 1:32 KKM or BarSto barrels and offer guilt-edged accuracy. There might be a lesson there.

The Homesteader comes with a 1:10 barrel showing sharp, bright rifling and a good muzzle crown. I ran 12 different 9mm loads through it, with the best going into about 1.5″ at 50 yards. Some hovered in the 2″ area but all shot as well as anyone would need. Over about 350 rounds, the rifle never bobbled once in spite of loads running from 50-grain bullets to 147-grain loads at wildly different velocities. The point of impact did change so you’d need to zero for your favorite load.

If I took out the two widest hits in some 50-yard 5-shot groups (we’ve found that matches a mechanical rest’s test results), the resulting trio of holes would often chase 1″. Black Hills HoneyBadger (a 125-grain fluted solid-copper design) was one of those the rifle particularly liked and from what I’ve learned would be a very effective defensive load.

I didn’t do any serious targeting at 100 yards simply because that’s not what this rifle is about, especially with irons. But a 6″ round steel plate I keep up at 100 yards was easy to hit once my eyes found it through the sights. The “Bang-Tink” sound was as reliable as an old Ford truck. Great fun, too, I’d like to add.

I also ran some velocity tests and found with some loads, the longer barrel delivered similar velocities as the 4″ 9mm auto test bed I was using to compare. I think that has to do with the efficient powder used in modern handgun loads.

Yet, with other loads — especially the lighter bullets — the longer Homesteader barrel paid dividends delivering 200 to 400 fps faster results over my chronograph. One, the unusual 50-grain “Civil Defense” load from Liberty zinged at 2,200 from the 4″ barrel and an eye-opening 2,616 fps from the Homesteader. You’d need to decide if the light bullet meets your own needs for a defensive load, but it’d sure close the book on any varmints!