The Rimfire Report: The Henry Magnum Express Review

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report. In this series, we cover a lot of rimfire guns that are trying to be the jack of all trades. 22LR in particular as a cartridge lends itself well to this kind of job, as it's just lethal enough to be useful for small game hunting, while also being an affordable target practice, training, and plinking round for most people. 22 Magnum, on the other hand, is much more purpose-built, ideally finding itself in the hands of a skilled varmint hunter or land owner looking to remove a few pests from their property. Likewise, the Henry Lever Action .22 Magnum Express is a purpose-built firearm - meant to be a precise, quick, and lightweight 22 Magnum platform with small game hunting as its goal. Today, we’ll look at this great offering in the Henry Rimfire Lever Action to see where the value in this $600 magnum rimfire lies.

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: S&W Model 617 Mountain Gun - First Impressions
• The Rimfire Report: Remington Magnum Rimfire 22WMR 40gr JHP Tested
• The Rimfire Report: Henry’s Golden Boy Revolver

The Rimfire Report: The Henry Magnum Express Review

Product Link: https://www.henryusa.com/firearm/lever-action-22-magnum-express/

“For squirrels, groundhogs, prairie dogs, rabbits, beavers, and even slightly larger, the .22 Mag is a true powerhouse. The Lever Action Magnum Express is here to let you squeak out every foot-pound of it.”

Henry Lever Action .22 Magnum Express Specifications

• Model Number: H001ME
• Action Type: Lever Action
• Caliber: .22 WMR
• Capacity: 11 Rounds
• Barrel Length: 19.25"
• Barrel Type: Round Blued Steel
• Rate of Twist: 1:16
• Overall Length: 37.5"
• Weight: 5.50 lbs.
• Receiver Finish: Black
• Rear Sight: None
• Front Sight: None
• Scopeability: Picatinny Rail Included
• Scope Mount Type: Rings for Standard Picatinny Rail
• Stock Material: American Walnut
• Buttplate/Pad: Black Solid Rubber Recoil Pad
• Length of Pull: 14"
• Safety: 1/4 Cock
• Best Uses: Target/Hunting/Small Game
• Embellishments/Extras: Optics-ready out of the box with pre-installed Picatinny rail
• M.S.R. Price: $687.00

Construction, Reliability, Features

Like all Henry rifles, the Magnum Express is made here in the USA or not made at all. The construction quality and delivery condition of the rifle have always been top-notch when coming from Henry, and this time, the story is still the same. The Magnum Express feels solid and well-balanced. The American Walnut stock and forend are beautifully done, and although it’s not the highest grade of Walnut I’ve seen on a lever gun, it still looks absolutely gorgeous when it perfectly catches the morning sun. The blued steel finish on the rest of the gun is a nice compliment and is fairly corrosion resistant, but will pick up a quick layer of surface rust if you happen to leave it to the elements on a damp night - I’d recommend an appropriately sized gun sock at the very minimum.

My first couple of range trips with the Magnum Express went well with solid ignition on all 250 rounds fired, and great accuracy out of all but one type of ammo - we’ll get to that part later. The lever's throw is light but mechanically satisfying without being overly stiff. After the first range session, the action does lighten up a tiny bit, but it’s not so much as to make the gun feel sloppy or loose. It comes optics-ready, which is a great feature for its purpose-built design. For this review, I wanted to put together a more “realistic” varmint hunting gun, so I paired the Henry Magnum Express with the very appropriate Maven CRS.1 3-12x40 SFP scope.

Two features that the Henry Magnum Express lacks are a threaded barrel and any sort of iron sights. If you’re after a threaded barrel, you’ll have to upgrade to the 24” Frontier Model with the threaded barrel, where you can also get iron sights. If you don’t care about a suppressor but you want iron sights instead of the Picatinny rail, you can always opt for the more budget-friendly Classic Lever Action in .22 Magnum. The Classic is still quite accurate, but just lacks the ability for you to accurately engage targets at longer distances (unless you have bionic eyes). If I were king of Henry Repeating Arms, I’d probably find a way at minimum to integrate a threaded barrel into the Magnum Express model just for the extra noise abatement.

The small built-in cheek riser on the stock is a handy comfort feature, as is the rubberized buttpad. While comfort isn’t everything, it sure lets you concentrate on all of the actually important stuff while you’re shooting. The 11-round tube is a great feature as well, giving it about as much magazine capacity as you’ll get from anything other than a .22 LR rimfire lever gun. The trigger breaks at around 4lbs on my Lyman trigger scale and is a simple, single-stage design with no takeup or creep.

Thus far, I’ve tested the Magnum Express with Federal Champion FMJ (above), Remington Magnum Rimfire (above), CCI Maxi Mag 40 grain, Hornady Critical Defense 45gr and CCI Maxi Mag 46 gr SHP (below). In short, all the ammo was reliable, but not all of them shared the same accuracy, with the best being CCI Maxi-Mag 40 grain, and the worst being the 46 grain SHP Maxi-Mags. Below you’ll see the accuracy results I was able to “achieve” with the 46-grain segmented hollow point Maxi Mags:

While I’d normally blame myself first for any accuracy issues (that particular day was cold and wet), I think, by the evidence of the other two pictured groups, we can conclude that the Magnum Express just doesn’t play well with the heavier, likely longer bullet. The extra 5 grains might not seem like much of a difference, but I’d bet you that the 46-grain SHPs would do much better out of a faster 1:14 twist rate barrel, as would the 45 GR FTX critical defender. However, I think the Federal and Remington Groups are acceptable enough for 100 yards and in on a groundhog-sized target, but if we’re looking for the best when it comes to precision with the Magnum Express, look no further than the humble standard 40-grain Maxi Mag 22 WMR.

Final Thoughts

The Henry Magnum Express .22LR holds on to the lever-action romance but trims away the sentimentality. It’s a rifle built not just for shooting, but for precision hunting and comfort while doing so. This is actually a rare thing in a market often obsessed with trying to please whatever the latest trend in rimfire is. Personally, I feel like this rifle rewards each moment with smooth, timeless simplicity, which is something I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve gotten older and burnt out on your run-of-the-mill semi-autos. And maybe that’s what The Rimfire Report is really about—a reminder that the best rimfires don’t just perform well; they feel right in the hands and deliver the performance when you ask them to.