Say you’re a big lever-gun aficionado, but you want a silencer, and you want a rifle that you can take backcountry hunting without adding a lot of weight. Henry Repeating Arms hears your cries, and brings you the new Special Products Division (SPD).
The SPD series is intended to bring modern technology to Henry’s lineup, which is best-known for its old-fashioned designs. Or as their website puts it, these firerms will be:
“Engineered from the ground up by some of America’s brightest minds in firearms design to meet the ever-evolving needs of today’s and tomorrow’s outdoorsmen, hunters, and hobbyists. Born from a singular mission: to lead while others follow.
“From cutting-edge materials to forward-thinking designs that solve real-world problems, SPD is where Henry Repeating Arms firmly stakes its position as the leader in innovation.”
What sort of “real-world problems” is Henry talking about? We can get a clue with the Hush, the first rifle in the Henry SPD series.
This lever-action combines Henry’s newer side-gate loading system with their older load/unload-from-the-end mag tube (arguably, the best of both worlds for a tube-mag lever gun). But the general layout of the action is the only thing that’s familiar. Starting with the barrel (built in conjunction with BSF Barrels), you get stainless steel construction wrapped in carbon-fiber for strength, weight reduction and accuracy. There’s a 95-percent air gap between the carbon and steel, which helps the barrel cool faster; the carbon sleeve cools and expands with the barrel over a shooting session, maintaining accuracy. Very slick stuff; we’ve come a long way from the days of arguing over Ballard vs. Micro-Groove rifling.
The end of the barrel is threaded for your device of choice, including a suppressor. The thread pitch depends which caliber the rifle is chambered in ( your choice of .357 Magnum/.38 Special, .44 Magnum/.44 Special, .45 Colt, .30-30 Winchester or 45-70 Government). This feature alone will make the Henry very desirable for many hunters.
On to the furniture, where we see an aluminum fore-end built in conjunction with Tapco. M-LOK slots offer plenty of options for mounting accessories.
The receiver wears a forged carbon-fiber Picatinny rail; there are no iron sights included, so you will want to mount an optic as soon as you get this rifle.
The Hush’s buttstock is laminated hardwood, as Henry recognizes many shooters still want the feel of a wood stock. It’s checkered to improve grip, with rubber buttpad to reduce recoil. Henry even hollowed the stock out to reduce weight.
The receiver and most of the other metal gets a matte finish (the barrel is a mix of carbon-fiber and shiny stainless). Asking price for all calibers in the Henry SPD is $1,999 at launch; see more photos and specs here.
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