Thanks Glen - you've given me the best excuse yet to ditch the Marlin for a Henry.

Michael

IF I were trying this sport for the first time I would buy two 24 inch Henry rifles in 22lr and 22 mag. I'd buy two frontier 17 hmr stocks ( they have a higher comb ) They are around 400 bucks each, the company is in business, listening to shooters and from what I've heard they have GREAT customer service. I'm afraid I'll just keep on shooting my marlins. I have 4 1894cl's . One 32-20 Cowboy, one 357 cowboy and two 1894 cl's in 32-20. I'm all in and they are very good guns.

glen ring wrote:IF I were trying this sport for the first time I would buy two 24 inch Henry rifles in 22lr and 22 mag. I'd buy two frontier 17 hmr stocks ( they have a higher comb ) They are around 400 bucks each, the company is in business, listening to shooters and from what I've heard they have GREAT customer service. I'm afraid I'll just keep on shooting my marlins. I have 4 1894cl's . One 32-20 Cowboy, one 357 cowboy and two 1894 cl's in 32-20. I'm all in and they are very good guns.

Be careful of replacing stocks on lever action rifles. The stocks have to be the same configuration that the rifle came with. Here's 3.1.3.b from the rules.

Barrels must be original or may be relined. Original barrels re-bored
to a larger caliber are allowed. Any safe trigger is allowed. Stocks
must be of original configuration. Recoil pads, replacement buttplates,
and removable cheek pieces are allowed.

I agree that Henry really seems to be listening to shooters right now, so are deserving of directing purchases their way. if you ordered the rifle from Henry with the stock with the higher comb then it would be legal according to the rules, but not if you bought it with one stock and replaced that stock with a higher comb.

We're all good with it here Jason. Those rifles are legal in Texas and they're legal in Oklahoma. We are all aware of the wording of the rules and have a copy of the rule book.

Glen,

One thing you might want to keep in mind. The stocks with the higher combs are actually to accommodate mounting a scope. Your eye will line up better to open sights with the lower comb.
It took me awhile to figure that out. That's why I prefer the pre 1956 or so 39A's. The older stocks have more drop.

Al Foust

Al
I looked at and held one at the Texas state match. The high comb makes it great for me and the owner. We're both well over 6 feet tall and both of us have monkey arms. Your body and shooting style may need a shorter stock. We pretty much let shooters shoot their rifle as long as the sights follow the rules. Years ago, Bobby Pyle bought a stock off of tree bone carving that has a BIG knothole in it. It's gorgeous, but I guess someone, somewhere might try to complain about it. My 9 year old grandson will be shooting matches soon. His Marlin 39d has a cut off , much shorter stock and I hope no one will complain about it. It certainly doesn't follow factory specs. I think we're going to open up our monthly matches to include any .22 even scoped rifles to boost numbers. We usually get 16 to 20 shooters at each match. We want those numbers up. We let anyone under 18 shoot for free anytime. We even let the under 18 shooters shoot for free and eat for free at our regionals. Once we get the numbers up and the folks see how much fun we have THEN we can see if they want to be a serious competitor and advise them of the rules.

The rules here read a bit ambiguous to me which isn't uncommon in the NRA rulebook. The stock Glen is referencing is a factory Henry stock for the Frontier action. That seems like an original configuration to me, but it wasn't specifically purchased that way so I do see a grey area that the stock could be deemed rule violating. I also have a Frontier and would love to have that HMR stock on it, but I fear that it could be disqualified at some point.

The Henry with the "other" factory stock looked to me to be just about the exact same configuration as a stock factory stock with one of the Leather cheek pads installed - which really puts the cheek weld in a nice position which lines up with peeps on the rifle.

I like it but I am sure it will create and facilitate the complete downfall of modern civilization is it is allowed in the sport....

Merlin
That is great! We just let people shoot.

glen ring wrote:Merlin
That is great! We just let people shoot.

I'm all for that mentality. I like to encourage participation.

My question was anchored from the perspective of nationals. I'd hate for that stock to be disqualified at Nationals.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Not half as much as the guy who's shooting it!!!

Westy wrote:^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Not half as much as the guy who's shooting it!!!

That person I'm worried about would be me!