And a new toy came home

I'd seen this nifty little rifle in a local pawn shop a couple of weeks ago, and though it appeared to have been a touch neglected, there was no mistaking the fact that it had a pretty good trigger and an incredibly smooth action. It's a Henry .22 Long Rifle, and I confess to a weakness for lever guns these days, probably due to all of the John Wayne movies I've been watching as of late. And the Henry Repeating arms Co. has always made nice guns.

Well I dithered over it, even though the shop's asking price wasn't too bad, but it wasn't until my five mile run that I decided. Yep, when I started to tire a bit towards the three-mile mark, I told myself that if I hit five miles--a new record for me--I could buy myself the Henry. And the run was tough towards the end, but every time I was tempted to stop, I saw that Henry, and imagined it's nice, smooth action. I thought about what a great little rifle it'd be to take on backpacking trips due to it's light weight and balance, and I kept focusing on it until I crossed the run's five mile endpoint. I can honestly say that visions of this rifle on my wall rack got me through the run.

So I went to the shop and picked it up again. The price was ok, but I love to dicker. I repeatedly pointed out all the flaws in the gun, especially the surface rust on the barrel and magazine tube. I finally got the owner to knock off twenty percent of his already reasonable asking price and throw in a case to go with it, mostly because of the rusting.

Then I took the rifle home, and cleaned off that rust, and now it's hanging virtually unblemished on my office wall rack beneath a pre-'64 Winchester .30-30. I'll be taking it out shooting soon as I can make the time. Based on it's trigger and how tight it is, I'll bet it shoots great. And every time I look at it, I'll remember how it helped me break the five mile mark for the first time since things changed.