Henry Homesteader Brushed Bronze 9mm Carbine Gun Review

The Henry homesteader in the brushed bronze finish. Let’s check it out. (Available Here)

 

Henry’s known for kind of stepping outside the box with their lever action rifles, their high quality, all made in the USA, lifetime warranties, and they make just really premium firearms. When they introduced the homesteader, it was just really a different look to a nine millimeter PCC.

And this has the traditional American wallet stocks. It does have interchangeable magwells, so you can go with a number of different magazine options. A lot of the weight and the action is up here under the handguard, and this really takes it away from a tactical look, but yet it has all kinds of features where you can really deck this out for home defense.

You have M-lock, we have threaded barrels, number of things. But with the brushed bronze Cerakote finish, this just adds a layer of protection to the rifle, and it kind of subdues it a little bit, and it just keeps it an all weather type firearm. Now we’ve done a previous review of the homesteader in the black version, and Henry got in touch with me and said, hey, would you be willing to check out the bronze? Now there are some differences from the original homesteader to the current models they’re making, and we’re going to look at those differences.

But if you’re really looking for something that’s great for the range, great for the outdoors, hunting, if you want more of a subdued look than a lot of your tactical PCC carbines, this makes a great option, and it has that Henry quality. So we’re going to check out a lot of the details. And guys, while this is definitely that traditional look, it has all the capabilities of your PCC carbine.

All right, guys, we are taking a look today at the Henry homesteader, which we have done a full review of the original model. This is their brushed bronze Cerakote finish. Now there are some differences between these two.

They’re not major, but there are a few differences. We’re going to take a look at that. But we’re going to get into some of the details.

And one of the big things about the bronze Cerakote finish, first, it just looks great. I mean, it’s that brushed finish. It kind of gives it a worn look to it.

And it really matches up to me with the wood very well. But one of the things about the Henry homesteader is that it takes a nine millimeter blowback action, one that is capable of a lot of accessories to make this just like your PCC carbine. This is a more traditional style, and really it kind of tones it down a little bit.

With a lot of the PCCs, we’re seeing very tactical models. And this gives you something that just looks like a basic hunting rifle, and yet it has a lot of surprises, especially for home defense. So first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to drop our magazine, and it has the magazine release right here on the other side.

And you can see it coming through. And then we’re going to check the chamber, pull it back, and the gun is empty. Now it comes with the Glock compatible magwell.

And this is an insert. Here is a separate magwell that you get that allows for the Henry proprietary mags to work. Now you have a 10 rounder and a five rounder.

And this is great for hunting, especially the five rounder. Those are kind of difficult to find. And so this just gives you an easy way to insert this.

You just remove a couple of pins, and you can set this in. And we’ll demonstrate that when we do the disassembly. And the cool thing about the Glock mags is we have our 17 rounder, and then we can use the 15 rounder and all the way down to the 10 rounder.

So it gets it really close even with the Glock mags. But of course we can always go with the fun stick. And so while this is more of an outdoorsman type rancher type rifle, it still has great mag capacity.

Now also available is the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm magwell and the SIG P320 magwell. Now again, we have a brushed Cerakote finish. It’s just going to protect from the elements.

And it has this nice look with the highlights. We are a blowback action, and we have our charging handle here. Just bring it back.

One cool thing about this is that in the rear position, I can pull out my charging handle and there is a slot on the other side. So I can use this side, whether I’m right or left-handed, just according to whatever preference you have. But that’s more traditional.

And then there is a bolt stop right here. So if I pull it back, I can just engage it and it locks the bolt open. And that way I can check out the inside if I need to without a magazine.

Now it’s not a bolt release. So if I put a magazine in here, this is not going to deactivate it. But without the magazine, I can just release and let go.

Now again, blowback action, but a lot of the recoiling system is right here under the handguard. So it’s a different kind of feel to it. Typically blowback has a little bit of bump to it, just because you’ve got that heavier mass bolt coming back.

But with this, the weight is all at the front. And we’ll look at that when we break the rifle down. This is an American Walnut stock.

It’s absolutely beautiful. Henry’s stocks are just gorgeous. And they do have this texturing.

Now this is kind of a leather, what they call leather texturing. It has a really nice grain to it. It’s not the laser etched texturing where it’s very symmetrical.

It’s just a very natural looking grain. And we have an M-Lok rail. This is something new with the Homesteader, and it’s at the three and six o’clock positions.

Also, we have a swivel stud at the bottom where you can put a sling or you can put a bipod. Now it does have a free float barrel. And of course, it’s all steel and it’s that bronze Cerakote finish.

The barrel length is 16.37 inches. Overall length, it’s 35.75 inches. The front side is a front post.

It is screwed in, so you can change this out if you’d like. And we have half by 28 threads on this threaded barrel. And there is a washer back here when you’re attaching your thread protector or a suppressor, and it’s just going to help it stay into place.

And we have an aperture sight that’s adjustable for windage and elevation right here near the chamber. The top of the receiver has been drilled and tapped, and this is for the Weaver 63B rail system, which is not included, but it’s really common. Safety is right behind the receiver, very similar to the old Mossbergs.

And I really like this safety. When it’s down here, it seems a little bit more difficult to get to. Right here, you know exactly where it is.

Has a nice pistol grip with that same texturing that comes all the way down to a cap. Man, this stock is absolutely beautiful. The grain in it is just what Henry typically does.

And we have a rubber butt pad at the end with a spacer, and it’s about 14 inches length of pull and a swivel stud here at the back. With a short M-lock rail, we can attach the weapons light. You can add a bipod to the swivel.

You can add a suppressor. I mean, it gives you just a lot of options. Now, there are a few differences between the original model and the new models.

With the new models, we do have the M-lock before the texturing just went all the way to the end. Also here, there is no texturing on the bottom of the handguard, but on the original, we had that same leather texturing. Here, the new rear sight is farther up.

It’s more adjustable. It’s just different. Here is the original.

It’s just dovetailed in. So I don’t believe there’s any elevation to this one. So this is an upgrade.

Right behind the receiver, this is textured. On the original and on the new model, this is just smooth. So really, just some incremental changes, but definitely there are some differences.

Now, as far as the trigger pull action, we have just a touch of take-up. And then we have a nice break. It’s not really that crisp, but not bad.

And then for reset, right there. Trigger pull weight with our Lyman trigger gauge from Brownells, 5 pounds, 6.1 ounces. And the weight on the Henry Homesteader with the magazine, 6 pounds, 12.2 ounces.

Big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo. All made right here in the U.S. and one of the biggest suppliers of ammunition in the country. We’re using our little loaders to make these load, these mags load quick.

And we’re also, we have the Glock mag adapter in the Henry. And of course it has their standard mags. Fairly easy to switch out.

Guys, we have the Henry Homesteader. We’ve done the review on the original. This is with the bronze finish.

It is absolutely beautiful. One of the things I love though about the Homesteader is it has that non-tactical look. Especially if you live in a state that’s very restrictive.

You know, whether you even have a 10-round magazine, this gives you a very ordinary, in a sense, or traditional look to it. And yet it’s very capable. I mean, this takes your full length fun sticks for your Glock mags.

Now this is Glock compatible mag, but you also have a Henry compatible compartment. You can take that out really easily. It is threaded.

Of course, you can put a suppressor on it. But the finish and the beauty of this wood, I mean, it’s just a beautiful gun. I love that just kind of a brushed on bronze finish.

Just gives it a different look. I love the ghost ring sights. You have an aperture sight at the back and a front.

Makes it really quick. Your mag well sticks out of the front, kind of like your old camp carbines by Marlin. And again, you can use any Glock mag, even your Glock 26 mag, which is just 10 rounds.

Of course, we can put a rail on here and, you know, and then mount some optic, which personally I would do that. We just wanted to bring it out as it is. It does have the safety here at the back, kind of like your old Mossberg shotgun.

So it’s really intuitive. You just bring it up. And a very handy, well-balanced rifle.

A lot of times with tactical, you’ve got a lot going on with this, just slim trim, and you still have M-LOK at the front. It shoots smooth. We hadn’t had any malfunctions, but we didn’t expect it.

I love that Henry kind of has stepped out of just the traditional lever actions and offering different type models. That’s pretty sweet, isn’t it? Yeah, I like that. I really like how easy it is to access that safety.

I just like that feature. And it just looks cool too. The texturing is really cool.

I like that. It just fits right into my hand really well. I love it.

And this green color too. That bronze. Yeah, that bronze.

It just looks like they took a brush. Guys, whenever you add a new optic to your firearm, you need to sight it in. And you can walk it in.

You can boar sight it through the boar. But the easiest way we found is the Sight-Rite 2.0 by Tactical Elites. It’s a green laser boar sighter.

Put a collet on it that will fit the caliber. Then we slide it into the end of the barrel. And then we turn on the green laser.

Check out Tactical Elites for the Sight-Rite 2.0. An excellent addition to your range time. And it’ll save you time and money. So go to tacticalelites.com. All right, for disassembly, we’re going to check to make sure the chamber’s empty.

There is no magazine. We’re going to use a bench block. And we’re going to knock out these three pins.

So we’re going to take a punch. We’re just going to tap them. And just pull them out the back end.

And all three of these pins are the same. Just makes it easy. Now first, we’re just going to pull back on our stock.

And that will relieve the trigger housing. And it just gives you a good look of the way the trigger works and the hammer. And then here, we just pull this out.

And we have our magwell out. And really, that’s the way you’re going to do to switch out your magwell. So it’s very simple.

Just take this, put in the magwell that you want. And then you can just put your stock back together. There’s a screw right at the end of your forearm.

And it is angled just a touch. So you can take your hex wrench and just be able to turn it. Go ahead and pull that right out.

Next, just bring your handguard forward. And you can see we have our recoil mechanism under the handguard. Right here, you have your arm bars.

We’re going to pinch those. And then we’re just going to lift it up. And then push down on your bolt.

Now I’m going to go ahead and get my bolt out of the way. And it makes it a little easier removing your arm bars. Now make sure your arm bars come down.

And then you can start to push them forward. And they just rest in those little crevices. And then here on the other side, lift it up.

And then just bring it out. Next, we’re going to take our bolt, move it forward. Go ahead and pull out your charging handle.

And then you can pull your bolt out. Just like that. Notice that the teeth go down toward the bottom toward the trigger guard.

Now there’s no instruction on removing this mechanism right here. And this is your heavy mass bolt. So this is going to be going back and forth.

And again, it’s in the handguard. So it’s a little different than if it’s right in the receiver or for that matter, even in the buttstock. Guys, that’s all you need to do to disassemble the firearm.

Reassembly, we’re going to put our bolt back in, making sure that we have our bolt face up front. And it needs to go right next to the chamber. Then we can take our charging handle and put it in back into the bolt.

And then we’ll just bring it back. Let’s make sure your bolt’s fully seated. And then we’re going to take our action bar.

The teeth should be facing down toward the bolt. We’re going to go ahead and put it into the receiver, but also we’re going to put it into this heavy mass weight up front. And as we go in, we’re going to lock it right there.

And it locks right into the bolt. Take the action bar with the teeth facing up into the receiver. And then we’re going to set it down just like this into our weight.

And then we’re just going to bring this down. And we’re going to make sure that it fits into the bolt. And it did.

It just snapped right in. So you want your teeth to fit into the bolt. That way it works the action.

Next, we’re going to take our handguard, place it over the top. There is a small nub here that just rests on the receiver. And it fits in right at the bottom of the receiver.

It’s almost a keyed little area. Then we’re going to get our bolt started. And then we’re going to just tighten it down.

Now we’re going to put in our magwell. And there is a small little lip and it goes in like this and it locks into place. You’ll also notice these grooves in the receiver and they mate with these little bars that are on the trigger group.

So we’re going to put that into place and it just slides right up. Next, we’re going to go our pins. Take a hammer and just tap them in a little bit.

And then we’re going to take our punch and just finish it out. And we’re back in business. Keeping your firearms maintained and cleaned is vital.

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The Ripcord is one of their signatures and there’s a whole system based around it. They are suppliers to the U.S. military. So check out Otis Technologies, highly recommended.

And we want to thank Otis for being a sponsor of the channel. And as far as price, they start out at $928 for the basic model with just the Henry Magwell. When you go to the brushed bronze Cerakote, this one runs $1,149.

What are some pros and cons? Well, it’s nine millimeter. That’s the most common self-defense caliber out there. The PCC carbines are very popular.

And while this is more traditional look, it handles like a standard, a traditional rifle. It does have features that you can really upgrade, including the magazine capacity, the M-lock rail, the threaded barrel. Of course, it is optics ready and you can put a bipod on the front.

The Magwell interchangeability is really a great option. I mean, you can go with whatever magazine you’re carrying on your hip if you’re using a Smith & Wesson, a SIG or Glock. So it gives you some really cool options.

The finish is absolutely beautiful. The wood is beautiful. And again, it just goes back to that classic, traditional look.

What are some cons? Well, it’s blowback, which is very reliable and it’s a great option. It just gives you a little more recoil than some of your radial delay blowback. But most of your 9mm rifles have blowback.

And with the weights being here at the front in your action bars, it does change the balance somewhat to the front more than to your shoulder. Trigger pull, it’s okay. It’s not really super great, but we were still able to get some decent accuracy.

Fit and finish is really nice. Now, one thing that Nut & Fancy had an issue with was the handguard, said it was really loose. Neither one of mine had been that way.

And both of these were uber reliable. We didn’t have any malfunctions. There have been some more traditional style 9mm carbines out there.

The Marlin Camp Rifle, it was in 9mm. It was a great rifle. But at the time, it didn’t have the popularity that it does today.

And then also the Ruger PC9. That’s more of a tactical look, but really in the same lines of a traditional rifle. And then of course, AR-15s and a number of other firearms that really go with the 9mm caliber.

So there are a lot of choices. This just, to me, is one of those that’s more classic. It’s a little more subdued, and yet it’s still fully capable like your PCC carbines.

So guys, if you want something that’s just a little different, it looks more like a ranch rifle or something you could just take outdoors, even hunting, this makes a great option. It is in 9mm, which is the most popular self-defense round out there. And again, with the magazine interchangeability, with the magwells, which makes it really easy to do, and just the quality and the fit and finish, Henry does a great job.

Again, made in America or not made at all, lifetime warranties. It really is nice to see a revival of the old Marlin Camp Rifle, and yet to modern standards.

 

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don