Magtech ammo and a Henry Big Boy are a tough combo to beat.

I happened to find out how good Henry rifles are at a writers' get-together. After the morning info, we had lunch and then went out to the ranges. I found myself on the 200-meter rifle range with Dave Fortier, a pair of Henry Big Boy rifles in .44 Magnum and a carton of Magtech 240 jacketed softpoint.

Quite frankly, I was not expecting much. We were there by ourselves, I guess because the others weren't expecting much either. We loaded the rifles, anticipating a little plinking. Within the first tubeful of ammo, we had broken every single clay pigeon scattered across the hundred-yard berm. Reloading and sifting to the 150 berm, we found ourselves with all the birds busted and half of the second tube still in the rifles. Those Henrys were accurate.

At the 200-meter berm someone had left a LaRue target. The LaRue is a falling steel plate that uses a battery and gearbox to reset itself. So Dave and I had a contest: who could knock it over the most times, shooting offhand. The target is not big. At 200 meters the retained energy of a .44 Magnum (the "sweet spot") on the target is about the size of a pie plate. Dave and I hammered most of the remaining ammo at that LaRue. He knocked it down six times; I knocked it down eight. However, we rang steel almost 50 times between us. We had those rifles so hot you couldn't even touch the barrelband, and they kept working and hitting.

These stocks and forearms have been matched up and now rest in their "sock," awaiting their rifle.

When we were done I saved a box of Magtech ammo and asked the president of Henry Repeating Rifles, Anthony Imperato, if I could borrow that rifle to write up. Alas, he had promised it to the NSSF for training and public relations. But he promised to send me another one. In the course of researching the Henry rifle, I found that the Henry plant was in Brooklyn--Brooklyn, New York.

Therefore, when visiting my in-laws right after the writer's conference I'd be 30 miles away from the plant. Of course, I arranged a visit. What I saw impressed me, and I understood why those rifles were so accurate. Henry makes its own barrels and pays attention to the details.

As you would expect of a firearms manufacturer located in New York City, Henry is in an unmarked building. When I arrived it was blazing hot, and the company had just received multiple shipments. The plant was packed with unopened shipping crates. That didn't keep the barrel crew from working.

They were taking blanked-off sections of barrel steel and feeding them into Pratt & Whitney deep-drill machines dating from the 1940s. These are obviously well-cared-for machines, lovingly maintained. Once the barrel blanks are drilled, they're reamed, honed and button-rifled. After yet more inspections they go off to one of the many CNC machines, where they are profiled.

Different steel (all their steel is made in America), which arrives as rectangular stock, goes to other CNC-machining stations to be turned into bolts. Bolts are hand-inspected and gauged after machining--every one. The inspection station has an array of gauging fixtures, and the woman I saw gauging that day is very practiced. The barrel chambers are reamed and polished before installation (easy, with the CNC machines making the thread and shoulder dimensions perfect), then after the barrel is screwed into the receiver, headspace is checked again.