Rifle Review: Henry Long Ranger 6.5 Creedmoor

One of the best parts about my job is that I sometimes get to try out some great firearms I wouldn’t otherwise be able to shoot. One of those rifles is the Henry Long Ranger in 6.5 Creedmoor, which I used on a deer hunt last December.

The time has come to review the rifle, which is a nice firearm that’s obviously built with care. It does have some quirks which potential buyers should know about before they pull the trigger to buy one of their own. Let’s dive right in.

Specifications

The Henry Long Ranger is available in four different chamberings, with or without iron sights. Last year, the 6.5 Creedmoor was not offered with sights, but I see it listed on their website now. Here are the specs for the 6.5 without sights that I used.

• Model: H014-65
• Lever Action
• Chambered for: 6.5 Creedmoor
• Magazine: Removable 4-round box mag
• Weight: 7.6 pounds (no sights, no scope bases, empty magazine)
• Barrel: 22″ carbon steel sporter weight
• Rifling twist: 1 in 8″ (measured by me)
• Metal Finish: Blued steel on barrel, lever, forend cap, sling studs, trigger, hammer, magazine
• Metal Finish: Matte black alloy receiver
• Metal Finish: Matte chromed steel bolt
• Stock: Matte-finished walnut with checkering
• Henry-branded rubber recoil pad
• No external safety
• Uses internal transfer bar, so there’s no half-cock either
• Overall length: 42-3/4″
• Includes: Skinner-brand Weaver-style steel scope bases; Knurled steel hammer extension
• MSRP: $1,105.00

Ammo Selection

I tried the following 6.5 Creedmoor loads in my Henry Long Ranger:

• Norma 130-grain Scirocco 130-grain ballistic tip, load 20166302
• Federal Fusion 140-grain bonded soft point, load F65CRDFS1
• Federal Power-Shok 140-grain soft point, load 65CRDB
• Federal Premium Nosler Accubond 140-grain ballistic tip, load P65CRDA1

I hunted with the latter load for two reasons:

It gave me the best accuracy of the Federal loads, and

Although the Norma provided similar accuracy, I prefer heavier bullets. The chosen ammo swiftly slew a large whitetail doe and dropped a big male coyote in its tracks with nary a twitch. You can read all about that hunt by clicking here.

All of this ammunition is of good quality and I was happy to have it. I’m confident they will all serve hunters well in the field.

The Good

For hunting, this rifle’s finish is hard to beat. All metal is finished dark and matte, so it’s not flashy… and the wood finish is likewise minimally reflective.

The included scope bases are solid steel with a matte finish. Once properly mounted, your scope isn’t going anywhere.

The included blued steel knurled hammer extension looks to be of good quality and can be mounted on either side of the hammer to help you cock it if a low-mounted scope gets in your way.

The action is fast and slick; the bolt is pretty long, but the lever makes fast work of opening & closing it.

The barrel has a nice deep crown, which will help prevent damage to the rifling.

Sling swivel studs are mounted solidly and securely.

The checkering is attractive and tactile without being really aggressive. It’s cut fairly deeply — but not quite deep enough to create sharp points on the resulting diamonds. Fans of sharply-pointed checkering may not love it, but this is a more practical approach for a wood-stocked hunting rifle.

The Long Ranger’s controls — which are few; something we all love about lever guns — are easy to access and use. I didn’t need the hammer extension in order to cock the hammer with my thumb, the magazine release is a large round steel button on the right side of the receiver, and the lever runs when you ask it to.

The removable box magazine makes it easier to unload this rifle vs. tube-fed lever-actions.

The recoil pad on the butt has a nice feel and a good bit of give. If I were to complain about it, I’d note that it’s not well fitted to the stock (the stock is larger than the pad’s base).

One thing I love about a lever gun is the lack of side protrusions. While bolt-action rifles sometimes need to be arranged “just so” in a gun cabinet or safe, lever guns fit so nicely, without bolt handles poking out to scar up their neighbors.

This is a full-sized rifle for a full-sized hunter; the length of pull works well for my 6′-1″ long-limbed frame, and the weight is not for the faint of heart. Once scoped with an appropriate long-range scope, expect to be toting almost ten pounds of three-and-a-half-foot rifle through the woods. If you’re a big ‘un, that’s probably not a problem.

The Not-so-Good

Brutal honesty time: Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting my rifle to group well — but once I did, it gave me excellent groups out to 200 yards. Heck, both two-shot 200-yard groups I shot before my hunt were tighter than the 100-yard group. Perhaps a fluke — but I’ll take it.

The barrel is free-floated, which is good. There is some flex in the forearm, so firing with the use of a sling or any other method that places lateral stress on the forend may result in some unwanted pressure on the barrel, which can lead to accuracy trouble. You will get the best results by supporting the forend from below.

Ejection with the Long Ranger is disappointing. It ejects empty cartridge cases rather lazily; not what I expected from this rifle. The ejector is simply a plunger in the bolt face opposite the extractor; a system that works okay but doesn’t provide the really positive ejection of a fixed ejector — and unlike a fixed ejector, opening the action quickly doesn’t improve ejection. I used two different Long Ranger rifles, and the first one sometimes failed to eject at all.

Trigger pull is not great. My second Long Ranger’s trigger is notably worse than the first; it averages 6.25 pounds with a lot of creep.

I would prefer to have the scope bases placed farther apart; once, installed, there’s only 1-5/8″ between the edges of the included Skinner brand Weaver-style bases (center-to-center is about 2-5/8″).

You can’t insert or remove the magazine with the action fully open, because the lever gets in the way — and with the bolt closed, a fully-loaded magazine doesn’t really want to seat properly, which leaves the mag too low for the bolt to strip rounds out of it. Give the mag’s floorplate a good solid slap to make sure it’s seated correctly, or your repeater may not repeat.

Final Thoughts

Some may accuse me of being a harsh critic, and in many cases they would be correct. But when discussing any firearm with a retail price north of a thousand bucks, I believe we consumers and consumer advocates should hold products to a high standard.

That said, the Long Ranger is a good rifle, and once mine began behaving accuracy-wise, it served me well afield. It always worked when called upon, and I never had reason to doubt that it would do whatever job I needed it for, as it proved by slaying a nice whitetail deer and a large coyote.

It’s also a fairly heavy rifle and a bit long, which negates some of the traditional advantages of a lever gun… but hey, it’s not your typical lever gun; it’s the Long Ranger and it’s meant to reach on out there.

If you’re a lever-lover who wants to reach out a good ways, the Long Ranger just might be your soulmate.

Happy hunting.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.