AR-7

[Eddie1965]

I have an older Henry as well and other than being picky on ammo I've had no problems, I might get the newer version soon and pass on the old one to my 15 yr old boy.

[cannon]

I have a Charter Arms one I bought at Big 5 way back in the day. No problems and I play with it once or twice a year.

[pTa]

went shooting with my brother/ he brought his AR7 and it worked. I think it's form the era that would haver been charter arms. Had a 15 round mag with his.
Our ammo was mostly the CCI mnimags.

[bbguns44]

http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/SelfLoading/70PSS.asp

Marlin is close but not as compact. Might shoot better.

[RangemasterP226]

Get a 10-22 or

if you want a break-down rifle, get a Marlin Papoose.

[sequoia_nomad]

My grandpa used to keep one behind the seat of his old Chevy truck. Can't attest for anything about it other than being loads of fun when I was a kid. Good memories, thanks

[captbilly]

I have had one forever.

I was given one by my brother back in the 70s, perhaps he bought it after seeing it in a James Bond movie, and it is kind of cool. Problem is that it is also terribly unreliable. If I was stuck on a deserted island that had lots of small animals, that I could shoot and eat, it might be really good to have, but if I needed it to work as an auto loader, fogetaboudit. I can't say if some are better than others because I have never shot any but my own, but it seems to me that some of the problems are inherent in the design. The bolt and receiver are aluminum, as is the barrel (it does have a steel liner), so the metal is very soft and wears quickly. The extractor cutout in the barrel seems to have worn very quickly, and if you dry fire the thing it will leave a big dent in the aluminum barrel (I know, you shouldn't dry fire a rim fire, but it happens by accident sometimes).

If you like the novelty of the gun then get one, but if you want a SHTF gun it is probably not for you.

[robcoe]

I keep one of the new henry models in my car, its my second most used gun and I have found it to be reliable with routine maintnence(I only clean it and my 22/45, the most used gun, about every 500-600 rounds or every two weeks, whatever comes first). Never had a FTF or FTE and all the times it did not fire were obviously due to the cheap ammo I was using

[bigthaiboy]

...you are spot on!

note...it isn't just the orange insert (which holds 2 instead of 1 extra mag); the barrel end is now all metal, not plastic surrounding the metal barrel...a major change and improvement.

Is it really a new barrel? According to the Henry website, the metal barrel is covered in ABS plastic : http://www.henryrepeating.com/rifle-survival-ar7.cfm

The new AR-7 also has a notched dovetail scope mount.

I was given one by my brother back in the 70s, perhaps he bought it after seeing it in a James Bond movie, and it is kind of cool. Problem is that it is also terribly unreliable.

[Carsgunsandchics]

I have a charter arms Ar-7. It's not picky about ammo at all now, it'll eat any bulk ammo without a fuss. When I first got it the bolt would stick, even with just hand cycling it. My cure was to mount up a brass bore brush on a drill and polish the inner area, followed up with a 12gauge chamber mop with polishing compound. Cleaned up and put back together with a very generous dose of oil, ran about 500 rounds thru it before doing just a general cleaning.

[novabrian]

I have a camo Henry and it works great and seems pretty accurate.

[pilote]

Is it really a new barrel? According to the Henry website, the metal barrel is covered in ABS plastic

...and it still is...but the BARREL END is not...the end screwed into the breech used to be steel barrel and abs; now that end is all steel...this change began with the "orange" model; the front sight on the new barrel is also orange...

i actually didn't notice it right away; i bought another (silver) barrel from henry for the heck of it...when i compared the two that when i saw it.

if pics weren't such a pain to do on these forum sights i'd post it...

[BroncoBob]

Yes I have one and don't have all the problems that most people talk about. Of course mine is a little bit personalized.

[Surferchris1]

The original poster seemed interested in customizing an AR-7, if you were planning on using parts from "AR-7 Customized accessories LLC" I don't think they are still in business. I placed an order 7-8 months ago, and even got an automated receipt emailed to me, but then nothing. I called and emailed several times but never got any response. They never charged my card though so it's not like they ripped me off, I figured they just closed up shop. There is no indication of this on their website though. If anyone knows of other places that sell accessories for the AR-7 I'd like to hear about them, I haven't found too much out there.

Personally, I love my Charter Arms AR-7. It always gets shot, even when some of my nicer guns stay home. I'd say it works "good" with decent ammo (~1-2% failure), and works "meh, good enough " with cheap bulk (~2-4% failure). In general it also prefers round nose to HP ammo.

Ask yourself this, do you like to tinker with stuff? I do, so I think it's fun to figure out exactly what ammo this gun likes, and how much oil and where it likes it, and maybe I should take some needle nose pliers and tweak the feed lip just a little... What others see as design flaws, well they are design flaws, but I guess I see them more as an opportunity for me to improve the design. Since this gun is so inexpensive, and strictly for fun and I don't depend on it for HD or SHTF or anything really, I don't feel bad messing around around with it, and I enjoy that.

EDIT: I did eventually receive my parts from AR-7 Customized Accessories, so apparently they are still in business. It took about 9 months, and they never returned a single phone call or email but I was able to get someone on the phone once (out of at least a dozen attempts) and he told me that the barrel I ordered was backordered. I have to say though, I'm pretty happy with the quality of the parts, I especially really like the target barrel with the cantilever scope mount.

[PotShot]

GSG5

Very high fun factor - very well made.

http://www.gsg5rifle.com/item/166316_American_Tactical_Imports_Rifles_Shotguns_GSG_GERG2222LTD09T___GSG5.aspx