For the life of me, I don't understand why they didn't have them from the beginning. For more that a decade they knew they were loosing sales without a side loading gate and they knew that the customers wanted them. As everyone else has them, it wasn't about some patent issue so the only thing left is corporate arrogance.
BTW, I posted a number of months ago on some forums about an exchange I had with their Pres, Anthony, were in I asked why they didn't have a traditional side gate model when they came out with the 'Tacticool' X model one. He responded with a 'stand by for a few months and I'm sure you'll be satisfied.' comment which I posted about here. So it's clear that the CS lady was just spouting the party line. Refusing to acknowledge a new product until it's official release.
When I first heard about them I was tempted to get one in 45 Colt as I could run 'Ruger Only' level loads in it. However, Henry still doesn't make the specific model I asked Anthony for; a Case Hardened, Side Gate Loading, Round Barreled, Carbine. Their version has the much heavier octagon barrel and as the Henrys are all overweight to begin with it's a deal breaker for me.
They quote their 20" Big Boy Color Case Hardened .38/.357 Side Gate at a whopping 7lbs 14oz! which is exactly 2lbs heavier, 59%, than my 20" Rossi .38/.357 at 5lbs 14oz. In fact, it's 4oz heavier than my 24" Rossi rifle with it's tang and globe sight set!! Nope, they look nice but it's not what I wanted as it's way too heavy.
A light weight levergun carbine (even if they call their's a 'rifle' and the 16" model a 'carbine') is a failure if it isn't light weight. If I was going to lug around that much weight, I'd much rather have my Rossi rifle with it's 30" sight radius for much, much longer accurate shooting.
To think that they believed that they could impose their opinion on the buying public and tell us what we want is nothing new in corporate America. And unfortunately, it's not just in the corporate world. Slow Joe and the Commie are just getting started.
If you're proficient with irons the weight isn't as much as you think it is when you compare performance of shorter barrel/smaller PC's, in other words there's several ways to look at the overall equation.
