When Henry Repeating Arms introduced its Special Products Division at last year’s SHOT Show, the company described it as “a collaborative hub dedicated to pioneering advancements in firearms design and technology to explore what’s possible.” They have delivered on that promise, first with its HUSH series of suppressor-ready rifles introduced in January, and now with the company's recently announced CRUSR and PREDATOR rifles.
The CRUSR's (pronounced “cruiser”) name is an acronym that stands for “compact, rugged, ultralight and suppressor-ready.” The CRUSR is based on Henry’s side-gate loading, steel large-frame lever-action rifles, with custom touches to render it the ultimate backcountry lever gun that would be “the lowest maintenance, lightest, most compact lever gun ever made in .45-70 Gov’t.”
To lighten the load, the CRUSR uses a 16.5” BSF carbon fiber tension-wrapped 416R stainless steel barrel, with its muzzle threaded 5/8x24 TPI for attaching suppressors and muzzle brakes, along with a synthetic buttstock and aluminum handguard with M-Lok slots. To minimize maintenance, the aluminum handguard is given a Midnight Bronze Cerakote finish; barrel, receiver, lever and magazine tube are finished in Midnight Blue Cerakote, and all moving parts have a Diamond-Like Coating (DLC).
Sights are a suppressor-height adjustable ghost-ring rear and front post with brass bead, along with a Picatinny optics rail mounted on the receiver. With a compact overall length of 35.25” and weighing only 6.7 lbs., the CRUSR has a magazine capacity of four rounds and is rated for “+P” .45-70 Gov’t cartridges.
The PREDATOR (another acronym that stands for “precision rifle engineered for dispatching agile targets over range.”), which Henry calls “the most accurate lever-action rifle ever built”, is based on the company’s Lever-Action Supreme Rifle (LASR). Like the LASR, it has a free-floating barrel, adjustable trigger, and is fed from AR-type magazines. In the PREDATOR’s case, that barrel is made by BSF of carbon fiber tension-wrapped 416R stainless steel and is 18” long with its muzzle threaded 1/2x28 TPI.
Chambered in 5.56 NATO/.223 Rem., the PREDATOR lacks the LASR’s iron sights, but comes with a factory-installed Picatinny optics rail. The buttstock and fore-end are gray laminated wood, with a custom, adjustable cheekpiece at the rear. It has an overall length of 38.06” and weighs 6.21 lbs., and a Harris S-LM bipod is supplied with each rifle. To prove their “most accurate lever-action ever built” claim, the Henry team took the PREDATOR to extreme long range and recorded hits at one mile distances on what appears in their video to be about a 3’ x 3’ steel plate.
Henry New SPD Models-05: To prove their claims of the PREDATOR’s accuracy, the Henry team make hits on targets one mile away.
The Henry SPD CRUSR has an MSRP of $2,499, while the PREDATOR retails for $2,510. For more information, see the company’s website.
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