The modular design gives options to fit many popular companion handgun magazines. The baseline magazine is a proprietary all-polymer straight box holding five or 10 rounds. Extremely lightweight and reliable, these magazines provide just enough capacity to fit every state’s legal limit. They are also easy to load. The magazine release is a protected ribbed paddle just in front of the mag body. The five-rounder fits almost flush with the receiver, making for more comfortable handling. Whenever compatibility with handguns is needed, Henry offers Glock and SIG/M&P magazine wells also. Those have side release buttons, same as the eponymous handguns. Additional magazine wells only add $31 to MSRP. Swapping them out takes under a minute. So, if you want to insert a 33-round Glock magazine, not an issue. Take down is easy. Punching three pins out of the aluminum receiver lets the buttstock with the trigger mechanism slide down and out of the receiver along retaining grooves, and the magazine well just lifts out.

 

The lower-capacity magazines keep this carbine legal in several anti-freedom states (except New York due to the threaded muzzle). Higher capacity magazines, stick or drum, bring much more purposeful associations. With a 33-rounder raking back from the Glock mag well, Homesteader is more visually reminiscent of the Reising submachine gun...but a better performer on many levels. And it looks the part. Blued steel and walnut combined with the aluminum receiver made to look steel-like with anodizing. The strong lines of this carbine resemble the Browning BAR automatic rifle and Model 5 shotgun more than the current crop of hunting rifles. It has just enough detent strength to make the engagement positive but not labored.
 

Homesteader has a very unusual sear: it is rigidly attached to the pivoting trigger, so the safety technically locks both. It’s the best of both worlds, providing a positive feedback if a trigger pull is attempted, and also guaranteeing SAAMI-tested drop safety by arresting the sear motion relative to the hammer notch. The trigger is crisp, feeling lighter than the measured five pounds of pull. The reset is quite positive, so controlled rapid shots are easy to accomplish. Magazine release and safety slider are protected against accidental activation, but can be accessed readily even with winter gloves on.
 

Ambidextrous magazine release, and the bolt handle swaps to either side of the receiver in seconds (right). Glock mag well with left-side release. Twin bolt lock tabs are visible in front of the trigger guard (bottom left). Henry magazines are easier to fill than typical pistol mags, and they protrude less.

 

The receiver top is flat, but a Weaver 63B rail offered by Henry mounts quickly and easily. Compact red dots and scopes on low mounts line up well with the eye, while taller mounts and sights like EOTech benefit from a cheek riser. My experience with the carbine suggests at most a 4x scope, a 2x could also be sufficient. The forend is solid enough to allow sling support without barrel deflection from the tension. Despite the drop stock, Homesteader shows minimal muzzle rise, thanks to the innovative bolt design.

A lightweight bolt is attached to a reciprocating weight in the forend with action bars similar to what you would find in a pump shotgun. That way, the receiver can be shorter, the space inside the forend is put to use, and the muzzle rise is negated by the weight moving forward at the end of the cycle. Depending on the distance from the target, two to four rounds per second is possible with complete control of the aim. Now to the sights. The rifle comes with a sturdy front sight post without illumination of any kind, complemented by a ghost ring rear sight dovetailed at the back to the barrel. The rear sight has elevation and windage adjustments: windage is by loosening and tightening of two screws, elevation is by rotation of the threaded aperture. In keeping with the traditional hunting look, the front sight blade has no protective wings. While the rear sight can be placed on the back of the receiver, it would require a taller front sight to zero correctly. An aftermarket front sight would increase the sight radius considerably, but Skinner Sights already offers a Picatinny rail with an integrated peep sight placed lower than the factory part, allowing the long sight radius without changing the front.