This week on #SundayGunday, we’re checking out the HUSH Series, from Henry’s new Special Products Division, SPD for short. Bringing the lever-action firmly into the 21st century, the SPD Hush is purpose-built to run suppressors, for hunters looking for every advantage in the field. What we have here today is an early prototype, chambered in .44 Magnum, but the Hush is now out and available in .45 Colt, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .30-30 Winchester and .45-70 Government.
So why put all this work into a lever action? For starters, if anyone was going to do it, it would have to be Henry. The company has made its name for its fantastic series of lever guns since its 1996 inception. More importantly though, lever guns really are the perfect platform for a suppressor, as the action remains closed during firing. This makes them inherently quieter than a semi-automatic, while retaining more speed of shooting than a turn-bolt action. Not content to stop there though, the Special Products Division takes it further. The blued steel receiver has been optimized to minimize weight, which keeps the point of balance intact even with a suppressor attached. Further helping this is the gun’s BSF, carbon fiber barrel, which features a match-grade 416-R stainless steel barrel, wrapped in tension-loaded carbon fiber. With a 95-percent air gap between carbon and steel, this promotes greater temperature stability and faster cooling than all-steel designs, while keeping weight out past the balance point to a minimum. AS the steel inside expands, the carbon expands with it, preventing delamination and maintaining accuracy.
Around the barrel, the gun’s fore-end is skeletonized aluminum, created in collaboration with Tapco. Slim and light, it boasts M-Lok slots down it’s side and bottom, to easily attach slings, bipod and even lasers. The receiver wears a Picatinny rail up top, machined with Arris technology from forged carbon fiber, for ease of optic mounting while still saving weight. To its rear, a matte-dark grey American hardwood laminate buttstock is hollowed out for further weight savings, while still retaining durability and somewhat classic looks. It also has the checkering and rubber butt-pad that shooters have come to expect from a comfortable rifle.
On the range, the lever runs fast and the trigger breaks smooth, trademarks of a Henry rifle. Weight sits between 6.4 and 7 pounds, defending on caliber, while muzzle threading is 5/8x24 TPI for all current models. All barrels are carbine length, at 16.5 inches, keeping the gun maneuverable with a suppressor attached. Finally, a transfer bar safety makes the gun safe, while not adding an additional impediment to the shooter.
For more information on this fantastic new lever action, visit henryusa.com. And if you’re a fan of #SundayGunday, don’t forget, your support through an NRA membership is the only way we can keep this content coming. Head on over to nra.org to sign up today, and as always, for more #SundayGunday, check out our playlist on YouTube, where all previous episodes are archived.
