There was a time when sound suppressors were primarily accessories for special operations, hobbyists, and Hollywood gun wranglers. But in recent years, it's been the hunting community that's played a key role in driving the development of innovative suppressor designs. Made specifically for hunting rifles, these cans are tough, lightweight, and effective for protecting hunters’ hearing while contributing to a more enjoyable shooting experience overall. This increased demand for sporting suppressors may well have 'inspired' the changes in ATF procedures so that processing the paperwork now takes days instead of months. This has encouraged even more shooting-sports enthusiasts to get on board the suppressor band wagon. As a result, gun makers are working to offer more hunting rifles configured with suppressor use in mind.
New for 2025, Henry Repeating Arms has launched a new series of hybrid hunting lever guns dubbed the Lever Action Supreme Rifles. The first two models out the door include an 18-inch barrel version chambered in .223 Rem./5.56 NATO and a 16.5-inch barrel .300 BLK. I'm calling the Supreme models hybrids because they blend classic Henry styling with some modern in-house updates and some components borrowed from the popular AR-15 platform. Whether or not the Henry team set out to develop a handsome and handy purpose-built suppressor host, they did so with the .300 BLK version. Here is a closer look at what this slick little carbine has to offer.
The Supreme is built around a lightweight aluminum receiver borrowed from Henry's Homesteader pistol-caliber carbine design. The hammer assembly is fully enclosed by the receiver, which has been treated with a flat-black hard-coat anodized finish, with the goal of keeping dust and debris out of the action. With the beveled ejection port on the right side, this gun also borrows the Homesteader's ambidextrous tang-mounted metallic safety slider. The peaked and deeply grooved slide is pulled back, towards the shoulder stock into the SAFE position and pressed forward, exposing a red-dot, into the FIRE position. The top of the receiver has been drilled and tapped for a Weaver 63B style optics rail. For this evaluation, the receiver was topped off with a one-piece Picatinny Marlin 1895 336 444 Tactical Scope Mount from Evolution Gun Works (EGW) (#47100; $27.94).
The first of Henry’s rifles to employ rotating, multi-lug bolts were the members of the Long Ranger series. The Supremes also use rotating bolts. But in this case the company chose not to re-invent the wheel and simply installed AR-15 style bolts into the bolt assemblies. They took Modern Sporting Rifle compatibility one important step further with a magazine well sized to accept ubiquitous AR-15 pattern magazines. This carbine arrives with one 10-round polymer .223/5.56 Magpul PMAG which is compatible with .300 BLK ammunition. A 5-round magazine capacity limiter is also provided for those hunters who live in regions that require them.
In order to keep the receiver sleek and snag free, an ambidextrous magazine release lever is set behind the magazine well. Much like an AK-47 release, the lever is pressed forward, towards the muzzle, in order to free the magazine. Thankfully, Henry was not 'creative' about magazine management. The magazines drive straight up into the magazine well, AR style, and simply drop straight out when released. The Supremes are configured to be compatible with longer 20- and 30-round AR magazines as well. The ovoid lever loop is shaped so that it will not collide with extended magazines when they are in use. It also proved to be comfortable to use.
This series features a match-grade adjustable trigger group with a deeply curved, smooth-faced steel-bow trigger. They are listed as having a 4-pound trigger pull which can be shifted within a 1-pound range using an included hex key. The trigger of the gun sent for this evaluation broke crisply with just 3-pounds 7-ounces of trigger pull. I went ahead and used the factory setting for the evaluation at the range. There was a good deal to like about this carbine but I would have to say the smooth, clean trigger went right to the top of my list.
The 16.5-inch free-floated carbon steel barrel sports a round profile, a blued finish and rifling cut at a 1:7 twist rate. The muzzle is threaded at 5/8x24 TPI and fitted with a knurled thread protector at the factory. The iron sights are a configuration that I have yet to work with on a Henry platform. Most of their lever guns are topped with an adjustable semi-buckhorn rear sight paired with a bead or blade sight up front. In this case, the Supreme is fitted with a patent-pending trapezoidal rear sight which can be adjusted for windage and elevation with the same hex key used to adjust the trigger. The front sight blade has a triangular profile to fit the rear sight notch.
Henry has stuck by its guns (pun intended) when it comes to outfitting their rifles and carbines with American walnut stocks. This is not a particularly inexpensive or easy choice on their part. But it's hard to argue with the pleasing appearance and the warm feel these high-quality hardwood stocks provide. Treated with a weather-resistant finish, the gripping surfaces of the rounded fore-end and the pistol grip shoulder stock are enhanced with fine-line checkering for improved purchase. The shoulder stock provides a 14-inch length-of-pull. Other touches include front and rear sling swivel studs along with a textured soft rubber recoil pad. The carbine I worked with exhibited top-shelf quality and workmanship throughout along with an unloaded weight of 6-pounds 10.7-ounces with an empty 10-round magazine and the optics rail installed.
I know that most tactical carbines do not sport hardwood stocks like the Supreme. But the .300 BLK chambering, threaded muzzle and barrel length make this a multi-purpose lever gun that can be pressed into multiple roles. That's why I went ahead and topped in off with Leupold's Mark 5HD 2-10x30 mm mid-range scope sporting a TMR (MK) illuminated first focal plane (FFP) reticle (#179703). This FFP optic is not caliber specific. It is designed to be durable, light weight and to extend the practical accuracy of tactical carbines. The FFP reticle provides aiming points for wind and bullet drop compensation. Hash marks, spaced 0.5 MIL apart, are used in place of dots for improved ranging and holdover precision. The elevation dial provides 34.9 MILs of adjustment in 0.1 MIL increments along with the company's ZeroLock feature to hold it in place if bumped. Other features include seven illumination settings, adjustable paralax and a set of lenses that provide and impressively crisp and clear view. The Mark 5 was mounted using a set of Leupold aluminum Mark 4 cross-slot rings (#178531; $129.99).
When it comes to selecting a sound suppressor for hunting, its size, weight and levels of noise reduction are all key features. Silencer Central's Banish Backcountry was designed specifically with hunters in mind. Featuring an all-Titanium construction, this 6-baffle, .30-caliber suppressor can be safely fired with centerfire cartridges up to and including the potent .300 Remington Ultra Magnum. It tips the scales at just 7.8 ounces with a length of 5.5 inches and a diameter of 1.6 inches. It ships with a removable industry standard 5/8x24 TPI HUB mount with Cerakote finish options including Black (shown), Tan, OD Green and Tungsten. Lever-actions, like bolt-action rifles, make top notch suppressor hosts because the action remains closed when the gun is fired. In this case, the Supreme was very quiet, what some folks would call 'Hollywood Quiet' when the Backcountry was fired with subsonic .300 BLK ammunition.
Henry's lever guns are famous for the buttery smooth cycling of their actions. But in the case of the Supremes, how smooth the action feels can be affected by the magazines used. In the course of testing the .300 BLK and .223 Rem/5.56 versions of this gun, I worked my way through a variety of AR-15 magazines including an uncommon Israeli lacquered steel 20-round box along with aluminum and polymer options in 10-, 20- and 30-round capacities. I even threw in a 30-round PMAG with an aluminum competition style +5 extended base plate just to keep things interesting.
The magazine results were mixed. The one steel magazine and a polymer magazine simply would not feed reliably at all. The steel magazine was too tight of a fit and the polymer box had too much front to back slop. The Magpul PMAGs of all capacities and generations fed properly and cleanly. Some brands of aluminum Mil-Spec magazines worked nicely while others fed more roughly. It was the same for mixed brands of polymer magazines. The rounds fed and ejected properly, but the smoothness of the feeding could vary depending on how much front-to-back wiggle, if any, the given magazine exhibited. In short, do not assume any and all AR-15 magazines currently on the market will be a good fit for these guns. Make sure to test your magazines, along with the ammunition, before heading out into the field. But for those magazines that were a good fit, the function was flawless with all ammunition tested.
Formal bench-rested accuracy testing was conducted at 100-yards by firing three 3-shot groups into paper targets using three different loads of ammunition. Test loads included two supersonic rounds, Federal American Eagle and Gorilla Ammunition, along with Hornady's Subsonic load. A Garmin Xero C1 Pro chronograph was used to average bullet muzzle velocities for 10-shot strings. Here are the results without the suppressor installed.
After the formal results were compiled, a fourth 3-shot group was fired through the Backcountry suppressor with each load to check for any appreciable change in group sizes. The Federal load printed at 2.15 inches, Gorilla 2.04 inches and Hornady at 1.59 inches. In all three cases, the groups were within the size range of those fired without the can.
Henry’s choice to make the Lever Action Supreme Rifle series compatible with AR-15 magazines is a good one. It opens up all kinds of finish and caliber possibilities for this platform. How about an All-Weather version chambered in .350 Legend or .450 Bushmaster for the straight-walled cartridge hunters? Or a polymer stocked X-Model in 6.5 Grendel or 7.62x39mm? And then there's the .50 Beowulf, just because you can! The Supremes are handsome, handy and useful rifles just as they are now. I think they are going to sell by the boat load. But that won't stop me from looking forward to what Henry comes up with next!
Manufacturer: Henry Repeating Arms
- Model: Lever Action Supreme Rifle (H023-300)
- Action Type: lever-action, repeating, centerfire rifle
- Chambering: .300 Blk
- Barrel: 16.5" carbon alloy steel, round profile, polished blued finish, 1/2x28 TPI muzzle
- Receiver: aluminum alloy, flat-black finish
- Magazine: 10-Round AR-15 removable box
- Sights: fully adjustable trapezoidal rear, blade front
- Furniture: American walnut
- Trigger: single-stage; 3-pounds 7-ounces pull (as tested)
- Overall Length: 38.15"
- Weight: 6-lbs. 14-oz. with empty magazine and optics rail
- Accessories: one magazine, owner's manual, knurled thread protector, lock
- MSRP: $1,299
- Optic: Leupold Mark 5HD 2-10x30 M5C3 FFP TMR $1,999.99
- Sound Suppressor: Silencer Central Backcountry, starting at $1,099
