The surgeons have been cutting on the left side of my face and my ear for over eight months, and they still have not gotten all the cancer. So starting this week, I get to undergo radiation. I must admit I am not in the best of moods.
But the more pressing issue is I have a new Henry 9mm carbine, the Henry Homesteader, I needed to shoot for a review. I also needed to get the shooting part done before the radiation. Keeping an ear plug in the surgically modified left ear is a challenge, and once the radiation starts, the skin will be too irritated to try and wear a set of ear muffs.
My nephew, the funeral director, told me he could send me a snap-on ear from his facial reconstruction kit he uses for car and motorcycle crash victims. I told him I was not quite there yet, but I would keep him in mind.
So the Colonel (my wife and nurse) suggested we go out to the farm and partake in the Japanese concept of Forest Bathing (shinrin-yoku), roaming the wooded lands we own to improve my health. This was to help improve my sleep, improve my mood, and for God’s sake, lower my stress levels. Then after I had hugged all my shagbark Hickory trees and breathed in the essential oils my trees provide me (without a medical co-payment, I might add), I relaxed and got out the Henry rifle.
Henry Homesteader 9mm Carbine
Henry Repeating Arms has made another paradigm shift and came out with a semi-auto 9 mm carbine called the “Homesteader.” The carbine is 6.6 pounds and has a 16.37-inch barrel. It comes with a Henry proprietary double-stacked magazine, and it is also offered in models that will use Glock, S&W, and Sig handgun magazines.
Out of full disclosure, I have a Brand X carbine chambered in 9mm. I talked the Colonel into getting it for me over 15 years ago for Christmas. The reason is I truly believe everyone should own a shoulder-fired firearm chambered in 9mm. In times of crisis-causing ammo shortages, there always seems to be some 9mm ammo available.
Almost every army engaged in combat in WWII on both sides had some type of carbine or submachine gun chambered in 9mm. Was it the best military cartridge in that war?–not hardly? It was, however, everywhere, on every battlefront, Yes. If you were a British or American soldier and you needed 9mm ammo for your country’s issued military weapon, you could use captured German ammo and just keep fighting.
You can find 9mm dramatically easier than 22mag, and the 9mm will cost less per round than the 22mag. The 9mm coming out of a 16-inch barrel will also stop bigger carbon-based life forms than 22mag.
The Henry Homesteader is very nicely finished. With its walnut stock, it does not look like some third-world, black rifle that upsets some of our more liberal folks in this country.
The ghost ring or receiver sights work very well for an old man who just wants to stop evil inside of 100 yards—accomplishing this life-saving skill without expensive optics. Electric optics that will not work when the battery runs out just before the “Walkers” come to your neighborhood in the middle of the night.
There is an old saying, “your handgun has one purpose, and that is to help you fight your way back to your long gun.”
Having a 9mm semi-auto carbine backed up by a 9mm handgun where both firearms use the same magazine is a tool to enhance your assurance of survivability in a crisis.
I live in God’s country, known to the rest of the world as Wisconsin. Henry Repeating Arms has its international headquarters in the town of Rice Lake in this state. I was communicating with Toni Grandinetti of Netti Ammo, who happens to sell firearms and manufacture 9mm ammo also in Wisconsin. Mr. Grandinetti invited me to his operation location, and we proceeded to shoot his Wisconsin-made 9mm ammo in my new Wisconsin-made Henry 9mm carbine.
On average, we were getting 1150 FPS (feet per second) from the Netti 9mm ammo, shooting it out of a handgun. Shooting the same 110 gr hardball Netti 9mm ammo from the Henry Homesteader semi-auto carbine, we averaged 1300 FPS. For clarification, shooting semi-auto pistol ammo such as 9mm or 45 ACP from a rifle does not get you the increase in FPS that a rimmed centerfire pistols cartridge such as 357mag or 44mag can obtain fired out of a long gun.
Henry Repeating Arms promotes the idea of Protect and Provide and using Henry firearms to meet the needs and mitigate the damage to your family in times of crisis.
- Can you protect your loved ones, and can you feed them using the same firearm? I would strongly suggest there is a “yes” answer to that question when using a Homesteader 9mm carbine–but a shooter has got to know their limitations.
If you go to the 9mm page of “ballistic by the inch .com” you will see the results of different 9mm ammo shot from 4-inch up to 20-inch barrels and see the FPS you can obtain. Some other brands of 9mm can get you 1500 to 1600 FPS, but most all 9mm has about a 150 to 200 FPS difference between being shot from a pistol vs. a rifle.
Mr. Grandinetti put his suppressor on the pre-threaded Homesteader carbine and shot his Netti 9mm ammo. In all honesty, you need some sub-sonic 9mm to really get the benefits of noise-dampening using the Henry. You could shoot the Homesteader without earmuffs using the suppressor but the “Walkers” down the road would still hear the noise of the round going off and zero in on your location.
Mr. Grandinetti and I were both very pleased with the accuracy of the Homesteader. We did all of our shooting, standing with no rest or support, and still made 5 out of 6 rounds touch the target.
Yes, I am sure I could stop a “Walker” from eating me for lunch with the 9mm Henry Homesteader carbine, as well as deliver a white tail to the dinner table in a time of crisis.
Evil hates organization, so do some of your assurance organizing around the 9mm cartridge chambered in a handgun and a Henry 9mm Homesteader carbine. Henry Repeating Arms has come up with another new winner, and Mr. Grandinetti has the ammo you can feed your new rifle with.
Wisconsin, the land of excellent Forest Bathing, outstanding Henry Homesteader Carbine or repeating rifles, and ammo–oh yes, cheese, lots and lots of the world’s best cheese.
Actually, “the” world’s best lever action rifles are made by Henry here in God’s country-Wisconsin.
Major Van Harl USASF Ret.
vanharl@aol.com
Read Related: Henry Homesteader 9mm Carbine | Video Review & Range Report
About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:
Major Van E. Harl, USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force, was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School. A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI. His efforts now are directed at church campus safety and security training. He believes “evil hates organization.” vanharl@aol.com