{"id":7546,"date":"2024-07-16T20:43:22","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T00:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/visualrealms.com\/?p=7546"},"modified":"2026-01-10T10:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:22:16","slug":"my-first-modern-lever-action-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visualrealms.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/my-first-modern-lever-action-build\/","title":{"rendered":"My First “Modern” Lever Action Rifle Build"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chapter 1 - Chosing The Right Lever-Action Rifle<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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I know, it’s 2024 and the modern lever action craze was so two years ago but after drooling over AR platforms for the better part of those past two years, I started to crave something different.\u00a0 And although I am definitely late to the game, it’s never too late; here’s my Henry Repeating Arms Big Boy Model X in .357 magnum.<\/p>

Like most other “space cowboy” rifles, this Henry started life as a factory Model X with the synthetic stock and foregrip handguard and even though those two black pieces of plastic gave the Henry a fresher, more modern look, it was far from the space cowboy rifle I had hoped to create.\u00a0 To be clear, there isn’t any real art behind what I created.\u00a0 Everything I placed on this Henry was right off the shelf, with no modifications or tweaks necessary; they bolted right on.\u00a0 Having said that, they did come with a heavy price, so when you see these modern lever actions floating around on the internet, know that they can get spendy real quick – more about that later.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The first real question when considering one of these builds is the caliber and the answer to that depends on your intended use or the story you are trying to tell.\u00a0 For me, this being my first lever action, the fact that I have never hunted before and that I wanted a rifle that my daughter and wife could shoot, I figured the right answer was in the .357 or .45 ballpark.\u00a0 Also, truth be told, when choosing the caliber for this first build, I also considered that it wouldn’t likely be my last lever action build.\u00a0 I do have dreams of building a .30-30, 20-inch octagonal barrel lever-action hunting rifle but on that build, I’ll be keeping the wood stock and adding a minimal handguard and short optic rail.<\/p>

The second and equally important question is which rifle manufacturer is right for the build and for you.\u00a0 The answer, in this case, was more or less made up for me since many of the manufacturers, like Marlin, are very hard to come by, especially if you wanted an all-black .357 lever action.\u00a0 The Marlin Dark Series rifles are impossible to find and if you do find one, they are marked up nearly 2.5 to 3 times their MSRP, so that’s a no-go.\u00a0 I considered all of the brands but the more and more I researched, the more the Henry Big Boy series seemed like the right choice because of its specs, availability, reviews, and price point.<\/p>

Speaking of price, I paid $873 shipped for my Henry from Sportsman Fulfillment<\/a>.\u00a0 It was the best price on the internet at the time and although I’m sure I could have waited to find something cheaper, based on the trends, I didn’t see a lot of new Henrys hitting the inventory shelves anytime soon and figured I best “pull the trigger” before I lose out.\u00a0 By the way, I use gun.deals<\/a> to find the best prices for all of the guns I buy.<\/p>

Continuing on with the price theme, I worked really hard to get the price down on the entire build.\u00a0 There were some really good sales during Labor Day weekend which helped to save some cash.\u00a0 Optics Planet<\/a> had a 12% site-wide sale, plus they had some “blazin deals” and to top it off, the Holosun OPMOD red dot had a $75 gift card attached to its purchase.\u00a0 After it was all said and done and tallied up, I had saved a whopping 26% on the build.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Chapter 2 - The Build<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The rifle, accessories, and all additional parts were sourced and paid for by me.\u00a0 I do have an affiliation with Amazon but not with any of the other sellers in the list below.\u00a0 With that said, here is the list of parts I used and their associated links:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I won’t go into detail on each of the parts\/accessories in the list but I would like to give credit to a few videos that I used to guide me in the installation of the Midwest Industries stock and handguard.\u00a0 Since this is my first lever-action and lever-action build, I had next to no knowledge when it came to working on a lever-action.\u00a0 But just like anything else, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to understand how they work.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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