Mounting a scope on the Henry 22

March 1st will be here before we know it, and our opportunity to squirrel hunt will be over until September. That's why I wanted to get a scope on the new Henry 22 and begin field testing it on squirrels as soon as possible. As usual, my goal was to keep the price reasonable. That's what this web site has always been about; hunting and shooting on a tight budget. Unlike some of my buddies, I don't buy $1000 scopes and expensive guns. My scopes run $80 tops. Scope mounts about $10, and from WalMart if available. Tonight after supper I decided to take a run to Cabela's to get the scope.

The gun counter was mobbed, and there was no one available to help customers. It looked like there were two guys manning the counter, but they were tied up in processing gun sales so they were unable to help anyone. What a system! Some people left grumbling. I took a number (about 30 away from being called), yet no one was calling numbers. Finally I salesman walked by with the gun that he was processing and I yelled at him, "Would you please grab me one of these scopes so I can get the hell out of here?!" Thank god he said "sure" and I was on my way. The least expensive scope I could buy ran about $40 and it was the Cabela's store brand. For just under $80 they had a Bushnell Banner 'Dusk & Dawn' scope similar to the one that I used for the past couple of years on my Henry 17HMR Golden Boy. This scope is a bit smaller and has a smaller, lighter objective lens (the front glass). It's a 1.5-4.5 x 32mm, and it looks like it will be exactly what I need to drop some tree bacon.

I drove home in a torrential downpour, and that's how most of the evening went. I discovered that the Weaver scope mount I had bought didn't fit. I didn't realize the mount built into the receiver cover is smaller than a Weaver mount. Wonderful! Looks like no shooting tomorrow. The next task was to remove the rear iron sight because it was touching the scope. As usual, nothing is easy. I hammered the crap out of the sight with a hammer and a wooden dowel to get the sight to slide, but it wouldn't budge. I finally decided to hose the sight down with WD40 because it's supposed to have penetrating properties. I put down the wood dowl and got a big brass screw. Putting the screw up against the sight I gave it a few good wackes and it came right out. Excellent! Next I had to solve the lens mount problem. I ripped my room apart hoping I had an old mount kicking around that would fit. I couldn't find it anywhere... until I realized that my son had used it on his airsoft gun. The mount worked and the rest was cake.

I took out my LaserLyte and leveled the rifle with the leveler that attaches to the front of the laser. It splits the laser into a horizontal line which projects on a wall perpendicular to the rifle barrel. First you level the rifle with the leveler's bubble, then rotate the scope until the horizontal crosshair runs parallel to the laser line. I then tighten everything down, removed the leveler from the laser and pointed the rifle with laser turned on out the basement door into the nearby woods. A few rotations and the green dot was dead center on the crosshairs. A few drops of Locktite on the screws and that's it. Tomorrow I hit the range.