Lever-action airsoft has been stuck in a bit of a rut for years, with most of the segment's attention going to gas blowback rifles, HPA powered ones, and the usual AEG suspects. That started to change when G&G Armament rolled out its LeVAR series and proved there's genuine appetite for cocking a lever between shots instead of racking a bolt. It's a good start, but one series does not a genre make, and airsoft manufacturers looking for their next lever-gun project don't need to reinvent the wheel. They just need to look at what Henry Repeating Firearms is doing with real steel, because the company's new H1 X rimfire lever action rifle is basically a design that can be replicated for airsoft, provided a license is agreed upon.

Henry has spent more than 150 years building a reputation on tradition, but the company behind that name today clearly isn't interested in coasting on nostalgia alone. The H1 X is proof of that. It takes the lever-action .22, a category that's looked more or less the same since your grandfather's grandfather was buying ammo by the brick and gives it a thorough modern makeover. The result rewrites the rulebook on what a rimfire lever gun is supposed to look like, and it's exactly the kind of aesthetic pivot that would translate beautifully into a polymer airsoft replica.

Much of that makeover is borrowed straight from Henry's centerfire X-series line. The H1 X wears a black polymer buttstock and forearm built to take a beating, plus two included spacers that let owners dial length of pull to 14, 13.75, or 13.5 inches, so it fits shooters of pretty much any size without a trip to the gunsmith. The pistol grip is generously sized and textured for a sure hold, and the forearm stays trim at just 1.3 inches wide while still packing M-LOK slots at the 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions. In other words, it's already halfway to being an airsoft rail system before anyone's even touched an inner barrel.

The receiver is finished in gloss black alloy and pairs nicely with the deep bluing on the 16.5-inch round steel barrel, which is threaded 1/2×28 so owners can add a suppressor without fuss (the magazine tube is even angled to clear cans up to an inch in diameter, a nice touch of forethought). The H1 X comes in two flavors: .22 WMR, which holds 10 rounds in its tubular magazine, and .22 S/L/LR, which holds 12 Long Rifle rounds, 14 Longs, or a genuinely absurd 18 Shorts. Airsoft tubular mags rarely get this much attention to detail, and that's a shame, because "how many rounds fit" is basically half the fun of owning a lever gun in the first place.

Optics compatibility is where the H1 X really shows its modern streak. An integrated Picatinny rail sits right on the receiver, so mounting a red dot or a compact variable scope takes about as much effort as it does on any AR. For traditionalists who'd rather keep things old-school, Henry still includes a fully adjustable rear sight with green fiber optic inserts and a red fiber optic front post. It's a rifle that's happy to be dressed up with glass or left alone with irons, and that kind of flexibility is precisely what makes a design worth licensing into an airsoft platform.

One of the more interesting choices on the H1 X is what it doesn't have: no tang safety, no crossbolt safety, none of the external levers that have crept onto so many modern lever guns. Instead, Henry leans on a quarter-cock hammer position that lets you glance at the rifle and instantly know whether it's ready to fire, no fumbling for a tiny button required. It's a refreshingly old-fashioned solution to a problem that manufacturers keep trying to over-engineer, and it happens to translate perfectly to airsoft, where a mechanical half-cock indicator would be a far more satisfying "safety" than yet another ambidextrous selector switch nobody asked for.

Henry didn't skimp on the smaller details either. The trigger breaks at a crisp five pounds, the sling studs are recessed neatly into the polymer stock, so they don't snag on brush, and the comb sits higher than on most rimfire lever guns, which keeps your cheek welded to the stock whether you're running irons or glass. None of these are flashy headline features, but they're exactly the sort of quality-of-life touches that separate a rifle people actually want to shoot all day from one that just looks good in a display case, and that distinction matters just as much on an airsoft field as it does at the range.

At just 5 pounds and 34.5 inches overall, the H1 X is Henry's lightest rimfire lever gun to date, light enough that smaller shooters can carry and shoot it comfortably without complaint. That's a number worth paying attention to, because airsoft lever-action replicas can end up heavier than their real steel counterparts which rather defeats the purpose of picking a light and handy platform in the first place. A rifle built to be hauled through the squirrel woods all day, or tossed in a backpack without a second thought, is a rifle whose proportions deserve to be studied closely by anyone drawing up an airsoft equivalent.

Pricing lands at $590 for the .22 S/L/LR version and $690 for the .22 WMR, which is a fair asking price for an American-made rimfire with this much thought put into it. Airsoft manufacturers don't need to copy Henry's price tag, obviously, but they'd do well to copy its philosophy: take a familiar mechanism, modernize the ergonomics, add real optics compatibility, and don't be afraid to ditch a "standard" feature like an external safety if the design already solves that problem more elegantly. G&G proved the market wants lever guns. Henry just showed everyone what the next generation of them could look like.