So, I've been leaning towards a Henry of late.
I was in Virginia last month and visited Taylor's while there, giving me a chance to handle a few Uberti. QC at Uberti has improved over the years, I see, but has a way to go. I was dismayed to find the recesses in the receiver for the screw heads were often oval instead of round. The loading gate operated smoothly, though, just run the follower up with your thumb and twist the sleeve open.
Yesterday, I had a chance to inspect two HRA "Original" at separate gun shops. All the screw recesses were round, but the gates were a pill to open. Once the follower was all the way up, I had to wiggle and press hard the follower, and with enough of this the follower seemed to snap just a little deeper into the sleeve, allowing it to rotate. I wrote to HRA and they recommend getting a running start with the follower to get it to seat in the sleeve. What's up their sleeve, so to speak?
In the Uberti and HRA drawings, I see there is a sleeve latch. The two makers implement this differently. Could this be what I was feeling?