If you like the Henry, don't be afraid of it. Unlike something made in Italy, it is made in the USA and sold with a no BS warrantee.
I had some feeding issues with mine when I got it. I emailed them, they sent me a UPS shipping label, it went to HRA and was returned in 2 weeks. It now works flawlessly.
I have seen a few stories posted about people who had issues with them and they got frustrated and sold them. If they simply contacted the factory the factory would have made them right.
How many other gun models do you hear about where the plan before it ever arrived was to send it off to someone to make it work right? There is an aftermarket parts business set up surrounding just about every gun in production to sell you parts to make it work better. With the Henry, if it doesn't work perfectly, just send it back to Antonio and his guys take care of the problem No Charge.
The controversy about the HRA Big Boy has much less to do with the gun than it does to do with the marketing campaign that HRA put on when it came out with the model. Lets face it, sales people are sales people, and they all do strange things to sell their product. On the Big Boy the sales people screwed it up big time. Fortunately, sales people sell and don't make the gun. The Big Boy works well.
A lot of people whine about the front loading tube instead of the more traditional receiver loading gate. I have quite a few lever guns (Marlin, Winchester), and I kind of like the front loading tube better.... way less pain on the fingers to load it.