Ruger started putting transfer bars in all of their single action revolvers in 1973. Iver Johnson, however, patented the transfer bar design and was installing them in their Safety Automatic revolvers almost 80 years before Ruger, in 1875.

you had options, the long action blr has a hammer safety

After reading the OP's post, I saw that he owns other guns with exposed hammers. I don't own a Henry so can't comment directly on the rifle. I do own a couple lever actions by other manufacturers. I noticed you added a hammer spur to yours. If that still doesn't make you feel comfortable with gun, you might consider selling it and getting something else that works better for you.

When I posted this thread I fully expected some of the negative responses. All I can say is that I have been hunting for nearly 55 years and have never had any serious hunting accidents, knock on wood. In this day and age of scrutiny on every aspect of gun ownership and gun rights I would hope all gun owners would be concerned about gun safety and hold manufacturers to a higher standard instead of brushing off other's concerns as "That's the way it's always been".

Because no one made negative comments about the rifle because of having no manual safety does not mean every one of us is not concerned about safety I am positive everyone here is, I know I am! I was a hunter education instructor for over 30 years, I was a Conservation officer for 33 years and a police firearms instructor, both handguns and long guns for 28 years and I see no problem at all with that rifle. It is people who are unsafe, not a particular type of firearm. The best safety there is sits between your ears, not attached to a firearm. Mechanical safeties can fail and can give a false sense of security, I have seen rifles fire when the safety taken off. If people think about firearm safety each and every time they handle a firearm and obey the rules of firearms safety they or anyone around them should have no worries. By the way, I have been hunting for 62 years and have handled firearms longer than that.

I totally agree with Oldtimr. I too am a hunter trapper safety instructor. And in our classes we teach we stress numerous times that a firearm safety is a mechanical device that is prone to failure. We try every method we know and that is in the study material to pound safety into the minds of the students. The fact that the Henry Long Ranger does not have a crossbolt safety is immaterial. Firearms have been made for decades using the 1/2 cock as a safety (which by the way is not a true safety)..Use safe gun handling practices and there should be zero issues with this rifle. One more thing about hunter education. There is no such thing as an accident. Each and every event is an incident caused by carelessness.

I'll take this dangerous rifle off your hands. PM me and we can discuss money.

-Jake

Far more folks are injured and/or killed every year, and have been throughout modern history, by firearms with safeties than are injured and/or killed by hammer fired rifles without safeties. Multiple orders of magnitude more.

A safety on a hammer fired rifle is nothing more than security theatre - an apparent safety feature which doesn’t actually improve safety.