diff --git a/glance_store/_drivers/http.py b/glance_store/_drivers/http.py
index a2073de..d258102 100644
--- a/glance_store/_drivers/http.py
+++ b/glance_store/_drivers/http.py
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ import logging
 import socket
 import urlparse
 
+import requests
+
 from glance_store import capabilities
 import glance_store.driver
 from glance_store import exceptions
@@ -175,11 +177,11 @@ class Store(glance_store.driver.Store):
                         "redirects.") % MAX_REDIRECTS)
             LOG.debug(reason)
             raise exceptions.MaxRedirectsExceeded(message=reason)
+
         loc = location.store_location
-        conn_class = self._get_conn_class(loc)
-        conn = conn_class(loc.netloc)
-        conn.request(verb, loc.path, "", {})
-        resp = conn.getresponse()
+        session = new_session()
+        conn = session.request(verb, loc.get_uri(), stream=True)
+        resp = conn.raw
 
         # Check for bad status codes
         if resp.status >= 400:
@@ -194,29 +196,11 @@ class Store(glance_store.driver.Store):
             LOG.debug(reason)
             raise exceptions.BadStoreUri(message=reason)
 
-        location_header = resp.getheader("location")
-        if location_header:
-            if resp.status not in (301, 302):
-                reason = (_("The HTTP URL %(url)s attempted to redirect "
-                            "with an invalid %(status)s status code.") %
-                          dict(url=loc.path, status=resp.status))
-                LOG.info(reason)
-                raise exceptions.BadStoreUri(message=reason)
-            location_class = glance_store.location.Location
-            new_loc = location_class(location.store_name,
-                                     location.store_location.__class__,
-                                     self.conf,
-                                     uri=location_header,
-                                     image_id=location.image_id,
-                                     store_specs=location.store_specs)
-            return self._query(new_loc, verb, depth + 1)
         content_length = int(resp.getheader('content-length', 0))
         return (conn, resp, content_length)
 
-    def _get_conn_class(self, loc):
-        """
-        Returns connection class for accessing the resource. Useful
-        for dependency injection and stubouts in testing...
-        """
-        return {'http': httplib.HTTPConnection,
-                'https': httplib.HTTPSConnection}[loc.scheme]
+
+def new_session():
+    s = requests.Session()
+    s.max_redirects = MAX_REDIRECTS
+    return s
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 8ff82a6..c27e98d 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -13,5 +13,7 @@ six>=1.4.1
 
 jsonschema>=2.0.0,<3.0.0
 
+requests>=2.2.0,!=2.4.0
+
 # py2.6 compat
 ordereddict