MarkB_MI
Well-known Member
- Location
- Motown USA
Most of you know that Henry Repeating Arms borrowed its name from the first commercially successful lever action rifle, the 1860 Henry. Benjamin Tyler Henry worked for Oliver Winchester, who owned the patent rights of the bankrupt Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. Henry was able to work the bugs out of the Volcanic rifle and develop the .44 rimfire cartridge used in his rifle and the later 1866 Winchester. Winchester named the new rifle after its inventor.
The Henry saw limited use in the Civil War, but were not as common as the other repeater of the day, the 1860 Spencer rifle. After the war, Winchester eliminated competion from Spencer by buying out the company. By that time, Winchester had developed a new rifle, the 1866 Winchester, which looks very much like a modern-day lever action rifle.
My Henry is a reasonably accurate replica made in Italy by Uberti. These rifles have been imported under a number of brands, including Cimarron, Stoeger and Cabelas. The .44 rimfire cartridge is long extinct; my rifle is chambered in .45 Colt. You'll also find them in .44-40.
The Henry is very easy to load: You slide the magazine follower all the way to the muzzle, this unlocks the end of the magazine, which you open by twisting the end of the barrel about 45 degrees. After dropping cartridges into the magazine, you twist the end closed and it's ready to go. The picture below show the magazine in its open state.
The magazine design of the Henry (which I think was borrowed from the Volcanic) has a couple of problems: As you use up the cartridges, the follower slides toward the action and if you don't move your hand it will stop and can cause a jam. The other problem is there is no forend stock, so as you shoot the gun it quickly becomes too hot to hold without gloves. These problems prompted Winchester to use a rear-loading design on the 1866, introducing the loading port found on most lever action rifles since then.
The Henry saw limited use in the Civil War, but were not as common as the other repeater of the day, the 1860 Spencer rifle. After the war, Winchester eliminated competion from Spencer by buying out the company. By that time, Winchester had developed a new rifle, the 1866 Winchester, which looks very much like a modern-day lever action rifle.
My Henry is a reasonably accurate replica made in Italy by Uberti. These rifles have been imported under a number of brands, including Cimarron, Stoeger and Cabelas. The .44 rimfire cartridge is long extinct; my rifle is chambered in .45 Colt. You'll also find them in .44-40.
The Henry is very easy to load: You slide the magazine follower all the way to the muzzle, this unlocks the end of the magazine, which you open by twisting the end of the barrel about 45 degrees. After dropping cartridges into the magazine, you twist the end closed and it's ready to go. The picture below show the magazine in its open state.
The magazine design of the Henry (which I think was borrowed from the Volcanic) has a couple of problems: As you use up the cartridges, the follower slides toward the action and if you don't move your hand it will stop and can cause a jam. The other problem is there is no forend stock, so as you shoot the gun it quickly becomes too hot to hold without gloves. These problems prompted Winchester to use a rear-loading design on the 1866, introducing the loading port found on most lever action rifles since then.
