Posted on 05/08/2006 4:21:39 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Outdoors Corner
By Bob Sheldon
Guest Columnist
Of the cartridge repeating rifles used in the American Civil War the best known today is the colorful Henry with its yellow receiver. Total production of Henry rifles was tiny compared to quantity Spencer rifles and carbines purchased by the US Army. Total production of Henry rifles was only about 12,000 with sales to the Federal Government only about 2,000 rifles. Some states purchased Henry Rifles for their militias and other rifles were purchased by individual soldiers or their families.
If a soldier had a Henry rifle the Army would issue him cartridges to use in his rifle. Government issue of Henry rifle cartridges was about 4.5 million. The Henry Rifle had another advantage that unlike a muzzle loader it could be rapidly loaded by a soldier crouched down behind something, or even lying down. To the Confederate Soldier the Spencer and Henry were both known as “the damn Yankee rifle you loaded on Sunday and shot all week.” US Troops armed with single shot rifles faced Indians armed with Henry rifles.
B. Tyler Henry was plant superintendent for the New Haven Arms Co., owned by Oliver F. Winchester. The rifle that became the famous Henry started as the Hunt repeating rifle. The Hunt rifle was operated by two levers and fired a “Rocket Ball” with the propellant in the base of the bullet. The propellant was just the priming compound and all of these forerunners to the Henry were subject to disastrous accidents when cartridges fired in the magazine tube. The design was improved and became the Jennings rifle. The Jennings rifle was produced in a small quantity but wasn't very satisfactory.
The Smith-Jennings and Volcanic rifles were two more attempts to improve the rifle before Mr. Henry finally adapted the rifle to the then new rimfire cartridges he had developed and made the rifle work.
The Henry rifle was operated by a lever that also served as the trigger guard and ended in a loop typical of lever action rifles today. It had a 24-inch octagon barrel and carried 12 extra 44 caliber rimfire cartridges in a magazine tube under the barrel. Twelve shots may not seem like much today, in 1860 it was a lot of firepower. The magazine tube was slotted its entire length except for the extreme tip. To load the magazine tube there was a projection that was attached to the follower. This projection was pushed forward into a section of the muzzle which pivoted to the side to allow the cartridges to be dropped into the magazine tube.
When the muzzle section was rotated back inline with the magazine a coil spring pushed the cartridges toward the receiver as they were used. This slotted magazine tube allowed moisture and dirt to enter the magazine tube and a dent any place along the slot could stop the cartridges from feeding. Rust could also freeze the rotating sleeve on the front of the barrel and prevent loading. The slotted magazine tube also prevented the rifle from having a wood forearm for the shooter to grasp when the barrel heated from firing.
The gun was very reliable except for that slot and rotating sleeve which was corrected in the 1866 Winchester by King's Improvement. The familiar loading gate that allowed a solid magazine tube to be loaded from the rear like all tube magazines center fire rifles do today was Kings Improvement. The Henry rifle had a very reliable feed system. A brass carrier lined up with the tube magazine when the lever was up and one cartridge was pushed into the carrier by the magazine spring. When the lever was lowered, the carrier was pushed up by an arm and lined up with the chamber, as the lever came back up the breech bolt went through the carrier and chambered the round.
The carrier was slotted on the top side so it could drop back down for another round. This system was very reliable but the brass carrier was heavy with the rifle weighing 9 1/4 pounds.
The barrel of the Henry rifle had gain twist rifling, which meant the twist became faster as it approached the muzzle. The rifling started at about one turn in sixteen feet in front of the chamber and was one turn in thirty three inches at the muzzle. This gain twist rifling was some times used in muzzle loading rifles and thought to improve accuracy. It is still some times debated among muzzle loader shooters with both sides sure they are right. The 44 caliber Henry cartridge was loaded with a 200 grain lead bullet and 26 grains of black powder. This was, by the standards of today, a very low-powered round, but a Henry rifle could put several men out of action while a musket was putting one man out of action. For hunting in the hands of a good shot the Henry could be good for anything up to deer up close.
The Henry was an impressive looking rifle with its yellow receiver, octagon barrel, and crescent butt plate. Early production Henry rifles had iron frames but most of the rifles had a copper-tin alloy receiver that was usually improperly called brass.
B. Tyler Henry retired in 1865 then the name of the company was changed to Winchester Repeating Arms Co. and the rifle with improvements became the famous Winchester 66 “ Yellow Boy”. When center fire cartridges replaced rim fire the frame was changed back to iron and the rifle became the 1873 Winchester “The Gun That Won The West”.
Doc, would you mind sharing when and where that chainfire incident happened? I am an artillery reenactor myself, but would like to share any rifle safety information I can get with the apropriate staff in our group. Thanks!
It happened on the Confederate Left Flank at two in the afternoon at the Shiloh reenactment on April 6th, 1987 with the second platoon of Confederate cavalry facing the Federals that were entrenched on the South side of the Sunken Road just Northwest of Thacker Hill.
or is that someone else's firm who does that???
free dixie,sw
or is that someone else's firm, who does that???
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
One turn in sixteen feet?
That's a pretty slow rate of spin.
L
free dixie,sw
NOT for this guy!! i prefer something with a LOT more PUNCH, like the .444 MARLIN or something LARGER than the relatively PUNY 44MAG.
fwiw, the boar where i'm from frequently weigh about 600 POUNDS dressed & are HARD to stop! my usual hog-gun is a M-1 Garand with 220grain Power-Points! (YEP, my garand has had "a little work done" on the gas system!)
my best hunting pal uses a .458MAG for boar - he is NOT "over-gunned", imVho. truthfully he shoots that old 458, MOD 70 at everything except small game. (as my grandfather used to say: FEAR the ONE gun man, as he is likely an expert with that one gun.)
free dixie,sw
And since the tubular feed mechanism was in the rifle's butt, the barrel could be shortened without limiting the number of available rounds. That feature made the rifle particularly attractive to the Pinkerton agents who served as Lincoln's bodyguards, and accordingly my uncle got one so cut down upon his retirement from the Secret Service. 
Where would they get the chrome to do the chamber and barrel?
My hunting buddy used a .44 MAG to drop a boar last November. We had guys kill 'em with Savage .300's, a 7mm 08, and .30.30s. Me, I used a customized .45-70 Marlin Guide gun, firing 350 grain Cor-Bon cartridges. Got two.
Mr. Stand , here in Hawaii the wild boar (and sow) are about half that size , big ones bein in the 300lb range .
Any of the pistol caliber rifles seem to work just fine , and especially with well placed shots at close range . I don't know about the 'well placed' but finding the wild pig here is almost always at very close range. Ultra thick brush/jungle.
If'n I eva came across a 600 pounder I would be up the first available tree and forget about the shot! Wild boar are known to kill and eat people if they get the chance....
A reenactor came in where I work last year with a story of a cannon misfire. His unit was advancing toward a battery, and he noticed they were firing a more rapidly than usual. Then suddenly they were showered with splinters from the sponge rammer.
OUCH! Do you know when and where this happened? I only know of one case of a premature ignition like that at a reenactment and it was several years ago.
i'll stand by my belief that the 44MAG is NOT suitable for boar, at least not the ones i've seen/RAN FROM!/shot!
my cousin shot one 4 times in the chest pointblank last year, which continued to run off, as if he hadn't been hit with a 30-30 SP.
we found him dead/spoiled a week later. he had finally died of bleeding out, with ALL FOUR SPs in an area that you could cover with a playing card, over the heart/lung area!
boars are TOUGH customers.
free dixie,sw
in the last few years, a number of hunters/hikers in our county have been injured by boar & 2 died "of wounds".
the last one i "took" weighed 419 field dressed.
free dixie,sw
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