Henry Rifle is the People's Choice

Although the brand dates to the middle of the 19th Century, the Henry Repeating Arms company that we know of today was founded in 1996 by a father-and-son team. Originally located in Brooklyn, it started production of .22 rimﬁre lever-action carbines in 1997. Ten years later, the headquarters moved to Bayonne, N.J. Around that time, Henry added a large production facility in Wisconsin, having bought out a major parts supplier. The two factories together add up to over 400 employees on nearly 250,000 square feet of ﬂoor space. In 20 years, Henry Repeating Arms produced more than 2.3 million riﬂes. Today, they are the seventh largest domestic gun maker in the US. That kind of success doesn’t happen by accident.

THE ORIGINAL HENRY RIFLE was an important technical milestone, but the brand itself lasted only six years, from 1860 to 1866. The manufacturer, New Haven Arms Company, became Winchester Repeating Arms and its 1866 “Yellow Boy” became a runaway commercial success. It improved on the original design by sealing the tube magazine from the environment, and made it more suitable to military use with gate loading through the side of the receiver.

The Henry brand name went unused until it was resurrected in style by Louis and Anthony Imperato. This wasn’t the ﬁrst rodeo for Louis, who had resurrected the Iver Johnson brand back in 1973 and, for a time, produced commercial M1 carbines of good quality. With the Henry brand, production began with modestly priced .22 riﬂes of good mechanical quality but a cheap-looking ﬁnish, then quickly progressed to a much better ﬁt and ﬁnish, and more recently to a vast variety of rimﬁre and centerﬁre models.

The mainstay of the Henry brand remains the original H001, with well more than a million manufactured. Originally introduced at about half the price of its Browning and Marlin competitors, this classic proved as accurate and as reliable. Produced in blued and brass lite ﬁnish, it set the visual pattern for most Henry models. More recently, a silvery weatherproof ﬁnish was added as an additional option for hunting riﬂes.

Almost all Henry lever-action models follow the same design, using a rimﬁre-style magazine with a removable follower. While slower to load than the King’s patent gate introduced on Winchester 1866, this style of loading doesn’t ding up bullets or catch ﬁngertips in the spring-loaded gate cover. Read the rest of Henry repeating rifle.

Benjamin Tyler Henry was a scumbag who tried to steal the company he worked for from its rightful owner, Oliver Winchester, but didn’t manage to pull it off before Winchester discovered the plot and kicked Henry the curb. He should have been relegated to the dung-heap of history and I would be hard pressed to name any respectable commercial enterprise after him.

On top of which if American Shooting Urinal is shilling for Henry Rifles you can bet they’re being paid for it, which means someone is conducting a commercial enterprise on Freepr and trying to pass it off as just another citizen posting online.

“...Almost all Henry lever-action models follow the same design...” [original article, paragraph 5]

Not true at all.

The rimfire model is based on Ithaca’s 72.

Most of the centerfire models are based on the Marlin pattern finalized in the late 1880s and subsequently used in the M1893, M1894, M1895, M30, M36, and M336 rifles. Sufficiently well-thought-out that no major changes have ever been made. Stronger, more durable, easier to repair than Winchesters.

The most recent offerings are based in part on Browning’s BLR, a design noted for strength and accuracy. Capable of handling magnum cartridges, it also feeds from a box magazine, thus it can use pointed bullets.

“...’That Old Fogey’ Ripley felt the muzzle loader was good enough for a Civil War soldier! No need of breech loaders at all!” [Ruy Dias de Bivar, post 6]

This conceit is widely believed among US civilian gun enthusiasts, but has no substance.

James Wolfe Ripley, Chief of US Ordnance from 1861 to 1863, did indeed oppose adoption of repeating rifles, but as a one-star he had no power to impose any different policy all by himself even if he had a mind. The other senior Union army officers held the same views and would not have tolerated any changes.

Repeaters seem obvious to us now, but in 1861, no proven models existed. And a thousand and one snake-oil salesmen were desperately trying to sell their pet notions - most absurdly unworkable - to an already-overworked Union War Dept.

Repeaters don’t merely burden the supply system by heavy expenditure of ammunition: they cost more than muzzle loaders, were more complex and fragile. An entirely different approach to maintenance, parts supply, and repair was needed. The Union had no time to create one, nor any in-house personnel to train a flood of new technicians.

Besides, even when they did work right, repeaters were inferior to the standard issue muzzle loading rifle-muskets on a shot-for-shot basis. The 44 Flat rimfire round fired from the Henry barely qualified as a pistol cartridge, and rimfire cartridges for Christopher Spencer’s rifle were only a little better. The single-shot rifle-musket greatly exceeded repeaters in effective range, penetration, and energy on target. A unit armed with rifle-muskets could wipe out the same number of soldiers armed with Henry or Spencer rifles before the latter could even get in range.

Repeaters might have been a better choice for ambush and raiders, or isolated individuals caught off-guard, but the Union Army could not base its doctrine on ambushing and raiding. Disciplined fire from masses of troops had been decisive for generations, and the new rifle-muskets (issued for only a few years before 1861) were expected to be even more decisive - at ranges previously unheard of.

Ripley had earned a reputation for efficiency and careful adherence to regulations, having modernized Springfield Armory in the 1850s in ways admittedly revolutionary. His orders in 1861 were to maximize Union production of issue rifle-muskets and he stuck to that course of action single-mindedly.

Repeaters capable of matching performance of muzzle loaders or single-shot cartridge rifles did not appear until the 1870s.

“Benjamin Tyler Henry was a scumbag who tried to steal the company he worked for from its rightful owner, Oliver Winchester...” [Paal Gulli, post 11]

It’s not likely that the gun-buying segment of the American public is going to suffer an attack of conscience and stop buying modern Henry rifles because of a condemnation of business ethics (or their lack) of 160 years ago.

One suspects that the leadership of Henry Repeating Arms chose B T Henry simply as a marketing hook, if they weren’t merely honoring his design & engineering talents.

It’s worth it to recall that no entrepreneurs of 1860 could meet today’s moral, ethical, nor legal requirements anyway.

Oliver Winchester himself bought out competitors and smothered their products.

Sam Colt failed more than once before hitting the big time. He evaded creditors in questionable ways, and shamelessly gifted influential persons with special-presentation pieces, if he thought they might approve a contract.

Rollin White sold patent rights to Smith & Wesson for bored through cartridge cylinders, and was well-paid. But he spent most of it, fighting patent infringers.

Other gun designers and industrial pioneers had similar stories: it was a time of rough-and-tumble enterprise, in an emerging nation during the biggest revolutions in manufacturing and commerce yet seen. They were real men with real quirks and flaws, not angelic purveyors of moral probity.

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