Henry rifles - an important step in the evolution of repeating rifles.Though they played a limited role in the Civil War, Henry rifles made their mark on history. These early lever action rifles became known as the rifle you "load on Sunday and shoot all week". It's 16 round capacity gave the soldier a huge firepower advantage over the muzzleloaders of the day. The U.S. government purchased only about 1700 for issuance. Many soldiers purchased their own... and who wouldn't!
The Henry rifle patent This version fired a new .44 caliber rimfire cartridge. It was loaded with 26-28 grains of black powder pushing a bullet of about 200 grains at 1100 feet per second. Not a very powerful weapon but quick to load and fire. 
replica Henry rifle by Navy Arms The overall length was 44-3/4 inches, with a 24 inch barrel. She weighed 9-1/4 pounds. 10 pounds fully loaded. There was no wooden forearm. I would think the shooter would want to wear gloves as some protection from the hot barrel after sustained fire. This also left the spring loaded tubular magazine unprotected and they were easily damaged. Loading was done by sliding the magazine follower (the tab just forward of the receiver) all the way forward. The end section was rotated away to allow dropping cartridges into the end of the tube. A smart feature was the employment of a double firing pin for reliability. The down stroke of the lever cleared the firing chamber and ejected the empty cartridge out the top while cocking the hammer. The up stroke picked up the next round and fed it forward into the chamber. The hammer had no half-cock safety feature so it was either carried at the cocked position or the hammer down on a live round. The distinctive brass colored receiver makes this historical lever action easy to identify. Production ceased in 1866 with 14,000 units having been produced. |
