1860 Henry Rifle

hey Hickok 45 today I'm glad you're with me because we're gonna look at the lever gun the first successful lever gun really that started it all the Henry the 1860 Henry it's not a thing of beauty or is it not it's empty as you might be able to tell I loaded it on Sunday and it's kind of late in the week so it's run out but we're gonna reload it here in a second and see how it does this is the first successful lever gun I guess you could say not the very first attempt at it but the first one that was produced sold shot and used even in the Civil War and you recognize that most of you probably what a beauty this is a Uberti reproduction of very accurate you know reproduction of that thing and original fires that rimfire 44 and they sell for around fifty thousand and so I doubt that you're gonna see too many of those and YouTube videos people shooting them we are going to actually fire this one so to load it is very unusual for a big old lever gun you pull this little tab put that over that opens up the tube now that looks pretty cool but it does have some disadvantages as we slide some cartridges in here I'll talk about a little bit of that you you want to be careful not to have too much of an angle and have you around slamming against each other that's not good even though these are flat nose it's not good because they're heavy and yeah you know you could have a mishap if you're slamming those rounds on each other and also when you release the tab which I'll do in a second you want to be careful about that and not let it slam into the rounds either okay you pull that back over of course it's not gonna happen when it's full but that's how you load it and of course you can see the rounds pretty cool however there's some disadvantages to that right but you could get dirt in there dust and fouling and everything and you can mess up the works easily but this was the first real attempt at it let's take a couple of shots with it all right this is 45 long colt okay we couldn't find any 44 Henry rimfire but we would have bought some maybe some bulk packs of it if you tell anybody I missed that too leader there I will never forgive you but that's what I just did how that happened Oh stranger things have happened notice the tab is coming down as the rounds are being expended right into my hand so I'm gonna move my hand in front of it and take couple more shots so there's a floor apart there was a fire [Applause] whatever it was it's not any longer oh there's another pot we didn't so you see that tab comes all the way down now and like I was saying you wouldn't want to reload it say you're just gonna load four or five rounds or something let that thing fly because look at that you know I might not be good you slam that into those rounds okay so that's just something to to be aware of in terms of safety with with these firearms as I was saying you wouldn't want to okay time to load it you wouldn't want to do this put it on your now people have done it I'm sure put it down on your foot you know and drop a rounds in that would be the natural inclination but not not the best practice at all okay it's not what you would do it's a lever gun obviously and you know it's pretty much traditional isn't it looks like most of the lever guns that you've seen in terms of how the lever works the firearm you pull the trigger when you elaborate it brings another round up puts it in the chamber and everything except the one big difference is this was one of the very first ones I shared some of that with you but the volcanic arms company which was in existence back in 1850s mid 50s was making in a block so yeah got my little cheat sheet the little pistol I've shown before called the volcanic pistol and you notice it looks similar to this and the action because it's kind of the great-grandfather you could save the Henry and that's a product of the volcanic arms company in fact Smith & Wesson Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson worked on that they borrowed in BOTS and patents that dated back to four five six seven years earlier to hunt and Jenine so it's you know there's a lot there a lot of history of everyone to read about it so there were some early attempts at a lever gun would buy hunt and Jennings and and then when it got to the volcanic arms company in the mid 1850s you had Smith & Wesson working on it they improved it and they needed investors in the mid 1850s and guess who became their chief investor top stockholder a guy by the name of Oliver Winchester you guessed it and so he was a very key player there and and they were they were using a round than that gun that was like this at the smaller caliber but it was a hollowed out piece of lead with powder in it and then I think they worked out a priming system for it too but it just wasn't very powerful it was a small caliber 30 to 25 something like that and it just wasn't as reliable or effective and so the company fell on bad times really and so Oliver Winchester more or less took it over Smith & Wesson left to make revolvers and focus on that I think and in Oliver Winchester became their like their president and basically the the owner of that company okay volcanic arms he changed the name in 1857 to New Haven Arms Company that's when he hired a fellow by the name of giman Tyler Henry as plant superintendent and put him to work on devising fixing this thing and you know they're working on new cartridges and everything improving the action of the volcanic and he came up with this okay that's kind of this the nutshell no story there but this is what he came up with by 1860 that's why it's called the 1860 Henry and it fired this 44 rimfire cartridge this is actually an original in a copper case this is the real deal right here and that's what it fired the 44 Henry rimfire we don't have any of those like I said so let's load it up and it was patented in 1860 as I said but it really wasn't out there until really I think 1862 and they then you'll get them produced the machinery together and to make them enough to get them on the market until 1862 in the military the north bought around 2000 I'm almost I think but for my reading only about a thousand of those actually got into service and most of the ones used during the Civil War were purchased with you know private funds by the soldiers and there were around 10,000 of them out there and you know use especially on the northern side by the Federals but it was a very desirable firearm to have as you can imagine because again as I have pointed out before 1860 62 if you had a handgun in them and you know Civil War you were carrying probably a cap-and-ball pistol just like this 1860 this is an 1860 model army very very popular you loaded its percussion you know had all this business to go through to load it from the front and everything it didn't use cartridges they were later some conversions even to this cartridge but that was later in the 1860s later 60s so they're packing these they're packing muzzle loaders most soldiers had a muzzle loader so can you imagine how cool it would be to have this as Colonel Mosby said is that damn Yankee rifle that you load Sunday and fire all week and that's what I was alluding to earlier because this was new this was a new thing to have something that you could actually rapid fire we take it for granted in fact some of you might look back on it Wow an antique an old lever gun you know who wants that well in 18 in the early 1860s this was like having a mini gun it was something would hold that me rounds enclosed cartridges that were pretty much protected from the rain because you know what they were doing before then they were loading from the muzzle and with powder and ball and everything so this was high tech really high tech so let's bring one up in these old toggle Link systems like this one in 1866 and the 73 and the 76 you had a toggle link system you know the elevators would bring the roundup goes straight in that torpedo right into the chamber and then you bring it up and fired yeah I think the sights are pretty close on I've not had this long but let's try the red flake just for kids a little piggy Turkey now the tab is right there in my hand you can kind of grab it like that so that maybe it goes through your hand when I get really ambitious and try that chicken well I'm not gonna waste a long plate on him let's try it let's try it caught a cinder block right here close let's try a cinder block far away over there actually the site feels pretty good I think with just a little bit of shooting I could pick off chickens without too much trouble I don't see it really clearly I should probably shoot with my other other eye but hopefully you can kind of appreciate take yourself back into history and imagine what that was like to have a lever gun that would hold that many rounds you know 14 15 rounds of 44 and a cartridge you don't have to worry about it raining on it and it would still work they were black powder of course that's all there was in the 1860s but water and of course on top of everything else is that not a gorgeous firearm I have always admired them they're just beautiful they really are now they had some disadvantages but I mean there is not a a firearm that I'm aware of that really is is better-looking than that if you want to just talk about the looks of it of course and of course it's very functional just a gorgeous firearm yeah it's it's sweet every time I have seen one in a movie what are some movies you'll see these in Silverado if you're familiar with that or a Lonesome Dove you'll see Henry action because it's just a it's just was very very very popular now negatives well that opening like I've talked about you'd get dirt into it of course and you know hang up your your feeding your tube and everything and then I have to try to get it clean the actual loading system because you have this tab you know coming up through there and your hands and everything and I understand that these would get rusty sometimes you didn't keep them lubed and really clean and oiled this shroud that covers the barrel there and spins and of course the safety issues with loading it dropping around stand on top of each other big rounds fairly powerful with the spring slapping against it you know that you could consider a disadvantage now some of that they weren't aware of because this was the first right we can talk about all that being really negatives and Wow how crazy why would you invent it like that well that's because we've been seeing tubular magazines all of our lives and so this was one of the first so they just had to figure out how to do it better well all they knew was still loaded from the end you know what happened there was a patent it was King's patent a loading gate that came along a little bit later and this one doesn't have it of course because it's a Henry these are just made basically from like around 1861 to 66 when the improved Henry came out and just briefly this is basically what they did to improve it you got your loading gate so you get top off the magazine anytime you want just like all lever guns since then right you have your enclosed tube so you don't have that issue of getting dirt into the magazine and you know you do away all this business at the end of the barrel and that happened to swivel around and you know there's all that is eliminated because you just put one round in at a time and you got pressure from the spring and you've got your forearm here you got a four in that enables you to hold by that and you don't have that tab coming down into your hand and also these barrels especially with black powder get very hot you know with rapid fire firing they're very much so with the foreign this were cost them the accustomed to seeing on all all ever guns you got protection there okay so those were some big and vation so your plus your if you notice the tube is part of the barrel that's all one piece at the pretty expensive to manufacture you know that the what would want to try with an octagonal barrel to boot so when you can manufacture those separately it gives you more options on the bear on everything else so store the brass frame on the 66 this was basically an improved Henry okay so let's load him up again this is about this wonderful Henry this wonderful piece of history so anyway the Benjamin Tyler Henry you know basically came up with this he worked night and day in you know 58 59 60 getting this thing where he wanted it and he's working for Winchester basically right Winchester was in charge of this company the New Haven Arms Company that's why this really is a Winchester it just didn't have the Winchester name on it so it was Winchester Winchester's company essentially the New Haven Arms Company and then when he in 66 they improved it further and came out with with that one over there I was just showing you he changed the name of the company to the Winchester okay so this really is a Winchester essentially okay first in incarnation got the same toggle link system and not a really strong action most of these are all of these basically are a pistol cartridge revolver but if not revolver but lever gun they fire like you know that's definitely a pistol cartridge right and so was the 45 colt and you know the 66 fired the same cartridge the 44 rimfire Henry so you really didn't have a centerfire cartridge until you got to 73 you know with the the 44 40 and the 73 model which was an iron frame which is another story but today we're looking at this baby and again for whatever negatives it had you know for the times it was an extreme innovation it's like going back and like my macintosh computer I bought in 84 it was pretty innovative but after you compare it with computer today yes it's a joke right an absolute joke so pretty cool again this is one beautiful rifle it's really not all that loud with these 45 Colts and it's long barrel it will still use ear protection we have a couple of uh cinder blocks over there it needs some attention I think my pieces of one there we go this one right here needs another hit that's for sure nice oh we have a shot two gone take a little history to the gong and up closer oh yeah let's try plate here see where it hit see to be able to do that to be able to lever and shoot rapidly in 1862 well I mean that was that was pretty amazing it was really the first gun firearm that allowed the rapid fire you know it's a little bit difficult to rapid fire a muzzle loader I've tried it and I fail every time with this though you can actually fire rapidly and with a pretty gun let's put just a couple more in it we won't keep you too late but I wanted to just shoot a couple more times it's a beautiful piece of hardware so we pull this up again we try to let gravity be our friend but we don't want too much gravity all right not too much now again this was guys in the Civil War of course love to have this they get their hands on it with ample ammunition and of course the question always comes up is why did in the military really go to this kind of firearm and and again the lever was one of the reasons the military brass felt like it was too fragile they say that about a lot of lever guns and then the difficult shoot from a prone position with you know the lever and any other reason they could think of it was used that I mean these lever guns were used in militaries around the world Turkey different places especially before there were other better options you know but think about it if you were in the Wild West because you know 1860s you still have some Wild West for sure don't you while areas may be in lots of areas but wild country and lots of areas and all you had before this was maybe a single shot shotgun or rifle and you know what it took to reload it well think about this if you had think of the confidence that you would you would have just having this on your horse or in your wagon no matter where you were now it'd be tough maybe to bring down a Grizz with it but maybe you could just because the cartridge is underpowered still works pretty well you know having that kind of firepower in 1862 no you're fighting in the Civil War or I don't know you're you're being attacked by anybody any kind of bad guys that want to do harm to you I would have loved to had this in the early 1860s and then of course in 66 the Model 1866 the the brass frame of course is not a big negative but a metal frame iron frame is a little bit stronger so that's something to it can be considered a negative I'll tell you though that is such a good-looking gun that's one of the attractions you know to this firearm is that beautiful brass frame at least for us folks living in 2013 right just just a beautiful beautiful firearm the Henry rifle again not to be confused with the modern company the Henry etiquettes with the Henry repeating rifle company that has makes really fine firearms and they sell a lot of those today and people are really happy with them we've done a video with them this is a Benjamin Tyler Henry you know came up with this for the most part and perfected it in 1860 you know at least patented in 1860 and so this is the real Henry and at least a reproduction of it remembered fired 44 rimfire not available today so if you feel like you have to have one of these don't don't go looking for an original if you want to fire it okay now you have a large bank account and you don't care about firing it then you know you can find them but this is a very interesting piece of history to me it's one of my favorite firearms it's one of the most gorgeous firearms out there and I'm glad to have one at the compound and be able to bring it to you the Henry rifle 1860 oh what a gorgeous firearm life is good [Music] [Music]

Channel: hickok45

Views: 22,099,285

Keywords: Henry Rifle, Henry, Benjamin Tyler Henry, .45 Colt, Colt 45, brass receiver, brass frame, levergun, lever action, lever gun, tubular magazine, toggle link, Civil War, Oliver Winchester, Smith & Wesson, Horace Smith, Daniel Wesson, 44 Henry, .44 Rimfire, Silverado, Lonesome Dove, Western, Rimfire, black powder, rapid fire, loading gate, bolt, Henry Rifle Company, Volcanic, New Haven Arms Company, Winchester 1866

Id: NbfXjqDzago

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 07 2014