Winchester Lever Action Development: 1860 Henry

Hey not sure if you still read the comments on older videos but thank you for compiling these and other series into playlist. Really enjoy the story of the weapons you feature.

I am a US Civil War Reenactor (Union Paymaster) and own two of these Uberti 1860 Henry. The round (in 44/40) in black powder, I load my own can only load 28/29 grains 2F Swiss powder. I have taken apart commercial cowboy black powder rounds and measured only 30 grains. Not sure how 40 grains could be loaded. It really is a low powered Assault Rifle… never long range. Lethal at say 40 yards… but hitting a person at 100 to 200 yards will just get them angry.

Spencer was much bigger bullet and twice the powder load. Some diary’s , a proud Henry owner would call it “my 17 shooter” and in the later same letter “my 16 shooter”.

People often called their colts/Remington pistols “a six shooter”. Pocket 31 cal guns “pocket pistols and very very weak… shooting a big guy will just piss him off.. might die later but could kill you in the mean time.

This was a very educational episode for me. I honestly thought iron-framed Henry rifles were just a contemporary modern creation by companies like Uberti and Cimarron.

.44 over .45
Just sayin’

Thor's hammer of the battlefield. Anyone Civil War soldier lucky enough to get one these was instantly turned into the god of death.

I love this gun .... maybe just because I did grew up by Western movies .

Pattern

I consider the 1860 Henry to be the most esthetically, visually beautiful weapon ever made. His mentioning of problems was shown to be trifling in the fights against the CSA and later the Sioux.

I have an original Henry that my dad left me when he passed away. It's a second model deluxe, unconverted rimfire, engraved by Samuel Hoggson and fully silver plated. Dad tried to sell it through Rock Island Auction along with his Winchester One of One Thousand that is shown almost as he found it (but now restored) on page 89 of R.L. Wilson's book Winchester: the golden age of American Gunsmithing. Luckily (and without any proof or logical reason), Rock Island claimed they were both fakes and refused to sell them, so I inherited both. They will both be kept in the family and passed down to future generations.

This isn’t safe to have primer and power together! Better to have each soldier carry a bag full of gunpowder 😂

Imagine you had 10,000 men equipped we these guns.

Henery Rifles make the original version of Henry. They are a factory in Rice Lake Wisconsin.

This is Old? But I re Viewed and noted the inaccuracy, incorrect idea of "Safety" based on proximity to all active Ingredients in copper bullet!
Period ammo of Musket, Rifle, or Revolver was shipped, stored, and dispensed, issued with paper cartages in one sized lot and an over abundant proportion of PRIMERS all together.

I NEED one of these!

Tyler not Taylor

It’s weird to think the vetterli came around less than a decade after and only 5 years after the us civil war

Se olvidó de mostrar las municiones de la época

The AR-15 of it's day

I like to imagine all the guys at the gun shop drooling over the 1860 Henry, when it came out. “Henry perfection.” 😉

The rate of fire argument is valid. Fast forward 100 years to Vietnam. M-16 was full auto or semi. It got changed to semi or burst. Cause someone figured out that some 60000 bullets were fired per one enemy killed

Imagine if every soldier on one side was armed with one of these and they fought the same way... Wouldn't that side completely roll over their muzzleloading enemies?

Great video.

Very cool. Thanks for the peek behind the curtains. I love my golden boy very much!!

ЗСУ нужньі МГ 34 и МГ 42 , говорят очень произвлдительная штука.

I have an Uberti 1860 44/40 Engraved (not laser) with no date on it with correct period Engraved. Think very early Uberti. Well, I was cleaning the internal toggle (I fire blanks and real Black powder rounds) and I dropped one of the cover plates. I was wearing shorts… well, 1 hour later, I finished cleaning and notice a nice LONG GASH on my foot and some blood. It is now stinging after 2 hours. Well, it is darn sharp!!

I am in a Civil War Reenactment club (ACWA of California). I do not fire the rifle in battle but do a rapid fire test of 14 rounds in 9 seconds…….Smokeless rounds have less kick and flatter profile … only drop at 100 yards.

I show public original “short” and “Long “ case cartridges…like oversized Copper Rimfire.

That magazine allows you to unload safely on a rifle without a safety. Still a little unsafe though.

Pretty sure you still can't FedEx ammo to a battlefield today

I think I saw you playing a movie since 1997.

Dust can enter the bottom of the elevator so why to manufacturer it open bottom?

Really handsome rifle on top of everything else

It will never not piss me off with how expensive lever guns are. Its bullshit.

I wish my modern rifles would tap my hand when I had 2-3 rounds left. I hate looking through an optic and not noticing my bolts locked open. Something I appreciate about my Garand. The ping prevents me from looking like I can’t count.

The fact that you knew how many shots you had left is a definite advantage,

This only holds 12 shots in red dead redemption

That damn Yankee rifle you can load on Sunday and shoot all week.

619 ft lbs is nothing to sniff at. That's better than most off the shelf 10 mm nowadays.

Ah yes the Yankee rifle I can load once and shoot all week, I'll have 8!

I've seen the .44 Henry centerfire cartridge in Barnes COTW. Wonder if the originals could be fired today. Wouldn't be hard to adapt a case like the .44 Colt, or other modern-made brass case. I've often thought the new Henry reproductions should have been made in .44 S&W Russian or Special in keeping with the straight wall. Easier to reload vs the slight bottleneck .44-40 Win.

Ironic how Henry came out with the H011 and H011C versions of the original, only to have the 44-40 ammo basically be non existent in 2024. Only Gun Broker is selling the Henry originals now, with 44-40 being the cheapest and the H011C model being like finding a unicorn with a bigger price tag. I never spent close to $3,000 on any gun before, but sixteen years ago my future wife told me she loved the 1860 Henry when she first saw it at a Civil War event before we ever met. Our 15 year wedding anniversary is this month, so I bought her the Henry original replica in 45 Colt.

Remember Bronze is stronger than Iron, but weaker then steel. Until 1867 with the invention of the Bessemer system, steel was very expensive, thus the use of Bronze till well into the 1870s.

Ian let a follower slam down causing a cartridge in the tube of a reproduction to blow up. This resulted in a trip to the hospital.

Which Henry did they have in Winchester 7034 James Stewart to go after his brother to get his rifle back

I've always loved the look of American repeating rifles, I'm from the UK so i can't ever own a repeater or any gun.. sad.. lol. Maybe one day a nice replica. I do have a few air rifles (177, 22 pellet and 177 bb) I have a Webley premier air pistol too.

But i always wanted a repeater, so i purchased a Red Rider for backyard plinking but the lever was too small, so i looked at mods online and i contacted an Old American man (he was part Native American) his shooting and hunting videos were incredible (he also used catapults with arrows, last time i looked he hunted a bear) i forget his name. But he used to practice with a Red Rider, he agreed the lever and stock is sized for children. He had a small side business in which he machined aluminium big hoop levers in black and adult sized stocks. So i imported them to the UK, unfortunately my Red Rider used a slightly different lever and the big hoop didn't fit, so i contacted him and he was like just go in to your garden and use a ball peen hammer and peen the end of it to fit.. lol so I did that and it worked perfectly. So I guess I'm the only person in the UK with an American made big hoop lever and adult stick.

OK Video

I've heard that two regiments at the Battle of Chickamauga had mostly Henrys but I've never been able to find which two. Does anyone know?

If I had been alive at that time, I would have done literally anything, worked seven days a week, sold everything I own, anything...to own one of these rifles. Buy one of these, get to know it. Buy 1000 rounds of ammunition. Either to go West, or Lord forbid, go to war. Totally ground breaking technology of the time.

I have a winchester 1866 clone. Great son of the Henry.

1860 Henry- Scaled up the old Voltanic pistol to a rifle and developed a proper self-contained cartridge and had double firing pins to improve reliability of rim-fire.
1866 Winchester-used the king's loading gate eliminating the weak point of the loading tube improving the handling.
model 1873-created the 40WCF the first lever gun to come out of the factory with centerfire
Model 1876-scaled up the action of the ongoing design to barely handle a weakened rifle cartridge 45-60(the army used 45-70) maxed out the original Henry design
Model 1886-1rst John Browning design created a proper locking block 1rst lever to handle true rifle rounds 1rst design capable of handling smokeless powder.
Model 1892- scaled down the 1886 for pistol caliber meant to replace older models with smokeless powder centerfire.
Model 1894-simplified and strengthened the locking action most successful lever gun ever 7million+ made introduced the 30-30
Model 1895- tweaked the action to accept a magazine eliminating the under-barrel tube can handle big boy rounds like .405win, Teddy Roosevelt's favorite rifle and only levergun used by country in large numbers

What was realistic shooting range for Henry? I saw their ad from 1860 stating that It was capable to kill up to 1000 yards. Really? Some 200 meters seems more realistic. Regards. Jyrki

The lever actuated toggle system and the vertical cartridge elevator are from the Volcanic rifle. Winchester told Tyler B. Henry to make it work so Henry adapted it to use a metallic cartridge. The cartridge(.44-25) had to meet specs in dimensions, bullet, powder, etc. so Henry put Ollie in the ammo making business as well. The Spencer .56-50 cartridge has a lot more goodies at the receiving end but the effective range for both is app.100 yds. Historically, Sherman's Army got the most use outta' them, but the same can be said for the Spencer.