Posted on 10/17/2018 4:58:23 AM PDT by w1n1
One tangible connection to the human cost of the Civil War can be found in the Frazier History Museum in Louisville, Ky., in the form of a beautifully engraved Henry repeating rifle, serial number 19.
The rifles were highly prized on the battlefield. Confederates described the Henry as "that darn Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week."
THE PROGENITOR of the Winchester repeaters, the Henry was a technological marvel in its time. It fired a .44-caliber, self-contained, metallic, rim-fire primed cartridge. The magazine held 15 shots, and one more could be loaded in the chamber, giving it more firepower than any other rifle on the battlefield.
It was accurate by the standards of the day too, equipped as it was with a graduated ladder rear sight.
Army tests showed it could keep 100 percent of its shots inside a 25-inch circle at 500 yards and a 48-inch circle at 1,000. Read the rest of Henry rifle.
Would love to have a Henry rifle but those guys are expensive.
I remember reading about the phrase damned Yankee rifle you load on Sunday and fire all week, back during the Civil War Centennial in the 60s. Then, it was attributed to the far-more-widely issued Sharps 7 shot repeating carbine used by the Union cavalry.
Oops, memory fart - that was Spencer carbine!
I have a Henry Big Boy. Hubby got it for me for Mother’s Day a few years ago. My favorite to shoot. Would love to get it engraved with scroll work someday!
Am Shooting Journal isn’t known for its intellectual prowness. They’re more of a “hold my beer and watch this” bunch.
Before my tragic boating accident I owned a Henry replica, made by Umberti. It was a beautiful rife, but I could never shoot it well. Maybe it was the rifle or maybe me, but I could hardly hit anything with it.
That’s a Marlin.
It’s a low flair lever action rifle that is half as much as a Henry.
Marlin was purchased by Remington, and quality went completely down the drain. Don’t buy a used Marlin unless it has the JM stamp on the barrel.
I’ve always been partial to Marlins.
Gun dealers call Marlins Remingtons now. It is confusing.
https://www.gunsamerica.com/userimages/5212/966737148/wm_8133729.jpg
“...you can get a Remington for pretty cheap...”
After binge-watching the entire Longmire series, my attention has wistfully turned to lever-actions. I don’t know a lot about them, but Longmire seemed to carry an un-fancy Winchester...that, of course, he shot like a high-dollar sniper rifle. The Remington you show has one thing I really like appearance-wise...the pistol grip stock. That always sets a lever-action off for me. While the Ruger mini-14 is next on the purchase list...a Remington lever-action could be next in line after the Ruger.
So many guns, so little time.
Always use correct spelling and grammar when critiquing a man’s intelligence.
They are made by several companies. Uberti, and Henry makes a nice 44-40 reproduction of them.
https://www.henryusa.com/rifles/the-original-henry-rifle/
https://www.uberti-usa.com/1860-henry-rifle
Remington is really Marlin.
In it he tells a story about his Regimental CO Col. Feilds (1st Tennessee) who is wealthy and carries a Henry rifle into battle. Col. Feilds saved many lives in that Regiment with that rifle. He ended up getting shot (sticking his head up above the breastwork ) in the head and Watkins thinks he is dead but he survived the war and he met him later in life.
I found that. It’s still in the running!
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