Somewhat anemic .44 rimfire caliber and the magazine follower can be interfered with by the supporting hand but it was very effective in the right hands.
Such as one particular Indian during the Battle of the Little Big Horn: battlefield analysis showed that one with a Henry accounted for a large percentage of all of the cavalry casualties by crawling closer to the troopers and picking them off, one by one.
Not so dangerous as one might think. They did have a half-cock notch to hold the firing pin off the cartridge (but it’s not to be entirely trusted). I do not own one, but have had the chance to examine and fire the replicas. Interesting design for loading (the top 4-5”of the barrel pivot aside once the magazine follower lever is past, and cartridges are dropped down the magazine tube). This was made obsolete by the loading gate introduced on the 1866 Winchester “Yellow Boy”. Also, if fired rapidly, the lack of a forend made for hot fingers. For this reason they are not as popular as other rifles for Cowboy Action Shooting (the Winchester 1973 is the most used).
I’ve never owned one, but I own a book called “Winchesters”, as I recall the problem was the rounds themselves, stored in the magazine. This is still a problem today, or can be. If a round nose bullet is butting against the primer of an adjacent cartridge, a hard enough drop or jolt can possibly set it off. Then the rest of them go off too. Probably more annoyance than a danger, but I dunno.
Do they make it in an AR platform?
Kinda kidding, but kind of series.
Some company DID make a 45-70 in an AR.
I heard about it in a podcast this week.
The A-s-s-sault weapon of it’s day, yet no one fainted or screamed about them.
Bourke,in his book ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK mentions how in 1876,the Plains Indians got “surly” when they obtained rapid fire tube magazine rifles.
I have a repro in 44-40 and am well pleased. As other have mentioned, it is heavy, and even in 44-40, the recoil is light.
I read where the later models came out with a dual firing pin as the rimfire technology was still a bit iffy, and that some forensics guys were able to track the movements of one of the Indians at the Custer fight because of that feature.
When the majority of the rifles were muzzle loaders or single shot (except for the Spencer), it still was light years ahead of the others for a short period of time. The King’s patent (side gate loader) was a big improvement.
Classic gun, but it had a couple problems corrected in the later Winchester. For one you have to remove the magazine to reload it, whereas on a Winchester you load through the side port and can top off as you shoot. Also if you shoot a lot of rounds the barrel gets hot, and there’s no fore stock to keep your hand from being burned.