The History of the Henry Rifle

[@charleslange7619]

Growing up living 7 miles south of Ft. Larned, Kansas, I found a fired, copper casing with an H headstamp and 2 firing pin marks on opposite side of the rims. First I'd heard of Henry Rifles when I found out what gun fired this round. I've long contemplated who had the gun and fired that round and when. 45 years later part of that history is being made on that same land but by youth shooting modern Henry rifles and six shot revolvers at steel targets thanks to your program Dr. Kesner. Thanks!

[@frontierwesternheritage1356]

@charleslange7619 Thank you, Charles, for your thoughtful and kind words. What gets young people to the firing line and shooting safely is folks like you. Any program can not be successful otherwise. Thanks again, Todd

[@scottscheuerman8714]

Very informative video on the history one thing that I have noticed that C M Russel print behind you is the same as the one I have in my house

[@earlyamericanarms7303]

Great video. I am a great fan of the Henry Rifle. A great account of the devastating affect of the Henry in the Civil War comes from the Battle of Altoona Pass recounted by Frank D Orcutt of the Illinois volunteers, the “7th Regt. and 39th Iowa were partly cut off from the fort, but those who reached it poured in the severest fire upon the assailing forces that had ever been seen up to that time, with such splendid result that the attacking forces melted away out of sight as though the earth had opened and swallowed them. “

[@rileysnyder5154]

Good stuff Doc. Thanks! You know this is in my wheelhouse of interest!

[@frontierwesternheritage1356]

@rileysnyder5154 Yeah, you having a Henry inspired my purchase. I hope you're having a great Thanksgiving. Todd

[@rileysnyder5154]

@frontierwesternheritage1356 thanks Todd. Same to you & yours.

[@TXGRunner]

I loved hearing about your passion for history. To me, history is exciting, fascinating, and frequently borders of miraculous (or actual miracles), so to hear another person their zeal for history was very comforting. Thank you.

[@Gunsmith-4570]

Thank you for the video, it cleared up some questions I had about the history between Lorenzoni and the Henry. Also I did not know of the first lever gun you mentioned. This cleared up the space between Smith & Wesson and Winchester some places history skips over. I would also like to thank you for your help in my being able to purchase your book, the link you sent me worked perfectly, so thank you again.

[@tulsabushcraft7438]

Thank you for another great video! Very informative! Ian with Forgotten Weapons has a couple of videos about the Volcanic pistol from 7 to 8 years ago. He shows the bolt face. It has two hooks to dig into the cork and then is ejected out the top of the gun as the action is worked. If you are a Louis Lamour fan you may remember the book The Warriors Path. I think that's the book anyway. Barnabus gave one of his sons two pistols that held the powder and shot in the butt of the guns. After these pistols were fired you just had to tilt the muzzle down and a chamber would reload and the guns could be fired again. Essentially repeating flint lock pistols. I think this video answers the question as to what those pistols probably were.

[@earlmorrison8163]

Thanks for the video !! Keep'em comin !!

[@steveshoemaker6347]

Thanks Doc. for the fine history lesson and the Henry Rifle..... Old F-4 pilot Shoe🇺🇸

[@markparman]

WaDo UNaLiI this was very good, as usual. As you said, this was a lot of information in a short period of time. I like the picture over your shoulder

[@davidmallette2009]

Nice job. I did learn some new things. Thanks

[@oneida41859]

Excellent video Doc ! Informative as usual. Thank you and take care! Can’t wait to see the range test.

[@sasquatch885]

Very interesting.👍🏻

[@35southkiwi16]

Always enjoy your presentations but this one was particularly interesting! Thanks

[@leerichardson8911]

Very cool!

[@billbearback2591]

great presentation ,i think theres a bit of a vacuum effect when the ball leaves the barrel so any remnant of the fulminate envelope would find it way at least up the barrel a bit , cheers big ears from down under , thanks for sharing

[@millcreekrange]

That was a very in-depth presentation and very well done Sir. I learned some very new information as well. A reproduction Henry is on my future list of guns to purchase one day, and in the 44-40 (44wcf) chambering as well, as I load that cartridge fairly often I’ll say. 90% of the time it’s Black Powder. Just loaded 250 rounds of Black Powder 44wcf this past Sunday actually. Looking forward to your next video as well. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! 👍

[@Mike-c6y6m]

Very informative video, thanks! By the way, would that be a Pine Ridge knife (of Vernal Utah) on the cartridge belt in the background?

[@frontierwesternheritage1356]

@Mike-c6y6m It's actually a Boker knife from Boker USA. It was reasonably priced and I'm very happy with it. Thanks for watching, Todd

[@richarwi]

Great video…..thanks

[@ronrobertson59]

My Henry is in 45 Colt as in my 1866.

[@steveww1507]

another reason for the military not adopting the Henry is that the cartridge is weak compared to the .58 cal. musket cartridge and the spencer

[@frontierwesternheritage1356]

@steveww1507 Very true. I was going to talk about the Spencer and then decided to save it for the next video. You're spot on. Thanks for watching and commenting, Todd

[@stevejackson9432]

I have seen many westerns with steel Henry looking rifles but have side loading gates are the movie props

[@frontierwesternheritage1356]

@stevejackson9432 In the movies, you'll see 1873 Winchesters as well as 1866 Winchesters with the forestock removed to make the rifle look more like a Henry. I noticed it the movie Silverado. As you noted, the side loading gate is the dead giveaway. Thanks for watching, Todd

[@robertlast3052]

Actually, the fact that the M16 had a full auto selector that could be engaged by the individual soldier was frowned on by top military brass even in the development stages in the 1960s. The same reason was given, waste of ammo in a firefight.

[@jyrkikk]

There are stories that some hunters even took down buffalo with henry. You think that is possible? Rudi Rafael 😃

[@Wildwest89]

I saw Kevin Costner do it in a movie so it must be true 😜

[@frontierwesternheritage1356]

@jyrkikk Bullet placement would have to be perfect and multiple shots would be required. I hesitate to say impossible, but difficult would be fair. Shooting from horseback while chasing buffalo would offer a spine shot and that's the most likely route to dropping one with a 44 rimfire. Thanks for watching, Todd

[@jyrkikk]

@@frontierwesternheritage1356 Buffalo Bill was allegedly hunting buffalo with revolver from horseback. Well, if anyone does that, he puts his life to danger. If horse stumble, rider can fall to ground and get crushed. I have seen buffalos, one farmer is growing them about 50 miles away my home. A male buffalo can weight 2000 pounds, it is around 900 kg. So it is weight of car. By the way, I visited Kingman (Arizona) with my spouse in 2018. We saw also a ghost town some 20 miles away from Kingman. There was wild west shows going on the street. There sheriff arrested a robber for bank robbery. They had "fight" and black powder burned. Like in westerns. It was funny show. In addition wild donkeys walked on streets. It was part of route 66. Howdy. Rudi Rafael 😉

[@bubbajones5905]

the Indians did it with pointy sticks.

[@ShanLiB]

Does the Henry have a half-cock "safety"? I'm asking because I read a lot of books in the Western genre and always, it seems, the person carrying a Henry into action never has a cartridge already in the chamber until the moment it is needed to fire. I would think, when you know you are going into a situation where you will have to use it very quickly it would make more sense to have one in the chamber and just thumb the hammer back. Or is having to operate the lever before shooting just a dramatic device, similar to racking a shotgun slide to intimidate?

[@daleweller5193]

During the Vietnam War soldiers were spraying and prying and they had to bring Ammo in by the truck load .

[@wizardofahhhs759]

I'm sure that you're aware that S&W is reproducing their lever action rifle now.

[@frontierwesternheritage1356]

@wizardofahhhs759 Thanks for pointing this out. I was not aware, so I looked them up. The rifle looks more like a Marlin than the historic Smith and Wesson's arms. But good for them regardless. Thanks for watching, Todd

[@wizardofahhhs759]

@frontierwesternheritage1356 I'm looking at getting a wood stocked model in .45LC soon, less expensive than the Henry plus S&W has a long, rich history as does Henry, COLT, Winchester etc. I think it'll just be something cool to have.

[@gb123-ej8wh]

I will not in fact be winning Ben Stien’s money

[@SlickSixguns]

First