Henry rifle
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The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action breech-loading rifle.
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[edit] History
[edit] Original manufacturing
The original Henry repeating rifle was an American .44 caliber rimfire, lever-action, breech-loading rifle designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry in the late 1850s. The Henry rifle was an improved version of the earlier Volcanic Repeating rifle. The Henry rifle used copper (later brass) rimfire cartridges containing 25 grains (1.6 g) of gunpowder to a 216 grain (14 g) bullet. 900 Henry rifles were manufactured between summer and October 1862; by 1864, production had peaked at 290 per month. By the time production ended in 1866, approximately 14,000 units had been manufactured.
The rifle's original list price was $42; as of 2004, an original 1862 Henry rifle may bring $14,000 (one sold in November 2006 for $60,000) in the collectors' market. For a civil war soldier, owning a Henry rifle was a point of pride. Although it was never officially adopted for service by the army, many union soldiers purchased Henry rifles with their own funds. The brass framed carbines could fire at a rate of 28 rounds per minute when used correctly, so soldiers who saved their pay to buy one often believed that the rifle would help them survive. They were frequently used by scouts, skirmishers, flank guards and raiding parties, rather than in regular infantry formations. To the amazed muzzleloader-armed Confederates who had to face this deadly "sixteen shooter," it was "that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and shoot all week!"
Manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, the Henry rifle would soon evolve into the famous Winchester Model 1866 lever-action rifle. With the introduction of the new Model 1866, the New Haven Arms Company would be renamed the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
[edit] Current production
Henry rifles are currently manufactured in Brooklyn, New York. They are manufactured in the following calibers:
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Hartford Michigan Military History
- Sword, Wiley. The Historic Henry Rifle: Oliver Winchester's Famous Civil War Repeater. Lincoln, Rhode Island : Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 2002.
