A friend of mine bought two Henry rifles last week.

[GUTS]

One of my best friends told me a couple of weeks ago that he went to the bank and borrowed a crapload of money and bought two Henry rifles. I was of course slightly shocked. These are in outstanding condition and both are in the 7000 serial number range. When they arrived he stopped over with them and we proceded to the gun room to examine these rare guns. From what we understand During the Civil War there was around 1731 Henry rifles purchased by the Union Army for it's soldiers at a cost of $36 to $42 and they were all stamped with an inspectors cartouche. These rifles seem to be mostly found in the 3000 to 4200 serial number range, but there was approximately 10,000 Henry rifles used in the Civil War mostly by Union Soldiers but also used by the Confederacy when they could be taken. A lot of the Henry Rifles used by the Confederacy were taken from the First DC Cavalry, around 200. These two rifles were made in 1864 and the chances that they weren't used in the Civil War are slim, almost all of the Henrys made untill the Civil War ended were used. I felt lucky to be able to examine these two pieces of History. They also both have the complete set of cleaning rods which is in itself quite unusuall. The thing that struck me about them was the weight, the Henry is a heavy rifle. I told him I would trade my whole collection for the two Henrys(and I have a fair collection)but he said no.











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[camerl2009]

very nice the cleaning rods alone are worth there weight in gold now to find some way of converting some brass to off set .22 blanks(i would take any smokeless out of them) with a .44 heel base bullet that fits the rifleing you could snigle feed them all day long

[gsimmons]

Outstanding! Very nice! Too bad the brass hook is missing from the sling. Are there any military inspectors marks? They were probably privately purchased. Most of them were. Some privately, some by commanders for their companies/regiments. quite a few were engraved with initials etc. what great rifles and with cleaning rods etc!

[Maxadur]

Yes, they are very heavy. Just fabulous, your friend is a very smart guy. Thanks for the pictures.

[drm2m]

A very gutsy move by your friend.
Good for him.
Do you have any idea what kind of cost was involved.
Your photos show the guns very nicely.

I suspect that finding martially marked Henry rifles is very difficult.
I wonder what the impact on value would be with Government acceptance markings.
Very nice rifles and an interesting story.
It must have been an interesting conversation with his bank manager.

Thanks for posting this.

David

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

I told him I would trade my whole collection for the two Henrys(and I have a fair collection)but he said no.

I have seen your collection and "fair" is a very modest assessment but does give a hint as to the value of these two beauties.

[GUTS]

He gave $57,000 for the pair and I think he did quite well. I want to shoot one real bad.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

He gave $57,000 for the pair and I think he did quite well. I want to shoot one real bad.

He must have very good credit or the banker is his brother in law and or a very knowledgable firearms collector. Please post a range report if you are afforded the privelage of fireing one.

[jmoore]

Seems like about a "two-for-one" kind of price, at least from what I remember. We used to sit back to back with a Henry (and 1866, et al) collector at Tulsa.

[camerl2009]

you not relly going to shoot themno one makes reloadable rimfire cases for the .44 henry not to mention it takes a heel based bullet witch is about .445 but id slug the bore the heel would be about .429"

i see no brass that would work the case dia is .445 and rim dia is .515 or so then youd need to drill out the primer pocket and tap it then thread some brass rod and loctite it in place then you got to drill the off set hole for the .22 rimfire primer (i say this becase i like to uncrimp the blanks and dump the powder i use ramset nail gun blacks with the powder dumped and cut down)