This week if all goes well, I'll be purchasing a Henry lever-action 357 magnum rifle.
Well actually it isn't just a toy. It's for hunting too. I have found that I'm getting in closer range of the Wild Hogs here in Florida, at at close range the scope on my 30-06 is a hindrance instead of a help. The problem is that it doesn't have steel sights. So now when I go after some bacon to fry on my AR-15 barrel, I'll bring both my Remington 700 series and my Henry 357. Just to Cover both long and close range.
The Yellow Boy, I'm looking to get one in 44-40. The Henry built one is almost a grand more than the extremely well built and reliable Uberti reproduction.
Uummm, never mind, brain fart. Henry has started reproducing the original Henry repeaters at about a grand more. My mistake.
I held one in my hands yesterday. It's a work of art.
It serves three purposes, it helps with hunting, it fills a gap in my collection, and it looks good enough to hang on the wall.
If I remember correctly the reproductions have brass receiver side plates, the originals had yellowed steel side plates. It was first introduced by Winchester in 1866 to replace the 1860 Henry Repeater. One of the favorite buffalo hunting long arms was the Sharps (think Quigley Down Under), single shot metal cartridge fed, long range and very accurate. The most powerful fired a 50/90 caliber, 650 gram bullet, that would take down an elephant if that's what you were hunting.
The Sharps Buffalo rifle
The Henry Repeating rifle
SWEET!! Love me some gun porn!
Good.
Here's another one (I actually got to fire an original....... I can personally attest to the kick behind it.......)
The 1874 Martini Henry, this was the standard rifle issued to British troops and used during the Zulu War. It as first developed in 1866, modified and went through extensive testing from 1871 to 1874. The martini part was the improvement of the Peabody falling block action (yeah, he stole it......).
It was an very powerful and accurate rifle as attested to the aftermath of Rorks Drift, some of the troops had bruises along the entire side of their body for almost a year afterwards due to the caliber and the heavy rate of fire they put out.
