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Reinacting with a henry

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Gambit88

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Ok so Last summer I dabbled in civil war reinacting a bit(thats what got me into black powder) and plan on continueing this year. I would like to have a henry as my main weapon, But I dont have anywhere near the money for the replica. I could however save up and buy a moder henry. If I did that and removed the wooden foregrips would it gain an authentic look of an 1860s henry or just look stupid. This may also be a stupid question but is loading a blank with black powder for a modern firearm a bad idea?

Gambit
 
Save your pelts and buy the 1860 Henry ...You`ll be glad you did .....
They are great rifles made by Uberti .
I fondled mine at a local toy store for 5 years before I pulled out the cash for the deal .....I had the purdy yellow metal starting to turn from my drool ...You can buy black powder blanks that have a star crimped nose ....that should work just fine in the Henrys action ...
The side plates make cleaning easyer on the original design than the modern version you are talking about .Not sure if the reinacting ranks would even allow the modern version Henry ...it just isn`t a Henry ..just a marketing ploy by the HRA co ...the two never had any connection at all .
 
I might try and find a diagram and see how close they look. My uncles done this for a few years and believes I could get away with it, but he doesnt have a henry or any lever guns in his collection so he couldnt tell me if it would work or not. BTW Ill be part of an artillery crew(a cannon of which only 2 are still in existance) so thats fun as it is.

Gambit
 
The modern henry's look mor elike a 66 winchester than they do a '60 henry. Save your money and get the real thing....... in the end you will be much more happy with it and authentic ;)
 
The Henry Big Boy looks absolutely nothing like an 1860 Henry and wouldn't fool a blind man at 60 yds.

Save your money and wait till you can get the real (replica) thing.

Loading a blank with BP for a modern firearm isn't a bad idea. Reenactors do it all the time.
 
Had a enfield .57 and all we did was tear the paper, pour the powder in, stomp the butt a little bit and drop the paper down with rammer and it was pretty convincing.

Save your dollars and get the authentic. You will be much happier.

I think in a row of infantry YOU dont want that BIG BRASS SHINEY RECIEVER FLASHING the crowd over younder... LOL.
 
It's more than foregrip. The 1866 had a side gate for loading. Stick with the 1860 Henry.

At least one Confederate officer had a Henry early in the war. He didn't have it too long because the Union boys killed him and took his Henry as a prize.

In picking your gun, you have to find a unit first. Then you have to determine what gun that unit carried during a certain period of the war. For instance, the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (or the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves) aka The Bucktails had smoothbore muskets before some acquired Sharps. Later, some even got Spencers.
 
It's more than foregrip. The 1866 had a side gate for loading. Stick with the 1860 Henry.

At least one Confederate officer had a Henry early in the war. He didn't have it too long because the Union boys killed him and took his Henry as a prize.

In picking your gun, you have to find a unit first. Then you have to determine what gun that unit carried during a certain period of the war. For instance, the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (or the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves) aka The Bucktails had smoothbore muskets before some acquired Sharps. Later, some even got Spencers.
 
Im not too sure what unit it is but I know its artillery and storywise is based out of south carolina. Basicly the group carrys whatevers lieing around. My uncle usially has a pepperbox and a sawed down shotgun. One guy has an original sharps. A few use muskets. The idea is that this unit was voulneteers, mostly from plantations with an officer or two to lead the rag tag group. The cannon I believe is an 1853-E if i remember right. Only two left in the world and ones in a muesum. Its an early take at cast iron cannons over brass. alot of em exploded in the wrong way. or were sold as scrap.

Gambit
 
In that case, you certainly would not have a Henry. Those were scarce until late in the war, and mostly in Federal hands. An artillerist's main weapon was the cannon. A revolver would be a good secondary weapon.

In any event, the .22 rifles are not going to cut it. They are nothing like the original rifles.
 
I remember doing a little rescearch on the sub of out fits that carried the Henry during the war ...the one out fit that comes to mind was out of Michigan ....they didn`t see much action though ...they would have been a force to contend with had they seen the front . It may have been late in the war before they recieved their Henrys .....I don`t remember ........
 
Not many full on units carried Henry's and those that did were very late in the war and/or mostly not engaged.

At Franklin, the 65 Illinois had 120 Henry Rifles in the ranks and used them to great effect repulsing Cleburne's men. Stationed along the works directly to their right was the 65th Indiana which had two companies equipped with Spencers. Both units devastated the attacking Confederates in front of them. Those are the two units which immediately pop into my mind. Of course Wilder's Lightning Brigade also was self equipped with Spencers and did also use them to great effect indeed earning their sobriquet with them.

Regarding the hobby though, most use of Henry or Spencer Rifles is looked upon really as quite "farby". Occasionally you see an officer carrying one etc. but for the most part we tend to think of them as show-offy and out of place. Just my $.02. A Rebel battery with a Henry would be completely anachronistic in my opinion and even worse if you were trying to pull off a modern day Henry in place of an original or repro of the one used at the time.
 
ok thanks for the info guys. I have the .44 revolver with csa belt buckle and holster(left handed too which is a plus lol). For skermishes I can always borrow weapons from my uncle, hes got a civil war armory lol.

Gambit
 
Middlesex Trading (see Link in Blunderbus thread)

Offers a smooth bore M1853 Enfield that would be fine I believe for someone only wanting to make noise, flash, and smoke at re enactments.

I'll bet the $399 price and $40 shipping are cheaper than a new designnon repro "Henry .44"

Don't know if it is NSSA approved or anything.

-Bob Hollingsworth
 
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