Henry rifle
The Henry rifle (American Henry Rifle ) was a further development of the Volcanic weapons by Benjamin Tyler Henry . In 1862 it was the first lever action rifle on the US market to fire unitary cartridges with metal casings, and it had a magazine capacity of 15 rounds, which was enormous for the time.
history
In 1854, Horace Smith and Daniel Baird Wesson (the later founders of Smith & Wesson ) researched a new form of ammunition for their repeating pistols and rifles. These lever action rifles with knee joint lock and tubular magazine fired ammunition in which the propellant charge of black powder and the detonation charge of fumed mercury sat directly in the projectile . Since this caseless ammunition , known as Rocket Ball , did not allow the chamber to be sealed and contained only a minimal charge of powder, it had only poor penetration and range. The partners Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson therefore developed the .22 rimfire cartridge based on the Flobert cartridge patented by Louis Nicolas Auguste Flobert , an advanced case ammunition for its time, which was patented on August 8, 1854.
However, they refrained from further developing their repeating pistol and concentrated on the development and production of revolvers. With the holder of the Rollin White patent, they brought the first cartridge revolver, the Smith & Wesson No 1 in .22 caliber, to production readiness .
They left the lever-action repeating pistols to the New Haven Arms Company owned by Oliver Winchester, who launched them and rifles of the same system under the name Volcanic . With no success, Winchester hired Benjamin Tyler Henry and asked him to improve the system. Henry developed a lever action rifle based on the Volcanic weapons that fired large-caliber case ammunition, and patented it in October 1860. The 16-round weapon fired the rimfire cartridges in caliber .44 Henry with copper cases developed by Henry especially for it . To ensure safe ignition of the cartridges, Henry designed a breech with double ignition. This struck on two sides of the cartridge rim to prevent misfiring. One shortcoming of the Henry rifle was its open-bottom magazine; this could lead to contamination of the cartridges if the weapon was fired from a surface. A total of around 12,800 weapons were produced up to 1866, most of them with a gunmetal breech block , usually referred to as brass in the weapons literature. The successor to the Henry rifle was the Winchester model 1866 rifle , which, like its predecessor, fired the .44 rimfire cartridge.
The setup of the production facilities and the procurement of materials took a long time. Since Oliver Winchester was interested in delivering to the US Army, he sent a handcrafted copy of the weapon to the Ordnance Department in June 1861 , but orders were not received despite positive tests. It was not until May 1862 that the first series-produced Henry Rifle named after their designer were delivered. In 1862 900 pieces could be produced by October. From 1864 the monthly production was 290 pieces. The original price of a Henry rifle was 42 US dollars , while a product manufactured in the Springfield Armory muzzle-loading gun with rifled barrel cost 13.93 US dollars. Replicas of Henry rifles are still made today, but unlike the original, these fire ammunition with central ignition.
Henrys with an iron lock box also exist up to serial number 355. Their number is estimated at just over 200. Oliver Winchester may have ordered a series of cases from an outside manufacturer because their manufacturing facilities were not yet ready. It is possible that these weapons were intended for the Navy. The fact is that Winchester sent one of the first weapons produced to Captain John A. Dahlgren for testing. These were carried out on May 16, 1862 by Lieutenant W. Mitchell in the Washington Navy Yard and produced the following results: 187 rounds were fired in 3 minutes 36 seconds, a total of 1040 rounds could be fired without dismantling the weapon. Despite these excellent results, the Naval Bureau of Ordnance did not order Henry rifles, but 700 Spencer rifles .
There was an enormous need for weapons in the United States at the time because of the Civil War , and so between 1862 and the end of the war on April 9, 1865, just over 8,600 Henry rifles were manufactured. 1103 rifles went directly to the US Army , 800 of which bore the inspector's mark from CGC (Charles G. Chapman). With the post-peace deliveries, the Northern Army received a total of 1731 Henrys. A large number of the weapons were purchased by unit commanders for their troops, and many Henrys were purchased directly from combatants. They hoped the breech-loaders with magazines would give them an advantage over the Confederate troops of the southern states, which were mostly armed with muzzle-loaders . Their soldiers spoke of the "Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and with which they fire all week".
In the Indian Wars , the weapon was used by US units, including at the Battle of Beecher Island . After around 12,800 Henrys were made, production was phased out. The following rifle with the same breechblock system and the innovation of a closed tube magazine and a loading opening on the side of the breech block was called Winchester Mod. 1866. When production began, the New Haven Arms Company was renamed Winchester Repeating Arms Company . Since the Henrys and the Model 66 Winchester were manufactured in the same series of numbers, isolated Henry rifles carry numbers up to 14,000.
Function of the weapon
The 15 round magazine has a slot along its entire length. For loading, the magazine feeder is pushed forward and the front part of the magazine tube is swiveled out. After inserting the cartridges, the front part is turned back and thus releases the spring-loaded magazine feeder.
To make the weapon ready to fire, the loading lever combined with the trigger guard is swiveled forward. This kinks the extended knee joint and pulls back the now unlocked lock. In the last phase of the return, the closure cocks the valve; at the same time the cartridge feeder brings a cartridge up in front of the chamber. When the loading lever is pulled back, the slide advances and pushes the cartridge into the chamber. At the end of the advance, the breech is locked by the extended knee joint and the cartridge feeder is pulled down. The weapon is ready to fire. After pulling the trigger, the hammer strikes the rear part of the breech, the strike is transmitted to the ignition cams in front, which strike the edge of the cartridge on the left and right and ignite it.
Reloading is done by a renewed loading movement. The empty cartridge case is pulled out by the extractor attached to the top of the lock and ejected by the cartridge feeder that goes up. Reloading takes about two seconds.
ammunition
The .44 Henry rimfire cartridge, also known as the .44 Rimfire, .44 Long Rimfire and 11 × 23R, was specially developed for the Henry rifle, further developed by Benjamin Tyler Henry from the Flobert cartridge. The successors to Henry, the Winchester Rifles and Model 1866 carbines, used the same cartridge. Other weapons such as the Smith & Wesson No 3 revolver , the Colt Model 1871/72 "Open Top" and later the Colt Single Action Army also fired this cartridge.
The designation .44 referred to the nominal caliber, but the effective bullet diameter was .446 inches (11.3 mm). There were two types of bullet: the Ogival bullet and the Henry Flat bullet, which was flat at the front. The bullets weighed 200 or 216 grains (13 g or 14 g). The sleeves were made of copper, later brass was also used. The load was 26 to 28 grains (1.7 to 1.8 grams) of black powder. The muzzle velocity when used in the 24 inch rifle barrel was approximately 1125 feet / s, which corresponds to 342 m / s. The accuracy on single targets was at a range of maximum 200 m.
Others
Karl May equipped his novel hero Old Shatterhand with the "Henrystutzen", a fantasy rifle with phenomenal properties which apart from the name has little in common with the Henry rifle. The weapon known as the Henrystutzen in the Karl May Museum is a Winchester model 1866 .
In 1996 the Henry Repeating Arms Company Arms was founded in Brooklyn, (New York). The company owned by Anthony Imperato specializes in the manufacture of replicas of lever action rifles.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Herbert G. Houze: Colt Rifles & Muskets. Krause Publications Iola, WI, 1996, ISBN 0-87341-417-9 .
- ^ Wiley Sword: The Historic Henry Rifle. Andrew Mowbray Publishers, Lincoln, RI, 2002, ISBN 978-1-931464-01-7 .
- ^ Henry History. Henry Repeating Arms, Bayonne, NJ, accessed June 16, 2013 : "one Confederate officer is credited with the phrase, 'It's a rifle that you could load on Sunday and shoot all week long.'"
literature
- Wiley Sword: The Historic Henry Rifle . Andrew Mowbray Publishers, Lincoln, RI 2002, ISBN 1-931464-01-4 .
- John E. Parsons: The First Winchester . William Morrow & Co., New York, NY 1955, LCCN 55-007621 .
- George Madis: The Winchester Book . Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas, TX 1971, ISBN 0-910156-03-4 .
- George Madis: The Winchester Handbook . Art & Reference House, Brownsboro, TX 1981, ISBN 0-910156-04-2 .
- R. Bruce McDowell: A Study of Colt Conversions . Krause Publications, Iola, WI 1997, ISBN 0-87341-446-2 .
- David Westwood: Rifles: An Illustrated History of Their Impact (Weapons and Warfare) . ABC-Clio Inc, 2005, ISBN 978-1-85109-401-1 , pp. 52 .
- Martin Pegler: Winchester Lever-Action Rifles. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4728-0658-1 . (82 pages online PDF)
Web links
- Patents and the History of Technology, The Henry Repeating Rifle Article June 12, 2005