long barrel , or custom Henry gunsmith

[eagles]

Does anyone know if it is possible to order a 30 inch barel from any Henry maker ? Is there any gunsmiths in the usa doing any custom work on wood or stocks for reproduction Henry rifles and last were any peep sites ever used on them ?

[5thnycavalry]

24 1/2 inches is the longest available.   I own a 18 1/2 in Henry.  We have found documentation that 270 were special ordered  between 1862 and 1865.  I do not believe a peep sight was period, however Buckhorn sights were pictures on some originals.

5th NY Cavalry

[eagles]

last weekend I was up in Oregon. In a small country store  - restaraunt  there are lots of old pictures on the wall . Many appear fromn the 1800's. In one there is a group of hunters sitting down by their deer kills . A few of them have what appears to look exaclty like Henry riflles laying over their shoulder. In a few the barrels look realy long , at least 28 maybe 30 inches .Which is why I asked . On those special order models were some of a longer barrel version do you know ? That long barrel REALLY looked good .

[Fox Creek Kid]

No" long" barrel Henry rifles were made by the company that are known.

[Dusty Morningwood]

Man, my 24 incher is heavy enough.  Imagine adding another 6 inches.  Wait, this sounds kind of lewd.  But I'll let it stand! 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't until the 1866 came along that Oliver Winchester saw the wisdom of making custom barrel lengths readily available. I've never seen a photo of a Henry with a barrel longer than 24". I have noticed that Henrys sometimes seem to have extra long barrels in old photos, but I think it is mostly an illusion created by the lack of a fore arm.

Uberti is the only company making a reproduction of the Henry today. There are several importers, but they are all made by Uberti.

As far as custom work, Happy Trails at The Smith Shop has done a lot of work customizing Henrys, including altering them by installing a loading gate. There were a very few of these produced as prototypes prior to the 1866. Hap has also cut quite a few down from 24". But I doubt if even Hap would be able to build up a barrel longer than 24". If you click on Conversions Hap has some pretty good photos of his conversion model of the Henry.

http://www.thesmithshop.com/

I concur with Dusty, a 24" Henry is really heavy to begin with. Much heavier than a '66 or '73 with a similar length barrel because of the integral magazine. The barrel/magazine is machined out of one massive bar of steel. I'm just guessing, but the weight issue might have something to do with why there were not any longer original Henrys made than 24". Don't forget, the 44 Rimfire cartridge was not very powerful, and you might not want to lug around an enormously heavy rifle for such a low powered cartridge.

[eagles]

Thanks  for all great info , Ill contact him and see what he says .  I noticed he has a tang peep site on one of those Henrys. I like tht for my eyes .