Blued Henry in Netflix show "Godless"

[nativeshootist]

There is a gorgeous blued Henry rifle in the dark western Netflix show "Godless", watched a few episodes of it and in the first episode is where the Henry makes it appearance and doesn't get much screen time. but man am I sold on a blued Henry, one of these years I'll stumble upon one.

[major]

IIRC Navy Arms use to import them with a blued finish.

[Buck Stinson]

I'm not sure why, but most of the reproduction Iron Frame Henry's have a case colored reciever.  Original Iron Frames all have a blued reciever.  Should be some available somewhere out there.  Good luck in your search.

[Abilene]

I think all I've ever seen were Navy Arms.

Not that the case colored ones are ugly or nuthin'    A guy at a match today was shooting a real purty one.

[OD#3]

Original Iron Frames all have a blued reciever.

That's been discussed here before.  I believe the consensus was that many--if not most--were actually casehardened; it is just hard to tell with firearms that old.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.

[Coffinmaker]

ODIE,  Well since you asked .... Your Wr ......... !!  No actually your quite correct.  Case Hardening was the most common for the original "Iron Frame" guns.  Must remember, those guns needed to be Cased as well as heat treated.  The Iron was some soft.

That isn't to say that many weren't manufactured without hardening.  They were, just as were Colt.  Biggest problem when reconstructing the past, none of the reconstructors were there, to actually observe.  We mostly guess.  Black and White Photography wasn't real indicative of actual appearance either.  Since the known collections only contain a small fraction of the number actually manufactured, Where on earth are the rest of em??

PS:  I couldn't help but notice, the rifle the nice lady has in hand is LOADED!!  So often the follower is back against the frame.  Some of the "still" screen grabs, unfortunately, have the rifle with the follower all the way back (sigh)

[Buck Stinson]

I'm not trying to muddy the water here, but most iron frame Henry rifles were blued.  The only exceptions were the very first iron frames in the low two digit serial range.  There are some fine examples of blued frame Henry's in Les Quick's book on the Henry Rifle.  All Henry's had case colored hammers, levers and in some cases the lever latch.  In his survey of over 1000 rifles, only a couple of very early iron frames have been observed with traces of case color on the lower tang, under the lever. 

[Coffinmaker]

Hi Buck,

I could be wrong.  Research into the ancients is often cloudy.  Especially since there were something somewhat less than 1000 Iron Frame Henry rifles made.  I don't believe Mr Quick actually inspected 1000 rifles as there were only between 400 - 450 ever made.  I'm also of the opine, at this point in time, it's nor really big deal.  After all, Hollywood told us for years those '92s with the fore end wood pulled off were Henry's.  Excuza - Between 400 - 450 Iron Frame.

[Buck Stinson]

I agree that it's not a big deal, but as a 50 year collector of original high condition Winchesters, I find it important to search out as much factual history as possible.  Sometimes it's really easy, other times it's very difficult.  Les Quick was a very close and dear friend, who lost his battle with cancer, not long after his book was published.  Les was a hard core collector and long time student of the Henry rifle as well as the model 1866 Winchester.  Maybe I didn't phrase it correctly, but I meant that he had over 1000 Henry's in his survey, not 1000 iron frames.  It is beleived that there were fewer than 400 iron frames made, since the highest number recorded is #355.  Another long time friend, Norm Vegley was a major contributor on Les's book.  Norn has personally owned just over 500 Henry's in the years he has been a collector/dealer.  I also agree with you as far as the famous"Hollywood Henry"  made from 1892 Winchester rifles.  There are however some original Henry's that were used in movies and on television.  An original could be seen in some of the early "Bonanza" episodes.  An original can be seen in the hands of Joel McCrea in "Union Pacific" (1939).  An original also shows up in the Jimmy Stewart movie "The Man From Laramie" (1955).

[Will Ketchum]

I learn so much here.

[Coffinmaker]

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on one's outlook, I wasn't there.  No where near there and I don't think there were Holiday Inn Express to hang out in "then" so I am unable to speak with absolute authority and will gladly nod to others whom have accessed better information than I.  I do like to reference as much factual information as I can glean however.  So:  This I can state with absolute certainty.

Henry ne Winchester built both plain Blue Henrys and Case Hardened Henrys and some of those Iron Henrys were built right in the middle of production runs of Brass Guns.  Near as I can tell nobody has access to the actual production records.  Honestly??  I don't really care.  We can't get ammunition for them (Original Henrys) which renders them to very very expensive 3D wall decoration.  I don't collect anything except the occasional cold.

Getting back to the OP.  Yes there is a really nice "Blue" Henry in the lady's hands.  Even better, it's loaded.  Look closely, the follower is forward and there are Cartridges in the tube.  I suspected a dowel but looking closely, it's cartridges.  I really do appreciate seeing the current examples of correct guns, makes the movies a lot more fun.