Original Henry 4 piece breakdown cleaning-rod

[Henry4440]

Found this pic of an original Henry rifle cleaning rod.
I thing, i will make me such a 4 piece breakdown cleaning-rod .I hope the hole in the buttstock is big and deep enough.

[Capt, Woodrow F. Call]

Howdy.

Do you have some metric ( meashure) you can share with us.


BR
Capt Call.

[Buck Stinson]

I've had a couple of these in the past and they are really neat.  If you make one in the same diameter as the original, it will never fit in any of the reproductions.  These hickory rods are nearly 3/8" in diameter and were used in only the very early production Henry's.  Those guns had larger trap doors and larger holes in the stock than the later models guns.  The reproduction guns all have the smaller diameter stock hole and butt trap of the later model Henry's.  The later jointed rods are made of steel with a steel knob on the end of one section.  This is the same rod used in early 1866 model rifles and carbines and even a few early 1873 models.  All later cleaning rods for the 1866, 1873 and 1876 model Winchesters were also steel, but they had a brass knob on the end of one section. 

Adios,
Buck

[Dan Topper]

There is information on www.rarewinchesters.com on Henry rifles.  In the article by Andrew Bresan, he states that the wood rod was used until serial number 3000 to 3500 (approx 1863).  After this time the metal rods were used.  The metal rod fit past the trap door on my Henry but I had to drill the hole a little deeper.  I purchased the rod from Dixie Gun Works.  I noticed that they (Dixie) now have two different priced 4 section rods.  They only had the cheaper ones when I bought mine.

Topper

[Henry4440]

Thanks for the information guys.
Yip, the hole is too small for a 4 piece wood rod.

[Tuolumne Lawman]

About 10 or 12 years ago, I used a steel M16 rod in the buttstock of mine for a long time.  Cheap and worked well.  It was just long enough, if I recall.