carrying your fodder

[PJ Hardtack]

ADs of all sorts must have claimed more than a few lives historically. There is an account of a Sapper of the Columbia Detachment RE (circa 1858-63) being killed by the discharge of his Colt '51 Navy as he threw down his bed roll on a bivouac. It was obviously loaded and the hammer was down on a cap.

More recently, Dave Higginbottom(?), founder of Lone Star Rolling Block Rifles was killed when he was withdrawing an AR 15-type rifle from the cab of his truck.

The two loudest sounds on earth are a "Click!" when you want to hear a "Bang!" and a "Bang!" when you want to hear a "Click!".
I've done both.

I've never had a magazine AD with my Henry to date, but I've been present twice when that occurred to someone else.

[wyldwylliam]

Just an update on my op.

My supposition that cartridge belts were not much in evidence until the seventies was wrong.

I recently got hold of a book called THE US ARMY IN THE WEST, 1870-1880, by Douglas McChristian.

In it, he says the soldiers were beginning to use home-made "thimble" belts pretty much as soon as the .50-70 came into use. Until the army finally issued prairie belts in the late '70's most soldiers continued to do this, leaving the various cartridge boxes for the parade ground.

Kinda maybe perhaps sorta makes sense civilians woulda cottoned onto this pretty quick for the Henry rounds as well?

[sail32]

It would seem to me that you have an excellent excuse to peruse civil war and later photographs that would show a person with a Henry rifle to find an answer that would suite you.

[pony express]

Just an update on my op.

My supposition that cartridge belts were not much in evidence until the seventies was wrong.

I recently got hold of a book called THE US ARMY IN THE WEST, 1870-1880, by Douglas McChristian.

In it, he says the soldiers were beginning to use home-made "thimble" belts pretty much as soon as the .50-70 came into use. Until the army finally issued prairie belts in the late '70's most soldiers continued to do this, leaving the various cartridge boxes for the parade ground.

Kinda maybe perhaps sorta makes sense civilians woulda cottoned onto this pretty quick for the Henry rounds as well?

Maybe.. But consider that if you have a belt full of Henry cartridges, it would probably be empty after reloading the rifle a couple of times. Might be easier and faster to reload a magazine rifle like a Henry from some kind of pouch rather than pulling them one at a time out of your belt. On the other hand, when you have a single shot, pulling one at a time from your belt would probably be faster than fumbleing with loose rounds in a pouch.

[wyldwylliam]

Yep, looking for pictures is something I spend a good deal of time doing, but have not had a great deal of luck with period photos of civilians with a Henry.

Yesterday I got in a CW pistol cartridge pouch and it looks like it will work admirably, for the time being at least.

As to speed of loading, when I used to shoot CASS, I used a shoulder pouch to load my Sharps's and others single shots on the team long range shoots and found that it was a lot faster than fumbling rounds out of a belt.

Too old and beat to compete anymore so speed is not an issue, mostly I just like to try to hit what I'm aiming at while working for the closest authenticity I can get.

It also occurred to me in the last couple of days that carrying big rimfire cartridges in a belt would expose the rims to inadvertent percussive hits while moving about. So all things considered I'm definitely favoring the belt pouch.

[pony express]

I'm just guessing here, but my thoughts are that aside from military use during the Civil War, probably most cowboys just filled the magazine and put the rest of the box of shells in their saddlebags. But of course, we tend to shoot a lot more rounds than they did.

[MJN77]

FWIW, James B. Gillett ("old west" Texas Ranger) wrote in his book that he shot an Apache in a fight in Mexico. Gillett wrote "He (the apache) used an old octagon-barrel Winchester rifle and he had with him an old shirtsleeve, tied at one end, in which were two hundred and fifty Winchester cartridges." The way the story was written, when Gillett said "an old octagon-barrel Winchester rifle" I get the impression that Gillett was meaning an 1866. (Gillett had an 1873 Winchester carbine) Anyway, figured I would throw that out there.