Cas City Forum Hall & CAS-L
CAS TOPICS => Shooter's Meeting => Topic started by: Shotgun Franklin on January 11, 2012, 09:20:17 PM
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I wonder why someone does bring out a Henry Rifle in .44 Henry Center Fire Flat?
I don’t know if it would be a really big seller but I could see a number of people wanting one. In fact a Colt SAA Replica in the same caliber would make a really good SASS combo.
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Uberti made a few .44 Spcl Henrys about 8 or 10 years ago. Those can be easily made to shoot shorter rounds (44 Colt, 44 Russian) as well. I think it is a supply and demand thing. They can barely keep up with the orders they get for the 45LC and 44-40 models. But since they have made them in 44 Spcl before, they could probably do it again if someone special ordered it I would think. Some folks have taken 44-40 Henrys and had them rechambered for .44 Russian. I'm not sure what the dimensions are of a ".44 Henry Center Fire Flat" - is that the cartridge that some yellowboys were chambered for late in their production? I don't think there is any way that Uberti would chamber a rifle in a cartridge for which brass does not exist.
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The market for Henry's is small. The market for a Henry chambered in a round no one has manufactured for over 80 years would be practically non-existent.
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The .44 Henry cf and the .44 S&W American are dimensionally the same. They were independantly developed about 20 years apart.
The closest basic case is the .41 RM, and it would use a heeled bullet
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I duplicated the 44 Henry round with 45 Schofield, a 200 round bullet and about 28-29 grains of FFFG BP in a 1872 Open top and 1860 Henry.
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As was posted, the .44 Henry was basically similar dimensions to the S&W 44/100 (as it was first called), aka .44 American. Both used heel bullets, and the case was approximately the dimensions of a modern .41 Magnum. As the external dimension at the mouth was about the same as the bullet diameter, this required the use of a "heel" bullet. (The .22 rf uses a heel bullet, BTW.) Heel bullet ammo is not the easiest to load, as a crimp is a PIA to accomplish. The Russians apparently thought about the same thing, and asked S&W to modify the .44 American cartridge to use a straight shank inside-lubed bullet. This became known as the .44 Russian. With the advent of smokeless powder, the .44 Russian was lengthened to prevent use in older arms, and this became the .44 Special. That cartridge was lengthened once more when the loads went bananas, to become the .44 Magnum. I doubt any manufacturer would want to chance a toggle-link action with the .44 Magnum (we sometimes can it ".44 Extra Long Russian), and .44 Russian would be a limited sale item. So I would guess if anyone wanted to put out a Henry in .44 CF, it would be the .44 Special. The same has been done for the '66, or so I understand.