I ordered this Cimarron 1860 Henry Civil War model from Buffalo Arms last week and picked it up from my FFL on Thursday. It is chambered for .44-40 WCF. Hoping to shoot it tomorrow.

You can't see it in the pic, but it is stamped "US" over the lever screw, and has an inspector's cartouche on the stock.

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This shows the folding ladder rear sight with graduations to 800 yards, and the butt-mounted sling swivel. A suitable sling is on order from Dell's Leather Works. Some pretty nice figure in the wood, although it's not consistent. Wood to metal fit is excellent.

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The front sight is a German silver blade. The front sling loop attached to the barrel is also shown. Henry slings have a hook that connects to the loop.

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This rifle doesn't have a trapdoor in the buttplate to accept a cleaning rod. I will have to see if the stock itself is drilled for the cleaning rod. If so, I might replace the buttplate.

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I already load for .44-40 for use in my Cimarrown 1873 Sporting Rifle, so I'm set for ammo. Like the 1873, this will see mostly black powder handloads, but I also load some with Unique for when I want to shoot it but might not feel like running more than a patch through the bore after shooting (although my BP handloads are pretty clean shooting and the .44 WCF brass seals the fouling in the bore, out of the action, very well).

One thing I'm planning to do is load up some ammo to .44 Henry Flat ballistics. I.e., a 200 to 216 grain bullet at ~1150 FPS. I can do that with 28 grains of black powder and a bullet from my Accurate Molds 43-215C mold, which drop at 219 grains from 1:20 alloy.

Incidentally, Black Hills .44-40 cowboy ammo is loaded to .44 Henry Flat specs, as determined by chronographing them in my '73.

That is awesome looking. Always wanted a Henry.
Question about the position of the sling swivel - does it interfere with your cheek weld on the stock?

I'm left handed, so the rear sling swivel isn't an issue.

However, I shouldered the rifle right handed and it doesn't feel like it'll get in the way unless the sling causes it to stick out. But, it's far enough back on the stock I don't think it'll be a problem.

I loaded up 100 .44 Henry Flat-equivalent cartridges today. In Starline brass, I loaded 28 grains of 3Fg Goex, 0.5cc of cornmeal filler, and an Accurate 43-215C bullet, 219 grains as it drops from my mold when cast of 20:1 lead:tin alloy. Primers are CCI No.300 LPPs.

Some of them are in this picture. The rounds with the bullet seated still need to go through my Lee factory crimp die. The rounds in the top three rows show the cornmeal filler, which prevents there from being any air space between the powder charge and the base of the bullet.

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I should be shooting the rifle tomorrow.

Thanks.
Look forward to your range report.

Always been curious about one of these.  Seems crazy advanced technology for the Civil War time period.

I'm seriously considering an 1860 to go along with my Winchester 73 chambered in 44 WCF. Why does it look like there is a loading gate on the side of the receiver?

That's a really neat rifle. I've been fighting the urge to buy one!

I have a Uberti 1866 Sporting Rifle in 44-40 and have handloaded extensively for it. Don't sell that buttstock short for figure as it's really difficult to tell what's under that factory finish. A good oil finish can do wonders.

Mine before with the factory finish-



...then after with a hand-rubbed BLO/gum turpentine finish-



I got a HUGE kick out of regulating the ladder sights. Since I planned on hunting with my rifle, I started with a load with Swiss 3Fg that "sort of" duplicated the original load with a bullet I cast from an NOE mould. Cast from WW's this bullet weighs 220 grs. has lots of lube capacity.



A compressed load of Swiss 3Fg netted 1300 fps and was very accurate. I found a load of Unique that duplicated the BP load and set about regulating the sights. 100 yds was pretty easy as all I had to do was work the front sight down, but 200 was a challenge and required working on the rear sight.

I hope you'll keep us posted with loads, etc.

The rifle shipped with plastic film on both sides of the receiver. I suspect they use the same film for their 1866 repros, and it's cut for the loading gate.

I got some shooting in yesterday, 50 rounds of the .44 Henry-equivalent loads, and 50 of full-power .44 WCF loads. In the video I am shooting at a ~8" steel gong from about 40 - 45 yards, with full power loads consisting of:

Starline brass
CCI Large pistol primers
35 grains Goex 3Fg black powder
Accurate 43-215 219 grain bullet (20:1 lead:tin alloy)



The .44 Henry-equivalent loads had noticeably less noise. Both shot right above point of aim at 40 - 45 yards, offhand. My first 10 shots:

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POA was at 6 o/clock on the bull.

The rifle hangs really well for offhand shooting. Compared with my Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle, or especially my original 1892 Winchester in .38 WCF, the sights are much easier for my almost-50 year old eyes to see. The front sight is a nice, substantial German silver blade. The rear sight has a good sized notch that allows me to easily see the front sight.

The action got noticeably slicker towards the end of the day after being worked for 100 shots plus clearing the rifle several times. I've always felt that one shouldn't sink any money into slicking up a gun until after it's had at least 500 rounds through it.

This was the most black powder loads I've put through a rifle in one outing. The action got no fouling in it. The bore took only about 10 - 12 patches wet with moose milk (Ballistol/water mix) to get clean.

I'm going to load up some more of the .44 Henry-equivalent loads and use them at my club's next lever action shoot. I'll also run some mild smokeless loads with Unique through it, and I've recently read some pieces that indicate Herco is a good smokeless powder for use in .44 WCF, so if I see any at the next gun show I'll pick up a pound. It's a little slower and I think bulkier than Unique, and may meter better, which would be a plus.

Incidentally, we also shot my circa-1895 Winchester 1892 .38 WCF at the gong, with smokeless loads of a 180 grain cast bullet on top of 9.0 grains of Unique. These were noticeably more powerful than the Ultramax .38-40 cowboy ammo I'd shot in the rifle previously. However, even the .44 Henry-equivalent loads in the 1860 smacked the gong around a lot more.

Very cool guns.  Can't help but think about Lonesome Dove.  That was a great one.

Did you feel the heat of the barrel when gripping like that?  I saw you moved your hand further out and I was thinking, I bet that barrel is getting hot.......

The barrel did not get uncomfortably warm when we were shooting. Shot strings were spaced out and the temp was in the 40s. More rapid fire and a higher ambient temp would probably change that. I had a set of gloves on hand but didn't need them in this session.

The reason I moved my hand was that I was doing the "Henry Hop." There is a tab on the bottom of the magazine follower that hits your hand when you get down to around 4 or 5 rounds left in the magazine. So, you need to move your hand on the other side of the tab, toward the muzzle, to allow the remaining rounds to feed.

Here are mines by uberti.

I wish I had one with a blued barrel

Dave, is yours the charcoal or standard blue?

Mine is standard blue. The charcoal blue is brighter but the finish isn't as robust.

Always liked these guns but have been paranoid about the longevity of the brass receiver.  Anyone know about that?

Well, here's my Winchester 1866 saddle-ring carbine made in 1870 .................

Those Henrys look nice.
Since I don't care about absolute authenticity, (can't be totally original, because of caliber anyway with most repros.), I wonder if anyone has tried either of these two sights.  They are a Skinner and Track of the Wolf.  Both have a type of elevation capability.  I don't really care for ladder type sights.

My vision is terrible so I went this route on my 1873.

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I'm looking at some type of tang sight like that on another rifle that has the ladder rear.