My brother is wanting a 1860 Brass Frame Henry rifle reproduction to plink with and maybe hunt with depending on what 45 LC loads it will safely fire.All I have seen online are the Uberti and the Cimmeron reproductions.
Is one alot better than the other?
What 45 LC loads are safe for the 1860 Henry Action Design?
Will Winchester ever offer a factory 1860 Henry again?
Thanks AMRA

There ALL made by Uberti.

No other company has ever made an 1860 Henry reproduction to my knowledge.

Every Henry rifle sold by over the years by Allen arms,
EMF ,Dixie Gunworks, Navy Arms ,Taylor and Co. , Cabelas and Cimmarron arms was made by Uberti.

So has every 1866 and 1873 Winchester replica.

I have owned and currently onw a few Cimmaron replica made by Uberti. They are no better made than the ones importerd by Anyone else.

If Uberti puts their name on the gun it will be well made no matter who imports it.

Thanks for the information.
AMRA

The Henry, 1866 and 1873 are all inherently weak designs. You don't want to use anything other than standard loads at best. "Standard" would be characterized as something like 250 grain bullet at around 850 fps, IMO. These were the standard smokeless loads put out by Remington and Winchester for years. Nowadays, you have factory loads that are healthier than that and I would NOT recommend them in any of these guns, regardless of condition, maker or originality (as opposed to replica). The replicas are stronger only in that they are made of better materials than the originals, but the extra strength is nowhere near enough to make up for the design weakness. They are fine, historical guns within their limitations, but the limitations are real and must be strictly adhered to. The next step up in 45 Colt loads would be "Ruger Only" and in no way would you ever use one of these in the aforementioned guns. Don't even use warmish loads. Cowboy action type loads should be ideal.

There is a difference between standard loads in smokeless powder and black powder. Black powder produces very low pressure compared to a bullet that was fired with smokeless even though the FPS may be close. All toggle bolt rifles should only be fired with loads that are equal to the original BP load. The early smokeless 44-40's ammo of the 1905 time period will do some harm to any toggle bolt gun.In other words the standard loads of today should not be fired in this design rifle. If he is going to hunt with the Henry then it needs to be BP loads.Remember that the Henry was designed to fire a weak 44 rimfire case and only modern times brought it to be made in these other calibers.

Okay, Fairshake, then what do you recommend? I was not speaking of Black Powder loads because most folks won't go to the trouble to make them and secondly, because any you make should be safe. You are saying that standard pressure ammo is no good for these guns?

Standard pressure loads are OK, if what you mean by "standard pressure" is that they do not exceed about 14,000 psi or so.

A toggle link rifle such as the 1860 replica will require BP duplicate loads as explained above. A good load that has been used for many years to duplicate factory .45 Colt ballistics and pressures is a 250 grain bullet with 8 grs. of Unique. I have fired several thousand of them out of two toggle-link replicas, an 1860 and an 1866. No problems, and you get about 1000 fps from a rifle barrel. Hit a deer, hog or black bear in the right spot with one of those at 100 yards or less and it will be time to break out the skinning knife.

I meant exactly what I said, if y'all will go back and read my post. Going by your standards, no loading data for the 45 Colt standard pressure loads exceeds 14,000 CUP in my copy of Modern Reloading, probably the most comprehensive loading manual extent. A few maximum loads are at 14,000, but none exceed it. I have been under the impression for many years, that the old Remington and Winchester factory loads in their 250 grain lead bullets, duplicated black powder pressures. This is what I was saying.

I have no idea what pressures the 44-40 factory loads generated, but they were about 100 fps slower and kicked considerably less from a handgun, than the 45's. I have shot both loads from old handguns and the 44-40 from antique long guns and never had a problem. The 44 Special I have fired from both long and short guns as well and the old standard loading of it are even slower than the 44-40, but kick about the same...none.

The standard pressure loads started to change with the Blackhawk and Contender reloading data that was published back when I was a kid. Then Federal brought out their higher-powered 45 Colt loads back in the late seventies or early eighties. Now you have a plethora of loads, some made by small companies. Some are okay and some aren't, as I have tried to relate on every post that I've conversed about it here on. Cowboy Action loads, that Fairshake is speaking of are, to the best of my knowledge, an even different ballgame. They are loaded to even lower speeds and one assumes, pressures, in order to generate the most minimal recoil for fast recovery times in that game. Fairshake seems to think that one needs to go that low in replicas. That has never been my impression. If that is the case, I wish somebody would speak up as I do not want to give out bad advice. Some of those Cowboy Action Loads are extremely weak. In fact, if some of the ballistics are to be believed, they are weaker than any load I'd ever consider as you can get so little pressure as to not push the bullet out the bore, especially on a long gun.

The standard loads and the cowboy action loads seem to meet your criteria of 14,000 CUP or less. If anybody disagrees, please speak up.

The original Henry load drove a roughly 200 grain bullet to about 1100 fps. My Steel framed Henry in .44-40 can reach 1200 safely and that's where I stay. Even at that velocity, I often find the case hasn't expanded enough to totally seal the chamber, It kicks like a .22!

It really shines when I load it with 777!

Dan