✅ SOLVED 44 Henry Casing question

[fyrffytr1]

Hey Y'all,
I had a very meager hunt Sunday morning but did get one interesting shell casing. It is a 44 cal. Henry. What interested me was the four sets of firing pin marks. Three appear to be lighter mis-strikes before the heavy fourth set the shell off. Was this normal for a Henry or could it have been the result of a dirty firing mechanism. I don't think these buleets can be re-loaded can they?

 

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[cheese]

No, they can't be reloaded. The light strikes that didn't set it off were the result of a weak hammer spring or other fault that would cause the hammer to strike too lightly.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Actually, the great majority of rimfire Henry cartridge "duds" were caused by improper distribution of the Mercury Fulminate primer inside the casing's circular rim. It was a well-known problem... so the shooter knew that the solution was to rotate the cartridge in the Henry Rifle's breech and try it again.

The four sets of the marks from the Henry Rifle's "double-point" firing-pin on your casing's base show that the shooter had to try four times to get that bullet to fire. Henry cartridge misfires were not an extremely frequent occurence, or they would quickly have been withdrawn from Military service. But the misfires happened often enough that we relic-diggers do occasionally find a multi-stuck fired Henry casing.

Sidenote for anybody here who doesn't already know:
Henry Rifles and H-marked ammo for them continued to be manufactured for several decades after the civil war's end. (For example, shortly after that war's end, the Henry Company was purchased by the Winchester Repeating Arms company -- which continued to use the old Henry company's H-mark on bullet-cartridges.) The way to distinguish civil war Henry bullet-casings from post-war ones is to examine the EXACT shape and "style" of the headstamp (maker's-marking) on the casing's base. The one dug by Fyrffytr has the civil war version of the H-marking.

 

[huntsman53]

Actually, the great majority of rimfire Henry cartridge "duds" were caused by improper distribution of the Mercury Fulminate primer inside the casing's circular rim. It was a well-known problem... so the shooter knew that the solution was to rotate the cartridge in the Henry Rifle's breech and try it again.

The four sets of the marks from the Henry Rifle's "double-point" firing-pin on your casing's base show that the shooter had to try four times to get that bullet to fire. Henry cartridge misfires were not an extremely frequent occurence, or they would quickly have been withdrawn from Military service. But the misfires happened often enough that we relic-diggers do occasionally find a multi-stuck fired Henry casing.
Sidenote for anybody here who doesn't already know:
Henry Rifles and H-marked ammo for them continued to be manufactured for several decades after the civil war's end. (For example, shortly after that war's end, the Henry Company was purchased by the Winchester Repeating Arms company -- which continued to use the old Henry company's H-mark on bullet-cartridges.) The way to distinguish civil war Henry bullet-casings from post-war ones is to examine the EXACT shape and "style" of the headstamp (maker's-marking) on the casing's base. The one dug by Fyrffytr has the civil war version of the H-marking.

Was the .44 Rimfire Henry Ammo also a problem for the Colt Single Action .44 Rimfire Henry Revolvers?


Frank

 

[cheese]

Yeah, the priming compound sometimes isn't/wasn't distributed properly. This is a problem still today with .22 rimfires. I only said it was weak strikes because he said the strike marks were light except for one. That'll cause the problem as well.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Huntsman53, I see that Cheese already correctly answered your question before I saw it. Just replying here because I didn't want you to think I was ignoring your question.

 

[huntsman53]

Thanks to both of you! I only asked because I once had 22 Colt Single Action Revolvers that I was purchasing from an elderly not so nice gentleman. There were several extremely rare Colts in the collection and one of those was a genuine Colt Single Action .44 Rimfire Henry Revolver. Although, I had invested over $5,000 into the collection, once the gentleman found out that I was going through a divorce, he wanted them back until the divorce was over even though the Colts were never a part of the divorce settlement. After my divorce was final, I went back for the Colts but the old gentleman reneged on the deal!


Frank

 

[fyrffytr1]

TCG, Thanks for the added ID about the civil war period headstamp. It makes that day of hunting a little better! I know this has been answered several times but can you, or anyone else date the 22 with the US headstamp?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Yes, I can answer your question. Any bullet-casing whose headstamp says "US" in raised lettering (which is shown on your .22 casing) was manufactured by the United States Cartridge Company, from 1885 to 1908.

 

[fyrffytr1]

Thank you! This one is solved.

 

[shawn32671]

Actually rimfires can be reloaded but not many do it...there are tutorials on how to grind up match stick heads and make a paste with a small amount of water, and jam the paste into the bottom of the shell and work it into the rim of the rimfire.

 

[cheese]

I guarantee you that there are not 4 strike marks on this case because some dude 150 years ago ground up ohio blue tips and made a paste to try to reload the cartridge. Then, there's the issue about where will you find a sizing die to resize the case and crimp in the new bullet? For all intents and purposes, these are not reloadable cartridges. Is it possible nowadays, sure... So is repairing a blown light bulb, but we don't say light bulbs are repairable.