AllOutdoor Review: Uberti Henry 1860 Rifle in .45 Colt

There is not a lever gun on the planet with more history piled on top of it than the 1860 Henry. I covered that history, and I mean all of it, in a four-part Curious Relics series that wrapped up earlier this month. This is the standalone review. The Uberti Henry 1860 stood in for an original through all four of those parts, and now it gets its own proper evaluation. Let’s dive right in!

Curious Relics: 1860 Henry Rifle Series on AllOutdoor:

• Curious Relics #145: Heavy Boy – The 1860 Henry Rifle Part IV
• Curious Relics #144: No Paper Trail – The 1860 Henry Rifle Part III
• Curious Relics #143: Iron and Brass – The 1860 Henry Rifle Part II
• Curious Relics #142: Load It On Sunday? – The 1860 Henry Rifle

If you want the full story on the original, the history, the variations, and what makes it one of the most important lever guns ever built, that series is linked right above, and it has everything you could want. This article is strictly about the reproduction.

Specifications: Uberti Henry 1860 Rifle

The Uberti Henry 1860 is a toggle-link lever action with a front-loading tubular magazine. There is no loading gate on the side, no wooden forearm, and no cross-bolt safety to speak of. You load it by sliding the brass follower forward into a sleeve at the muzzle, rotating that sleeve open, dropping cartridges in base first, rotating it back shut, and easing the follower down onto the column. The whole process feels deliberately old, which is kind of the point. Working the lever pulls the bolt back, flips the empty case out, cocks the hammer, and lifts the next round onto the carrier. It is an earlier and clunkier system than the loading-gate Winchesters that came after it, and it moves like it.

The rifle on my bench is item 342880: brass frame, .45 Colt, 24.5-inch octagonal blued barrel. Uberti also offers it with a steel frame and in .44-40. The website actually mentions an 18.5″ Trapper model, but it is nowhere to be found, so it may be discontinued or out of production. All models carry a lever lock on the bottom tang; more on that shortly.

• Manufacturer: A. Uberti, Italy
• Item Number: 342880
• Action: Lever action, toggle-link
• Chambering: .45 Colt (also offered in .44-40)
• Barrel: 24.5 inches, octagon, blued
• Rifling: 6 grooves, 1:16 right hand twist
• Overall Length: 43.3 inches
• Weight: 9 lbs
• Capacity: 13+1
• Frame: Brass (steel frame version also offered)
• Hammer and Lever: Case hardened
• Stock: A-grade walnut with brass buttplate
• Other: Lever lock at the rear of the receiver

MSRP on the Uberti Henry 1860 runs $1,579 for the brass-frame version in .45 Colt. The .44-40 brass frame comes in at $1,679. That is not cheap, but it is a lot of rifle for the money. It ships in a long Uberti box with a catalog and the product manual, and I would strongly suggest reading that manual before you load it for the first time.

“Uberti’s 1860 Henry Rifle sports the model’s distinctive receiver, which was originally offered in bronze or steel. One of the most coveted rifles in the U.S. Civil War, it became infamous among Confederate troops as the rifle that Yankee soldiers could “Load on Sunday and shoot all week.” Today the Uberti 1860 Henry is an absolute favorite in N-SSA target shooting competitions, thanks to its historic looks, fast handling and great accuracy. The only “poetic license” we took is caliber selection, since the Henry’s original .44 rimfire is long obsolete.

Uberti has faithfully reconstructed the 1860 Henry and offers both steel- and brass-receiver versions. Since the .44 rimfire rounds used in the original Henry rifles are obsolete, our fully functional replicas come in your choice of .44/40 or .45 long colt chamberings with handsome walnut rear stocks and 24.5″ barrels. We also offer a Henry trapper carbine version with an 18.5″ barrel.”

First Impressions: Uberti Henry 1860 Rifle

Out of the box, this thing is gorgeous. The brass frame is bright and polished, the bluing on the barrel is clean and even, and the walnut is nice. I will be honest, though: the brass on my sample had some spots and blotches on it, almost like oil stains, that were visible in person more than in photos.

The FFL I transferred through noticed them before I did. It is worth saying that this rifle could have already been through other writers’ hands or at trade shows before it landed on my bench, so I cannot hang that on Uberti’s quality control. With brass, some of that is just the territory. It is not the kind of thing that would bother me on a rifle I was planning to shoot and handle, and it has zero effect on function. If you are buying one new and sealed, you likely will not see it.

The fit between parts is tight, and nothing rattled or felt loose. The case-hardened hammer and lever have that mottled color finish that looks right at home against the brass. The walnut is smooth, without any rough spots or checkering, which is period-correct. No forearm, obviously, since the original did not have one either.

One thing that caught my eye on first handling is the lever lock. It is a knob threaded into the bottom of the tang, and it screws down to lock the lever shut. I noticed it right away, and I am not going to pretend I love it. It is a gross knob. The purpose, from what I have read in one place, is to keep the lever from flopping open in a saddle scabbard. It unscrews easily, but there is an empty hole sitting there if you pull it, so mine stayed in. It never got in the way during shooting. I just do not particularly like looking at it.

Range Time: Uberti Henry 1860 Rifle

The first thing you notice when you pick this rifle up is the weight. It is a heavy boy. Nine pounds, and most of that weight lives out in the barrel. With nothing between your hand and the barrel, it feels something like holding a long piece of steel bar stock with a brass frame on the back end of it. I would not call it balanced. It feels like a musket. All that said, the barrel never got hot in my session and I doubt it would without some serious shooting and speedy reloads.

Everything through it was Herter’s 250-grain lead flat nose factory ammo in .45 Colt. Herter’s sells it as target ammo, not cowboy loads, and at a listed 725 feet per second, it is about as mild as standard .45 Colt gets. As much as I wanted to, I did not work up any black powder ammo for it.

Loading the first few times felt a little strange. When the rounds stack up in that tube, every primer is resting right on the nose of the round below it, and then you let a spring-loaded follower down on top of the whole column. The manual makes it very clear that you ease the follower down; never let it slam. That is not just a suggestion. There are reports out there of magazine detonations from exactly that happening, so there is a real carefulness involved every single time. It is not hard to do right. What concerned me was the idea of doing it a few times and getting forgetful in my haste to get back to the fun. All it takes is one slip. After a few loads, it felt routine, but I stayed deliberate about it.

Cycling with live ammo was clean. Zero malfunctions, no short strokes. It is a little clunkier than I expected from a lever gun, more mechanical in feel than smooth, but that tracks for what this action is. One thing that tripped me up early was my dummy rounds. I had made them from real cases with uncrimped mouths, and they would not feed. If you plan to practice with snap caps, use the one-piece molded kind, or make sure your dummies have a proper crimp. With factory ammo, it ran without issue.

The sights are where this rifle and I had the most friction. The rear is a folding ladder, and it is usable. The front is the problem. It is a thick, wide, flat-topped triangle, while the rear notch is a thin V. They do not really nest one over the other, which makes precise aiming tougher than it needs to be. I cannot tell you whether Uberti’s front sight profile is a faithful copy of what the originals wore. Originals had a nickel silver blade up front, but I could not find anything pinning down whether the geometry matches.

The trigger on my sample was not good. Heavy and stiff, with no take-up and no real squeeze to it. It hits a wall and breaks in a clunk. I have seen a commenter note a trigger around 6 pounds that broke cleanly on another sample, so there may be some variation gun to gun. Mine may need some work. Overcoming the hammer on the forward stroke was not an issue at all, and that is worth noting since on this action you will likely be doing a lot of it.

Recoil is nothing. Nine pounds of rifle and mild .45 Colt loads, there just is not much to report there.

At 25 yards my shots landed high, which makes sense given these sights are set up with 100 yards as the starting point. The group came out around 3 to 3.5 inches. At 100 yards it was a rough day. With 3-inch circles as my targets I was barely on paper at all, and a lot of that is that fat front sight covering everything up. This rifle makes a lot more sense on a big steel silhouette or a torso target where the sight picture is not fighting you. For precision paper shooting at distance, it is going to frustrate you.

Final Thoughts: Uberti Henry 1860 Rifle

I really enjoyed this rifle. For all the things I would change, and that trigger and front sight combination are the two biggest, I grinned every single time I closed that lever. There is nothing else quite like it in a modern gun case. It feels cool just lugging it around, and loading it the old way is part of the experience. For anybody who is even a little curious about where the lever gun started, yours truly would highly recommend it.

The $1,579 MSRP is real money, but you get a lot of rifle for it. The fit and finish are solid, the action ran without complaint, and it looks exactly like what it is supposed to look like. The trigger is the one thing I would address before anything else if I owned it. A gunsmith who works on these could likely clean that up considerably.

If you want to know the full story of what this rifle is a reproduction of, the Curious Relics series above is the place to go. All four parts are live.

In closing, I want to say thank you to the folks at Uberti for allowing AllOutdoor and myself the opportunity to try out their Henry 1860. That is greatly appreciated. If you have a question or you are sitting on information that could sharpen up an article like this one, you can find me through my Linktree.

The post AllOutdoor Review: Uberti Henry 1860 Rifle in .45 Colt appeared first on AllOutdoor.com.