Howdy
I have been using my Uberti Iron Frame 1860 44-40 Henry as my main match rifle in CAS for close to ten years now.
Other than the day it was proofed at the factory, it has never seen any Smokeless powder, I only shoot it with Black Powder cartridges.
Yes, you might need a glove on your left hand, especially if you load up any Black Powder rounds, on a hot summer day the barrel gets really hot. After ten quick rounds it is too hot for me to hold onto.
Mine does not have the cleaning rod pocket in the stock either, but that may be because it is the Iron Frame model. Don't really know. I bought this model because it was on sale at Dixie Gunworks at the time for a steep discount. Never really cared for brass framed guns anyway. The first 400 or so Henry rifles produced by the New Haven Arms Company had iron frames. Most likely because some of the equipment to make parts had not shown up at the factory yet, so Oliver Winchester contracted out for some of the parts. Winchester wanted the frames made of brass, really gunmetal, a form of bronze, because he hoped to win military contracts and felt bronze would stand up better than iron to the salt air if he ever won any contracts with the Navy. I was originally planning to have the frame on mine blued, but then I found out that some of the original Iron frames were Case Hardened, so I left it alone.
Two things: Never drop rounds straight down the magazine. Hold the rifle at an angle and allow the rounds to trickle gently down the magazine.
And always keep a firm grasp on the follower tab under the magazine. Never allow it to slip out of your hand and slam down on a column of cartridges. Bad things can and have happened. That little piece of rubber in the follower won't provide enough cushioning to prevent a discharge in the magazine.
Like all lever guns, only use Round Nosed Flat Point bullets, or Truncated Cone bullets. No pointy bullets.
When I am loading mine, I wrap my left hand around the barrel just below the opening in the magazine. That way if the follower somehow gets knocked loose, it will smack into my hand instead of into the column of cartridges. Yes, it hurts, but it's better than rounds firing in the magazine.
I don't have to do the Henry Hop with mine because I keep my left hand on the barrel just in front of the frame. I use a spacer stick that allows me to load ten rounds, we never need more than ten in CAS. With the spacer stick behind the cartridges, the follower tab never quite reaches my hand. I made my spacer stick from a piece of 1/2" dowel.
After I load ten rounds I put in the spacer stick.
After the tenth round is fired, the spacer stick keeps the tab about four inches away from the frame, so I never have to do the Henry Hop.
I changed out the factory sight on my Henry for a Buckhorn sight sold by Track of the Wolf. The sight dovetail is too close to the frame to allow a standard Marbles buckorn sight to be mounted there.
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