Civil War Henry rifle

[ScoPro]

I have a wall hanger Henry rifle that my late Dad bought in Mexico 35+ years ago - Serial # 84** (manufactured 1865).

Like a lot of antique fireaarms from that country, it was used hard. This one had the barrel cut off at about the point where it swiveled for loading. Some Mexican blacksmith came up with an interesting removable plug to cap the loading end. There is no magazine spring or follower. The address markings are visible, but faint. There are a couple of thumb-sized areas of deep pitting, but a lot of patina overall. The bore? Well, the rifling is visible & dark. No sights, except a notched stump for the rear location

The beat-up stock is of some wood other than walnut (I think) - almost blonde in appearance. It has a crude inlay repair on one side of the wrist, while the comb has been sanded down to a '73 profile. The serial # is present in the tang cutout where it should be, and the sling swivel base is still on the left side (no swivel though). Some shrinkage around the buttplate, and a wrist splinter on one side of the tang.

The "brass" is in pretty good shape as is the working action, although the left side is discolored on about 25% of the gunmetal.
A previous owner engraved his name on the tight plate fairly well, except not quite straight. The balance of the frame is a nice color with a few minor nicks.

It's no showpiece, but at least it's mine.

I've given some thought about having somebody like Douglas Turnbull restore it, but don't know if that's such a smart idea. The gun just oozes border history, and such a move might spoil that.

Y'all's thoughts?

[PMY]

I'd leave that damn yankee rifle "as is". Between the Civil War, frontier and Mexican history, every ding and scratch and fade is part of the story of the rife -- even if only the rifle knows the whole story. I would think that the "neat-oh" factor is much higher in the un-restored condition.

(Maybe if you had two similar rifles, you could restore one to the original condition and hang them next to each other. (Sorry if I just expanded your shopping list!))

Of course the only way to say for sure, is to see some pictures!

[ScoPro]

My Dad did a lot of collecting of old Winchester leverguns back in the 60s & early 70s when he worked for a university in Monterrey, Mexico. Over the years he bought perhaps 100 guns, most of them hard used wall hangers, with a few being decent. Of course he paid some ridiculously low prices, maybe $10 - $50 per gun. Back in those days he had no trouble transporting them by car across the border to his home in Austin, Texas. A couple of times he flew back, merely wrapping a levergun in an old cardboard box and taking it on the plane as a carryon.

He sold probably half of the guns (the "culls") for more than enough to pay for all the rest....and to finance his extensive Mexican/Spanish coin collection. Later on, he divided the remainder and gave them to me & my two older brothers. So we all have a handful of guns he collected. Each of us have at least 1 '66, several '73s, a '92, and some '94s. Picked up a few Colt handguns too. I wound up with his Henry and another brother has his Colt Burgess carbine, which is in pretty good condition. I also have some incomplete early 73's (one is serial # 8**) and a couple of small toolboxes full of old parts - mostly Win. leverparts, some Colt, and lots of odds & ends. Some of it is just junk too.

I'm thankful Dad did the collecting at that time and shared them with us, as I couldn't afford to do it myself (was a student - then later a school teacher).

[MakeMineA10mm]

I'd leave it as-is, as long as there is no on-going degradation that needs to be stopped.

For FAR less than the cost of restoration, you can buy a repro, if you were interested in shooting it.