ursavus.elemensis
There are a couple of ways to hold a Henry. Most just grab the magazine with the left hand. There are a couple of problems with that. First, the follower has a tab that extends down through a slot in the underside of the magazine. You can see the tab on the underside of the frame in Mr Eick's first photo. You can also see the slot in the underside of the magazine. The tab is used to compress the magazine spring to load the rifle. In operation, as the follower slides backwards after every round is fed, eventually the tab will come in contact with the hand on the magazine. If the tab is blocked from travelling backwards, the rifle ceases feeding. Some guys hold the magazine so the tab will slide right between their fingers. Other guys perfect what is known as the 'Henry Hop'. After firing a few rounds the follower will have advanced enough that they can regrip behind the follower so it can continue down the magazine unimpeded. While they are regripping, the muzzle tends to jump a bit, hence the name.
The other problem with grabbing the magazine/barrel is that if you happen to be firing Black Powder, the steel can heat up a lot. On a hot summer day I keep a glove on my left hand so I don't get burned after firing 10 rounds in a hurry.
I have a steel framed 44-40 Henry identical to Mr Eick's. I grab the rifle right in front of the frame. I also use a little trick called a spacer stick. It is very unusual to load a rifle with more than 10 rounds in Cowboy Action Shooting. My spacer stick takes up the space of about 3 rounds in the magazine. By keeping my hand right at the front of the frame, the spacer stick keeps the follower tab from ever reaching my hand. The spacer stick slides right above my hand as the last rounds feed out of the magazine.
Here's how I hold it. Must have been a cool day that day.
When the Model 1866 came out, the side loading gate eliminated the need to compress the magazine spring, so the tab on the follower and the slot on the underside of the mgazine went away. Without the tab sliding along it became simple to put a wooden forestock on the barrel, and the problems of grabbing hot steel went away too.
I don't know where we're going but there's no sense being late.
