doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Double Rifles, Paradox Guns & Gauge Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Alexander Henry 500BPE Hammer Double Express Rifle

Fulfilled a long-time year dream recently and picked up a black powder, hammer double rifle by Alexander Henry. 500BPE with all the trimmings made as a best quality gun in 1871. I have a great interest in late 19th Century Scottish and Indian deer stalking so I've wanted one of these rifles for many a year.

I had our resident double gun guru Captain Curl check out the gun for me and it met his approval. Next I visited him up in the beautiful mountains of western Virginia and we embarked on an endeavor to make her shoot. Much bourbon, rye, hot air, H4198, case filler and lead bullets were expended in the effort.












Unlike most of the other British gunmakers in the 19th and early 20th Centuries who were shotgun makers who occasionally made rifle, Henry (like other Scots makers) was a rifle maker first and foremost and you see this in how well his rifles shoot.

I got her shooting and took her on the hill successfully stalking deer about two week ago. Few thing better than successfully stalking deer with 100 year old binoculars and a 140 year old rifle.

I loved my Henry just want one without the hammers.

Have I got a deal for you Mike,, Find me a 577 BPE rebounding hammers with underlever. I've got an AH 577/500 Mag DR.. Hammerless underlever.

I'll look around but 577s are hard to find. That is my favorite BPE caliber if it's #2.

It's the 3 1/8" case not the 2 13/16" one.

As you know I've been keeping an eye open for one also. They are around but scarce.

I do also have a T Turner 500#2 that seems to shoot very good so far. But it's a hammer/underlever rifle.

Beautiful Rifle, Astounding regulation, and it must have been a fun hunt indeed.

I know exactly what you mean regarding Alexander Henry. I dearly love my .450 BPE, hammers and all.

Best I've been able to shoot is a couple inches with 48 grs 4198 and a 300 gr projectile.

Been doing more range work with Mr. Henry. Best six shot 100 yard group is 4.5". The rifle can probably do better, I'm just not the good with a fine bead at 100 yards!

While we tend to think of all double rifles as dangerous game stoppers, we have to remember the old 450 and 500 BPEs were really generally purpose stalking rifles for stag either on the open hill in Scotland or India. These old hammer doubles can be quite accurate.

More range with the rifle today. My best 100 yards group, 2 1/4" four shot group!

I notice you're using paper patched bullets. I know the Capt is a staunch advocate of such. On your first target I can see your bullet was 335 grs but I can't make out the rest written next to it. Was it a reference to a particular mould the bullet was cast from?

I'm curious as I'm going to have to pursue regulating two .500's in the future and I'm informally compiling notes of all the info I can.

Many Thanks - Marc

Its a flat nosed Ranier 500 caliber 335gr bullet, basically a pistol bullet for 50 caliber handguns that I patch up. They work great and are cheap, but are getting hard to find now unfortunately...

On her third journey on the open hill for our chital/axis deer the Alexander Henry 500BPE express rifle finally takes a large axis stag. On her first journey way back in April last year she took an axis doe at 180 or so yards, and now on her third trip to the beautiful island of Lanai I managed to take an old fat stag at about the same distance. Spooked a small herd of 10-12 deer on a ridge. I didn't have a great deal of time so I had to make a quick shot off my monopod/shooting stick. I waited and one of the larger males in the group stopped for a moment too take a look back at us and I was able to make the shot.



He was a good old stag with one malformed antler. Fun to stalk deer with a 140 year old open sighted double

Congratulations on a great hunt. What a majestic animal taken with a lovely old rifle made by one of the truly great Scottish makers. That is my kind of hunt!

A bit off subject but what brand is the leather slip on recoil pad? How much LOP does it add?

Its from Cabelas and you can get them in different sizes: http://www.cabelas.com/product/Kick-Killer-Slip-On-Butt-Pad-with-VELCRO-brand-fastener/734596.uts

It gives just a little under 1" of length.

Thank you.

I just saw an almost exact copy of this gun sold in Canada. It was a conversion done by Henry in the same caliber. At auction it went for CAND2400. I would have purchased it except I had my eye on other items coming up later in the auction.

WOW! That's an extremely low price for a comparable gun. I mean, AN EXTREMELY LOW PRICE!!

If it truly was comparable to this DR, the buyer got a fantastic deal.

What do you mean by a conversion? From what to what?

Never mind I see that was from last Nov.

And I just saw that it was a CONVERSION done by Alex Henry....I thought the rifle WAS an Alexander Henry.

Maybe it wasn't such a fantastic deal after all...........

And I just saw that it was a CONVERSION done by Alex Henry....I thought the rifle WAS an Alexander Henry.

Maybe it wasn't such a fantastic deal after all...........

Henry didn't do any conversions that I've read about.
I suspect Tamid made a mis-statement.

The gun is an Alex Henry and it was marked on the bottom of the receiver conversion by Alex Henry. Conversion from what to what I do not know. It was suggested at the auction it was a 500 BPE. This is the description of the gun "Alexander Henry ( 12 St. Andrews St., Edinburgh , Patent # 1071 ) Side By Side Hammer .500 BPE ? Cal Double Rifle w/29" bbls [ bottom of rcvr marked " Converted by Alexander Henry, Edinburgh ", re-blued barrels w/barrel sights, fine scroll engraved rcvr & hammers, etc., case colored hammer safeties , Jones under lever, double trigger extractor, deluxe checkered walnut pistol grip stock & forend, with checkered metal butt plate, appears excellent over all ] Ser # 1708" Gun can be viewed here, http://www.wardsauctions.com/sales/2014/204-guns-2/index.htm scroll to Index 27, auction item #736A.

Skeettx,
Thanks for posting the pictures up. If anyone is in doubt of the gun don't shoot the messenger. I personally viewed the gun and all markings would indicate it is a true Alexander Henry.

I'm surprised but, that's not the first time. That's a very early looking Henry but I've never heard of those markings before. The top strap is different for a rifle. It would be interesting to have McNaughton check the records and hopefully find out what conversion was done to it. The engraving was probably done at that time also.

That is a beautiful rifle!

Conversions were quite common in the early breech loader period. I own one that has no makers marks. In that period of time it was the barrels that really held the value. Owners often wanted to able to use the new, faster breech loading system. This could be done for less expense by saving the existing barrels and often times the locks as well. As the saying goes, labor was cheap back then. I always enjoy looking over conversions in person. It gives a guy inspiration if nothing else. I'm restoring mine currently and hope to have it up and running well before this deer season. I have a feeling it has been much too long since the old gal has drawn blood and I want to change that.

Wow! So there really is a lucky guy in Canada. Man, I'd LOVE to see this gun "in the flesh". I'd love to have it as mine even more, greedy SOB that I am.

+1 conversions are fascinating in themselves. You can go around a look really carefully and see where certain parts have been re used.

I have a 14 bore under lever breach loader by Higham and Son, it was a high quality muzzle loader with highly figured wood at one time, but was later converted, retaining many original parts from the muzzle loader, some lock work must have been carried out to the original locks as its got rebounding hammers and a grip safety was added i think.

The purchaser recently listed this gun on a Canadian gun site for $6400. I don't know if it has sold or not.

That's only $5126.56 USD. One heck of a good price for we see now. IMO.

I actually did sell it. It was a beautiful rifle that I bought on a whim. I also was there buying other stuff and had not even looked at this one at the preview. It was going going for $1800 and I stepped in and got it for $2400. It was a tight gun with some pitting in the right bore but the left was perfect. I would have liked to keep it but my interests are more in shotguns. If anyone needs other photos for research I have more, email me at zipperheadpei@live.ca.