doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Alex Henry with detachable front target sight?

An Alexander Henry right side hammer rifle in 450 #2 has come to live with me. It is of about mid 1870s vintage and is somewhat unusual in that it is fitted with a detachable rear long range tang sight. The sight is not made to come down low enough to be used with the front sight at anything less than 4 or 5 hundred yards and the rifle has the usual barrel mounted 2 leaf and a slide bar rear sight. Pondering this I started looking at the front sight which seemed a bit odd to me. It is obviously original but just a very small square sided and ended block with a bead and set well back from the muzzle. The interesting thing is that the sight block has a hole running through its base. I could well see a detachable and higher front sight that would sit on the block and fasten through the hole and possibly even have a wind gauge adjustment. Since the 450 #2 was a popular target cartridge of the period it stands to reason that the rifle could have been ordered with, in effect, 2 sets of sights. The barrel also appears to have a very fast twist that was used with the heavy target bullets. Has anyone seen anything like this or a Henry with an odd holed front sight? While I'm writing, does anyone have a spare set of 450 #2 (500/450 #2 Musket to use one of its longer names) loading dies sitting around the house?

Thanks, Brent. In the meanwhile, I have received CH4D dies (they were in stock!), formed 100 50-90 Starline brass, and loaded them for fireforming. Soon, boom! By the way, I have heard from Richard Brown (Henry's great, great, grandson) that my rifle is in the shop book as "an express and long range rifle". Thank you again, Richard. The tang sight is a typical Henry long range sight and the front sight would have been something special with windage so would have been attached to the atypical express sight base, both front and rear long range sights being quick detachable. Unfortunately, the front was quick enough to detach that it did so and has wandered off in the last 147 years. Oh, that's the other info from Richard - it was purchased by a John Boyden on 19 May, 1874.

Got out to the range yesterday and one of the two smokeless loads I had picked from the ladder test put 7 shots at 100 yards into a little over 1.5 inches, so a good start there. I also shot ladder tests with black powder and the 480 and 535 grain bullets. I have to say that touching off a 535 grain bullet and 86 grains of black gets you attention in the 8 pound 9 3/4 ounce rifle!

Brent says to try this. Thanks, Brent.