I like to read about the repeaters when they were used in Indian battles. I'm no history expert,but the Henry sounded like a good rifle to have at the time. I am curious of the mention of this box in a couple articles. It seems that it is a speed loader for the rifle?
Just wondering if any of the collectors here have one, and how it loaded the rounds.

Received reply from author, Quote: "The McKinch box as we named it was fun to use in Civil War reenacting. However there is no research or historical basis for it. It was very similar to the Blakeslee cartridge box that was used with the Spencer rifles and Carbines. My McKinch box holds six copper tubes holding around 14 rds of blanks. To reload all you needed to do was to open the magazine and pull out a tube of ammo from the box and dump the ammo into the magazine holding the Henry at a 45 degree angle. You could reload in a matter of seconds. With that said no one used them any more since they are not correct or authentic to the Civil War."

Apparently I read in to his articles that they were used in battles. Instead they were used for reenactments, my mistake.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rizzle,

I have never heard of such an animal for the Henry. The Spencer did have a Blakeslee quickloader. A box with tubes that held 7 rounds each to quickly load the Spencer's tubular magazine. There could have been something similar for the Henry.

I've not heard of that either. Doesn't mean anything. Just that I've not heard of it.

I don't favor the repros of the Henry. There is a reason that they made the IMPROVED Henry (called the Winchester 1866 or "Yellowboy"). Personally I prefer the NEXT revision or the 1873.

I was reading up on the original Henry, Fetterman Massacre related, where two civilians had them, apparently inflicted up to 60 possible Indian casualties.
Mentioned that the rifle was capable of 45 shots per minute with the McKinch box.
Tried to find a picture or more information online, was wondering what it looked like.
I think it would be a tube type loader, but was just curious if any of the collectors here had one.
If I get a chance I will try and contact the author of the article.