Alexander Henry rifle....

[flintsteel]

Many years ago there was a feller--I think in the Northwest--who was producing a kit for a Alexander Henry style rifle.  My feeble memory recalls a name of Don Brown.  Is he still around?  Anyone have an address?

[Dave B]

He lives in Yakima WA. and I got his phone number from information once and lost it now. I talked with him a number of years ago and he was still dabbling with the rifle stuff but the sad truth is that is going on 10+ years ago. It may still be availble though information.

[Larry Pletcher]

Bob Roller told us on another forum that Don Brown had passsed away.  I looked for a date but couldn't find it - since the new year, I think.

Regards,
Pletch

[Don Getz]

Larry......While I ran the barrel shop, I made many barrels for him for that Alex Henry rifle.  I used to do the barrels unrifled, then send them down to Ken Owen in Memphis who used to do the Henry rifling, just like the origiinals.  I can
remember that he did have some health problems at the time.  I think he was older than me, which makes it about the
age of rock.  I have a target version of his kit over in the shop, it is just about completely assembled.  It was one of the
most difficult guns I ever put together.   Mark Silver has one that he completed, a great gun.  I was amazed when he said the same thing about putting it together.  I would like to hear from someone about his demise, if true, we have lost a
super gun builder, his work was very, very good.   Always enjoyed talking to him............Don

[Ron Scott]

Joe Williams of The Gun Works told me that Don Brown had passed away. I will try to remember to call him today for details. One of my customers may have a set of parts. Will post if that is the case.

[larrydavid]

Gentlemen,

    I am new to this forum. One of your members started this thread to help me get some information on the Alex Henry Muzzleloading kits. I have since found out that Mr Brown has indeed passed away. I think that it was January of this year. Does anyone have a picture of one of them that he could sent to me or post. Also, what made the kits so difficult to build?

   Thanks for your help.

       Larry Davidson      larry.davidson@sbcglobal.net

[flintsteel]

Welcome to the board, Larry.  You'll find an awful lot of information here and I suspect more information will crop up about the Henry rifle.  I suggest you go to Mark Silver's web site, http://msilverartisan.com/ and contact him.  Mark is a super nice feller who has built a couple of great rifles for me.  See ya back on the doublegun BBS.

[Dave B]

I think the complication of the fitting of the breach,forelock bar and the lock in relation to one another into the wood with out getting any gaps. It has tobe perfect. It is highly visible area and you can't fudge the fit. The hammer must hit the nipple exactly  right when the lock is seated against the standing breach. Its just alittle off so you will have to putz with the hammer to get it to fit correctly once every thing else is perfectly inlet. The set trigger is copied from an original and requires careful assembly. I used one of Don's single triggers on a rifle I built as a speck gun for Joe Williams many years ago. It was a very fussy kit to assemble and only with alot of careful tweeking did I finally get them to function properly. I believe they were copied from an orignial rifle that he had.

[T*O*F]

Does anyone have a picture of one of them that he could sent to me or post

what made the kits so difficult to build?

The tang has to be perfectly inlet.  There is a screw which comes thru the trigger guard and threads into the standing breech.  The tang screw threads into a post on the trigger bar.  Both these holes have to be accurately drilled and threaded because if they are at the slightest angle you will screw it up and miss.  This is further complicated by the fact that all the screw are tapered English screws so you need tapered holes for them.  The whole architecture of the gun depends on the exact  installation of the tang, with no margin for error.

[keweenaw]

It's too bad that Don has passed on.  His "kits" were truly first class.  The photos below are of one that I put together two years ago.  Getting the standing breech exactly right is a chore and there is just lots of inletting that has to be done exactly right and general architecture to consider to make the piece look first class.  This one was engraved by Bruce LePage.

[Robby]

Snyder, That, is just beautiful!!
    Robby

[larrydavid]

Thanks for displaying the pictures. Beautiful work! What caliber is it?
Did it come with a stock that was semi-inletted?

[Ben I. Voss]

Wow, Snyder, now that is my idea of the perfect (caplock) hunting rifle! Fabulous!

[keweenaw]

The rifle is a 58 cal. designed for round ball.  Don Brown supplied a precarved stock, in which everything has to be finished inlet - like that pineapple on the trigger plate!  Putting it all together was a fun project but took lots of time.  The idea was to have it look just like it would have coming out of Henry's shop in the 1850's, including the stock finish.  LePage got a bit carried away on the excellent engraving and put that large spiraled scroll on the butt plate that he copied from an original Lancaster so a few departures from the Henry.  He said he just couldn't stand to let all the perfectly polished metal go unengraved.  I'm starting to work on a Rigby in a similar vein that will be stocked from scratch using some parts from TRS and Track.  While a pistol grip would be appropriate for the Rigby, I liked that spur guard so much that I'm using one on the current project.  I have no idea where to get the tapered wood screws that Don Brown provided for the buttplate or where to get the milled, hollow underrib.

Tom

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Splendid work, indeed!  A pleasure to behold.

[Robby]

I think I remember the term "English flat top checkering"used here, would this be an example of that? Would that style engraving be considered "English" and would it be appropriate for a flinter of similar design?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

yes, yes and yes.

[Robby]

Thank you Taylor. I have never done any kind of checkering, so it will be a challenge. Engraving(?), sometimes I can man-up, and even surprise myself, ah well, if you don't stick your neck out, you'll never know how far you can see. I have an English sporting rifle still in the planning, got a nice piece of English walnut from Mr. Dunlop, never worked with that kind of wood before either. Should be fun!
Robby

[ahenryrifle]

Hi, I am new to the forum. I discovered while searching for Don Brown and Henry Rifle.
I am Don's son-in-law, Roger Ingalsbe.
Don did indeed pass away February 21st. If you would like to see his obiturary and photos of Don, you can see it at mem.com search for Don Brown and his is on the 3rd page.

I am helping sell the remaining parts/kits, tooling, molds, stock machine, etc. from the Alex Henry rifle he so lovingly recreated. We have 1 complete rifle for sale (his first) and I am checking, maybe a few kits left and there are quite a few parts left including those famous tapered thread screws.

You are welcome to correspond with me about anything regarding Don or his Henry rifles.
reingalsbe@yahoo.com.
Please put in the subject line Don Brown.
Thank you all and we all miss him.

As we say, Don's not here, he's gone huntin'.

[PINYONE]

Those rifles are really fine- appears to me that Lepage is quite the engraver,