Guns of the Wild West

1866 Winchester Rifle

The 1866 Winchester Rifle was a major technological achievement in its time and this is why it would go on to dominate the west. The 1866 Winchester was known commonly as the “Improved Henry” because it was a better version of the Henry rifle. 

The Winchester Rifle was a .44 caliber rifle, and sometimes carbine, that had a fully enclosed magazine with a loading gate on the right side of the receiver. The brass frame of the rifle is what earned it the nickname Yellowboy. California Sheriff Harry Morse and Sioux Medicine man Sitting Bull were among the most famous users of the rifle.