Henry designed both in his spare time while he was the foreman of the New Haven Arms Company, and was granted a US patent for his creations on October 16, 1860.

Part of the Henry rifle's great success was due to the relatively novel self-contained metallic cartridge, which allowed a repeating mechanism to work.

Other breechloaders of the time often relied on a simple, separate percussion cap for ignition, just like a typical muzzleloader of the era, and often used paper or linen cartridge cases, which provided no obturation, or sealing of the breech against the expanding gases (such as the Sharps rifle).

By modern standards, the resulting effective range for the .44 Henry fired from a rifle on military targets or small to medium game would be up to 200 yards.

The ability to fire 16 rounds before reloading made the Henry's lack of long range capability even less of an issue.

The .44 Henry cartridge was perfected by George R. Stetson's U.S. Patent 120403, assigned to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company on October 31, 1871.