Thread: Redundant Calibres

one could add some oldies now thankfully redundant - 16 gauge shotgun ( still have Dads old 1890 hammer gun -not to be fired ) .22 short .22 birdshot most all bloody useless - although I understand the short was popular early days indoor target shooting - but some one here can answer this one -I have always wondered about -if a .22 was supposed to be for short-long and long rifle as many early .22 were stamped then surely the jump of a short from breech to rifling must give the start of rifling problems - one old remington pump .22 I had -very clear ring about 1in from breech end - I often wondered if that was to many shorts early days as it was from twenties

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

one could add some oldies now thankfully redundant - 16 gauge shotgun ( still have Dads old 1890 hammer gun -not to be fired ) .22 short .22 birdshot most all bloody useless - although I understand the short was popular early days indoor target shooting - but some one here can answer this one -I have always wondered about -if a .22 was supposed to be for short-long and long rifle as many early .22 were stamped then surely the jump of a short from breech to rifling must give the start of rifling problems - one old remington pump .22 I had -very clear ring about 1in from breech end - I often wondered if that was to many shorts early days as it was from twenties

I have a 1905 Winchester single shot .22 "Boy's Rifle". At least that's how I think of it. A lovely proportionate small 22. Bought it in Dunedin in 1980 for $25. It was well worn when I got it with a couple of cracks in the woodwork. A nice brown patina on the nickel steel. Stamped on the barrel is "22 Short-22 Long- 22 Long Rifle". I stopped shooting it with modern LR rounds after the first try as it spat powder back into your face. And it took a pocket knife or flat blade screw driver to lever the spent cartridge out of the chamber. Couldn't get or find 22 Longs but 22 shorts were easy to get. Lo and behold. That rifle was and still is a stunning tack driver with its tiny open iron sights and 22 shorts. It has cleaned up a feral cat problem in a certain city park where both Council and SPCA had washed their hands of it. Many moons ago now I hasten to add. In my hands it has knocked off a few possums and accounted for a modestpassle of hedgerow rabbits. But mostly it sits pining to be in the hands of a 12 yr old out in the paddock or in the scrub. It makes little noise and certainly does not wear a suppressor. My kids learned to shoot with it. Now my grandkids line up for a go. The lethal little 22 short is mild mannered, accurate and effective. If they still allowed it I would go hunting rats at the city dump. It's great for possums and rabbits to 25m. Headshots. I'll never willingly part with it and there's a lineup of family hoping to inherit it. I got given a couple of bricks of said 22 Short solids- target ammo. Then last year I bought a guys old stock of many hundreds of hollowpoints. The rifle was clearly fed a constant diet of shorts from new, which has led to a belling of the chamber, or maybe a groove, that LR cartridges expand into making extraction difficult. And the headspace can't handle LR pressure any more. I have other rifles to shoot LR with. Oh for the days when a 12yr old could wander the scrubby edges of gulleys and waterways with a little singleshot and a pocket full of .22 shorts. Rabbit, rat or feral cat beware.

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

one could add some oldies now thankfully redundant - 16 gauge shotgun ( still have Dads old 1890 hammer gun -not to be fired ) .22 short .22 birdshot most all bloody useless - although I understand the short was popular early days indoor target shooting - but some one here can answer this one -I have always wondered about -if a .22 was supposed to be for short-long and long rifle as many early .22 were stamped then surely the jump of a short from breech to rifling must give the start of rifling problems - one old remington pump .22 I had -very clear ring about 1in from breech end - I often wondered if that was to many shorts early days as it was from twenties

Had an old BSA bolt single shot when I was a kid we'd shoot trout with. Me and my mate would load it with a short and put the whole gun under the water, inch it close to the trout and pull the trigger. We got a lot of trout with that gun and the barrel was 'ringed' all along it's length. It think we fired long-rifles through it too - I think my mate said it was legal back then.

We did that in those 'jump across' farm streams - got some big eels out of them too.

Those 'shorts' didn't make much noise - they had their uses around houses as they didn't upset anyone - wouldn't try that with an high velocity.

Never did figure out what the 'birdshot' ones did - I shot a rat in a garage once and the bloody thing kept going ...........