.22 Long Rifle shot barrel

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Potashminer

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I have an existing single shot .22 Long Rifle that the lands have seen better days. I was considering to ream it out to a "smooth bore" to use lead shot in it. Unfortunately, I can not seem to find a reamer for removing rifling from a barrel. SAAMI specs a shot shell bore to be 0.217" - the groove diameter of a rifled barrel is spec'd at 0.222" - so if I reamed to standard groove size, that would be 0.005" larger than "standard shot" diameter. Does anyone have any suggestions where to acquire such a reamer?
 
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Check Amazon.
I've been thinking about making a .22 smoothbore. Got a piece of 5/16" OD seamless tubing with a .215" bore, and reamed a chamber. Just waiting for the right .22 to show up (cheap with poor bore).
 
Potashminer said:
I have an existing single shot .22 Long Rifle that the lands have seen better days. I was considering to ream it out to a "smooth bore" to use lead shot in it. Unfortunately, I can not seem to find a reamer for removing rifling from a barrel. SAAMI specs a shot shell bore to be 0.217" - the groove diameter of a rifled barrel is spec'd at 0.222" - so if I reamed to standard groove size, that would be 0.005" larger than "standard shot" diameter. Does anyone have any suggestions where to acquire such a reamer?
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Browning now uses a bore of 0.742", 0.013" [1.8%] larger than the long-standard 0.729" 12 bore measurement, for its 12 gauge barrels [they call it back-boring]. Why would your 0.005" [2.2%] larger "back-bored" 0.222" .22 LR shot barrel be any worse? Coincidentally, Browning's 20 bore guns measure 0.640", instead of the long standard 0.640". A difference of 2.2%.

Further, why not only run the reamer to a point ~1.5"-2.0" back from the muzzle, so that you wind up with some choke, albeit rifled choke?
 
if someone gets this figured out, I wud send them a 22 to do.
Meantime I bought a 9mm flobert which works awesome for my needs.
ammo a bit pricey and hard to come by but u only need one round per grouse.
 
jamesharrison said:
Browning now uses a bore of 0.742", 0.013" [1.8%] larger than the long-standard 0.729" 12 bore measurement, for its 12 gauge barrels [they call it back-boring]. Why would your 0.005" [2.2%] larger "back-bored" 0.222" .22 LR shot barrel be any worse? Coincidentally, Browning's 20 bore guns measure 0.640", instead of the long standard 0.640". A difference of 2.2%.

Further, why not only run the reamer to a point ~1.5"-2.0" back from the muzzle, so that you wind up with some choke, albeit rifled choke?
Click to expand...
I like that idea of "back bore - so a drill bit of 7/32" into the muzzle would be 0.21875" - if I can grind the drill bit cutting edge accurately and no wobble when drilling. I would go perhaps 1.5" or so into the muzzle - then the 0.2220" reamer from through the chamber to that point - that would give me a bit of constriction near the muzzle end. Maybe drill with the bit first into the muzzle - I might have to solder a rod to the bit and drive it all the way through to the chamber - that would knock off a good amount of the rifling - I think. Then a reamer in from the chamber end to "smooth the bore" up to where I want the constriction to be - I would probably have to be soldering another rod to the chucking reamer, anyways.
 
I experimented with smooth bore .22 shot barrels... had a few of them. Gave it up due to the poor performance. It will work somewhat okay at very close range. Mice maybe but it never worked on grouse. You could see shot dust all around them but the shot is so small they always flew away to probably die a slow death.
 
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I shot many hundreds of barn ( English sparrows, House sparrows) sparrows with .22 shot shells. They were a pest in our turkey barns. Range had to be close, patterns were pathetic. Then I got a smoothbore Remington Targetmaster single shot bolt action that was purpose built for shooting tiny clay pigeons. It was amazing how good it worked compared to firing shot shells in a rifled bore. I could cleanly kill sparrows at 50 feet, and pigeons at about 30. Compared to about a third of that distance with a rifled bore. I agree with guntech, the #12 shot in those shells is way too small for grouse. But getting a smoothbore .22 is a worthy project for controlling pests like rats, sparrows, starlings, and even close range pigeon shooting. I suspect though that you really need a purpose built barrel. The wad in a .22 shot shell is usually just a bit of felt. Not an expandable plastic cup gas seal like in most modern shot shells. In my opinion it would be way too easy for gas to blow by and wreck patterns in an overbored barrel.
Real smoothbore .22 barrels do exist, I've seen a few and owned one. Good luck in your quest.
 
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