Can shot shells work as a rimfire?

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I know that similar questions have been asked before (sometimes by me) concerning many other rimmed cartridges. The answer to that question has been that it would perform poorly when compared to an otherwise identical centre fire as the case pressure of a rimfire is physically limited to ~25,000-30,000 psi. It has recently occurred to me that a shot shell may be a better place to do this conversion than a rimmed rifle cartridge as the pressure of a shot shell is ~10,000 -14,000 psi. Shot shells are also rimmed, and have to be as they are near perfectly cylindrical.
Anyone's thoughts on the logistics of doing this? Would such a large diameter of base exaggerate any problems that may arise from uneven powder burning? Would a rimfire shot shell perform the same as a centrefire shot shell?
 
I'm just waking up, so will probably have to edit post coffee...

i) There are rimfire shotshells. Although garden guns (smooth bore .22's designed for shot use) have fallen out of favour, there are still new production shot .22lr. I'm quite certain there are 9mm rimfire shotshells too (modern made by Fiocchi), but I haven't actually fired any

ii) Are you asking about making a whole new, full-sized shotgun shell that is rimfire? I suspect with time n' money, you could do anything. I don't understand why? Not only are CF designed for better/higher pressures, they can be reloaded. It would seem counter-intuitive to develop something more limited than current offerings.
 
We're talking .410 and up in size here?

One aspect is that a rimfire case needs to be fairly thin so the firing pin can dent it sharply and fairly deeply. And with the greater weight of shot shells you would run the risk of easier damage due to rough handling. A rim is also not well protected so dropping a large and fairly heavy shell onto pavement with all those firing pin like rough grains of sand might just prove more interesting than most of us would like.

And for those that reload it removes that option or at least it greatly complicates the method.

I'm sure there's other reasons why shot shells are not rimfire fired as well. But these are the ones that spring to mind at the moment.
 
If you stuff a .22LR into a straw and toss it up and let it land on a solid surface, it will go off. Now imagine you have a dozen rimfire shotshells in your pocket and you slip and fall onto a rock. How badly did you need that leg?

Anyways, as camster said; why break something that is already fixed?
 
Is this a workaround on mag limits, because I can't think of a single useful reason to do this...
 
If you stuff a .22LR into a straw and toss it up and let it land on a solid surface, it will go off. Now imagine you have a dozen rimfire shotshells in your pocket and you slip and fall onto a rock. How badly did you need that leg?

Anyways, as camster said; why break something that is already fixed?

I did not know that about rimfires now I know. That alone would disqualify any serious attempt to make such a design on safety concerns.
 
Is this a workaround on mag limits, because I can't think of a single useful reason to do this...


Yes this was an attempt to work around magazine limits. And before someone says that I should invest my efforts into campaigning for the removal of magazine limits, remember that the phrase "magazine limit" is very politically lucrative. Magazine limits will likely not go away any time soon.
 
Yes this was an attempt to work around magazine limits. And before someone says that I should invest my efforts into campaigning for the removal of magazine limits, remember that the phrase "magazine limit" is very politically lucrative. Magazine limits will likely not go away any time soon.

pump actions have no mag limits ;)
 
If you can't put it down with what is in the magazine now, you won't put it down with twice as many rounds...

You need practice, not more rounds in the magazine.
 
Develop and manufacture an entirely new cartridge, just to work around the semi auto magazine cap?
 
It'd be less of a chore to build/convert existing semis over to .22 Mag.

It doesn't quite have the legs of a .223, but for rapidly punching holes in paper at 25 yards, I doubt you'd notice a difference. For that matter, even a .22lr...

I assume if swapping mags every 5 rounds is so unappealing to you that you'd consider creating a new rifle round, give up on that and downgrade to a shotgun shell you'd have to reinvent... That you're not the type of person that's concerned with long range accuracy anyway.


Just go buy this with a drum mag from a sponsor, for 1/10000th of what your route would cost.

[youtube]A7dFinOzUI[/youtube]
 
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