Smoothbore barrels for .22LR rifles?

[JohnnyPython]

My Henry GG doesn’t like feeding those CCI plastic cap birdshot. Crimped birdshot feeds better.

 

[skwerl]

I think the Stevens Sparrow Gun is ''choked'' down , should slug it and see.

 

[Longwalker]

There is a huge difference between .22 birdshot fired from a rifled bore vs a proper smooth bore. I owned a Remington single shot bolt that was designed for shot cartridges, smooth bore and it may have had a little choke too. Wow that thing was deadly on barn sparrows, pigeons and rats. About 4x the range of a rifled bore gun with the same cartridges. A smoothbore .22 is a worthwhile tool for pest control.

 

[brybenn]

I found I much prefer the 9mm flobert for small pests. Bit louder but alot more effective

 

[Ardent]

Grew up on a large commercial farm, we used the Winchester crimped brass .22 shot shells a good deal inside the barns on mice and birds and they were very handy. All we had was a rifled .22, but it worked fine, shots were very close. I wouldn’t call them useless, they just have a very specific application, indoor use at close range. On mice we’d shoot the concrete floor right in front of them, and get them on the skip, flattened out the pattern into a flattened little wave of #12 shot at their altitude and made hitting quite easy.

I probably would have loved a smoothbore .22 back then, but no chance I’d put a smoothbore barrel on a semi, won’t cycle and will jam it. I put of few of those winchesters through a Nylon 66 back then, and they’d stick in the chamber as it didn’t have enough ejection force to pull the expanded crimp free from the chamber.

 

[Longwalker]

Ardent, our backgrounds are very similar. Agree with your assessment of the usefulness of the cartridge. I shot many many of the CIL, Winchester, and Remington crimped #12 shot cartridges through a Browning FN Trombone that had to serve as our sparrow/rat gun for use inside the barns before a proper smoothbore could be acquired. We found out it actually helps not to clean the bore of a rifled gun. Eventually the lead shot fills in the rifling somewhat and the pattern improves. I remember cleaning that old rifle once and the patterns went back to crap again. A smoothbore was so much better - wow. Immediately apparent. Never went back to shooting shot through a rifled bore.

 

[Archer Sam]

Mossberg made a whole series of 22 smoothbore Targo models that even included a thrower and clay pigeons.
https://home.epix.net/~damguy/targo.htm

 

[dugasgunner]

This gets me to thinking, could a good gunsmith remove the rifling from a beater 22 to make a garden gun? Anyone heard of this? Might be cheaper than buying a Henry

Absolutely. I have a Cooey 600 in the process of getting the rifling reemed out by my gunsmith. Looking foward to see the result!!

 

[guntech]

I once had a factory 22 smooth bore .22 LR ... I thought it would be a neat gun for really small birds... an absolute waste of time and money ... if you are really close you might kill a sparrow.