One to ponder

[Alpo]

Henry is making a smooth bore 22 long rifle lever gun. A garden gun, for using rat shot on rabbits and squirrels in the garden.

 

Since it is smooth bore, doesn'tDOES IT have to have an 18 inch barrel? It has an 18 and a half, and when I saw the length listed is when I wondered.

 

If you get a Mossberg 12 gauge with a rifled barrel, you can't cut it to 16 inches. Even if the barrel is rifled, they still consideredCONSIDER IT a shotgun and the shortest it can be is 18.

 

Using that same rationale, since the gun is chambered in 22 long rifle, even if it is a smooth bore it should be legally considered a rifle, and you should be able to have it at 16 inches.

 

Of course, logic ain't got nothing to do with the government.

[watab kid]

we shall see when the almighty ATF rules im sure , , these were quite common in europe/england back when , they are a fun collector segment in 22s but go very high prices as demand is high , ive accumualted 22s for a long time now - i think id buy one just because , id never shoot my squill and bunnys till i needed them for food [they are delicious properly prepared] but id like to add one to the cabinet ....might need another soon , 

[Still hand Bill]

4 hours ago, Alpo said:

Henry is making a smooth bore 22 long rifle lever gun. A garden gun, for using rat shot on rabbits and squirrels in the garden.

 

Since it is smooth bore, doesn'tDOES IT have to have an 18 inch barrel? It has an 18 and a half, and when I saw the length listed is when I wondered.

 

If you get a Mossberg 12 gauge with a rifled barrel, you can't cut it to 16 inches. Even if the barrel is rifled, they still consideredCONSIDER IT a shotgun and the shortest it can be is 18.

 

Using that same rationale, since the gun is chambered in 22 long rifle, even if it is a smooth bore it should be legally considered a rifle, and you should be able to have it at 16 inches.

 

Of course, logic ain't got nothing to do with the government.

 

I am going by memory, so I may be wrong on some of the fine points, but I believe per the law a rifle is defined as a shoulder fired weapon with rifled barrel.  Because it’s smooth bore it’s not a rifle. It could be an aow or a shotgun.  
 

Shotgun is a shoulder fired smooth bore to fire pellets or balls.  Part of the whole shotgun is more than a .500” bore is prohibited unless a shot gun with sporting use.  This is why we can have 12, 20, and 28 ga shotguns.  Also the 12 ga in question is designed to fire a cartridge that is usually pellets or balls, part of the definition of shotgun.   
 

where it gets interesting is a smooth bore pistol.  That becomes an aow as a pistol fires a bullet.   It it fires shot it’s not a pistol.  This is why guns that fire 410’s are almost always rifled. Makes them a pistol instead of an aow or short barreled shotgun. 

[Buckshot Bob]

If they keep their current track record going you can be assured whatever their interpretation of the law is today it will change in the future to turn you into a criminal 

[Widder, SASS #59054]

Do you think that dead squirrel or rabbit will care whether it was shot with a 16" or 18" barrel?

 

I doubt it..   Besides..... I thought you lost that rifle in a boating accident.   

 

..........Widder

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

How deep does the rifling have to be?  Just asking out of curiosity.

[Alpo]

My guess is visible.

 

These 45 Colt/410 shotgun pistols are legal because they are basically a 45 Colt pistol with an extremely long chamber. A 45 Colt round is what - inch and a half, inch and 3/4 long. Somewhere in there. But they make the gun with a two and a half inch chamber and now it'll accept the 410 shotshell. But it's a 45 Colt pistol. Now if it's got real deep rifling to give the bullet a good spin and make it accurate, it's going to put a good spin on the shot charge and it will come out the barrel spinning, which will give you a nice donut shaped pattern. With a hole in the middle. So they make the rifling very shallow, so it doesn't disrupt the pattern.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

.22 rat shot is virtually worthless. Buddy of mine used to have cedar trees against his house full of sparrows. We were probably in high school, we decided to eliminate them one night. He had a Ruger Single Six 6" or so. We'd shine a flashlight in their sleeping eyes and shoot them at A FOOT OR TWO and they'd fly off. He had dozen or two and said "Those things ain't worth a $h!t" and flung 'em. A smoothbore .22 to shoot those things sounds about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

JHC

[Alpo]

There are two kinds of shot. You got the CCI stuff, with a little number 12 dust in a plastic nose cap. In my experience that stuff is worthless.

 

Then there is the Remington stuff, in the extra long case with the mouth crimped shut so it looks like a blank. I believe that is number 9. It does pretty good.

 

 

Remington used to make a short range skeet game. They called it Mo-skeet-o. You had little clay targets, about the size of a silver dollar, and you shot them using smooth bore 22 rifles and that Remington 22 shot.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

I think they were the crimped in Winchesters, but that was many moons ago. In my younger days I spent a lot of time stomping around in snake country around here, always searching for a good portable snake medicine. Never really found it. I've tried .38 Spl, .44 Spl. and .45 ACP snake loads, none of them seemed much punkin. Even had a Cobra .45/410 combo deringer, it wasn't much punkin either. Just miserable to shoot, even with the 2 1/2 inch shells, the 3 inch would 'bout rip yer hand off. Worse part was it never seemed to hit the same place twice in a row. With the 3 inch there was maybe 1/2 inch of barrel left. Was a matter of luck to hit a beer can at 10 feet. Finally sold it at a garage sale. I have a T/C Contender, always wanted a .45/.410 barrel for it, but a 10" Contender is not a real handy weapon to lug around.

JHC

[Rip Snorter]

I just use regular bullets.  Draw snakes on a couple of grocery bags and practice a bit.  Shot quite a few rattlers down the years.  A long handled shovel is just as good, but I don't carry one of those.