Henry Lever Action Smoothbore .22 Garden Gun

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

What are you thoughts on this Shotgun for SHOOTING squirrels?

 

 

https://www.henryusa.com/shotgun/garden-gun-smoothbore-22/

 

 

 

 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

I'm in favor of ANYTHING to shoot squirrels with.

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

It's a little big for their tiny hands. 

 

[Widder, SASS #59054]

My pet squirrel prefers an All Weather model to help prevent rusting.

 

..........Widder

 

[DeaconKC]

With the little shot shells, maybe. The rifle is useless with solid bullets.

[Pat Riot]

With .22 shot shells? No, I wouldn’t.

I would go with a .410 at least. 
 

Why did I say no to the .22? You’ll probably wound one with it. Has your wife ever heard a squirrel scream? She might and guess who’s gonna be Mr. Bad Guy? 

[Rip Snorter]

Search English Garden Guns and Rook Rifles for background.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Just from the thumbnails shown, I wouldn't use it past about 10 yards.  Maybe 6 or 7 yards.  Which is what I suspect it's designed for.  With a name like "Garden Gun" you know it's not for long, or even medium, range.

Now I'll go watch the video.

ADDED:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_gun

 

 

9mm Flobert[edit]

9mm Flobert shot, 9mm Flobert shot, .22 Long Rifle shot, .22 Long Rifle, .22 Long Rifle shot, .22 CB Short, and 9 mm Flobert BB cap

In Europe, garden guns designed for the 9mm Flobert rimfire shotshell cartridge are common,^[5] and face very little to no restriction, even in countries with strict gun laws.^{[citation needed]} Its power and range are very limited, making it suitable only for pest control.^[6] Fiocchi-made 9mm Flobert rimfire ammunition uses a 1.75" brass shotshell firing 1/4 oz shot of No. 8 shot with a velocity of 600 fps.

 

.22 Rimfire[edit]

In North America, garden guns are usually chambered for .22 Rimfire and the most common cartridge is a .22 Long Rifle or .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire loaded with No. 12 shot. From a standard rifle, these cartridges can produce effective patterns only to a distance of about 3 m (9.8 ft), but in a smooth bore garden gun, this can extend as far as 15 m (49 ft).

Examples of smooth-bore firearms include the: Marlin Model 25MG,^[2][3][4][1] Remington Model 511SB, Winchester Model 67, and the Henry Garden Gun.

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

I grew up as a kid with a .22 Ruger three screw .

I started hunting all small game with a pistol. 

So of course as I turned 18.

I got a 44 magnum in a  Ruger Blackhawk .

 

.22 + .22 = 44 right lol 

22 for small game and 44 for large game .

 

I'm about 99.9 % sure hunting with the shotshells will produce 0 food , maybe a bird .

Useless unless killing Bats or Birds inside of the barn.

[Sedalia Dave]

Like SDJ said, you're going to have to be awfully close to kill a squirrel and even, then you may end up just wounding it.

 

Lots better options that will humanely dispatch a squirrel.. 

[Rye Miles #13621]

I don’t have a garden and I can’t discharge any type of firearm in my city so this is useless for me. Not good for home defense either. 

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

Thanks everyone for the input.
Currently I'm 85% effective in dispatching the squirrels that are eating the bird seed left for our fine feathered friends. 
I use my Stoeger break barrel .22 pellet rifle with scope

shooting this ammo of choice.

 

 

Most are killed within the 12 ft distance from the back enclosed patio to the feeders, with the furthest confirmed kill at 60 ft.

I'm currently known in the squirrel community as "The Great White Hunter"

Black snakes abound in our yard and are left to take care of themselves.
Our other objective is to rid the yard of flea carriers such as opossums and raccoons as well as the armadillo yard destroyers. These last three are shot with my Henry Silver Boy.22cal.

Fortunately we have not seen any of them for over a year.

[Pat Riot]

I never bother the animals around my house unless they give me a reason to shoot them or relocate them. 
Battling squirrels in NC was an effort in futility. After killing a couple they got the point to stay off the bird feeders. That and my Brittany  Spaniel kept them hopping. 
 

[Trigger Mike]

When I lived in a subdivision squirrels got in my attic so I loaded my ruger 10/22 with shot shells and killed a couple of them.  It was useless if they were across the yard so I put shot shells in my lever action 45 colt and tagged them better but it was louder.  Evidently my neighbors were scared and called the cops and I was told

i I couldn’t shoot even BB guns .  I moved to the country where everyone around me shoots regularly and now I use whatever I want to.  
 

now if I shoot everyone else starts shooting as well like animals calling each other 

[Pat Riot]

1 hour ago, Trigger Mike said:

When I lived in a subdivision squirrels got in my attic so I loaded my ruger 10/22 with shot shells and killed a couple of them.  It was useless if they were across the yard so I put shot shells in my lever action 45 colt and tagged them better but it was louder.  Evidently my neighbors were scared and called the cops and I was told

i I couldn’t shoot even BB guns .  I moved to the country where everyone around me shoots regularly and now I use whatever I want to.  
 

now if I shoot everyone else starts shooting as well like animals calling each other 

When I first moved here to WV some poor lady got disoriented and drove through our back fence in the middle of the night.

The police arrived and while we were all standing around waiting for a tow truck I asked one of the officers what the law was for shooting pests within the city limits. (I live in a small town outside of Morgantown)

He said “Well, if you have to shoot an animal just do it and give us a call so we know about it…Wait, you are talking about animals and not people, right?”

I almost fell down laughing. 
Though I haven’t had to shoot any pests it’s good to know the police here aren’t all uptight. 

[watab kid]

i like my garden guns but the shot wont kill squils - small birds maybe , but they are a lot of fun so i say go for it - you will scare them squils if you hit em , 

[Alpo]

A few years ago I went on safari in my attic. This is a copy of my ledger entry for that hunt.

 

 

I was hunting rats, in my attic. Now, for y'all that ain't never been in a "typical Florida house", let me explain "attic". The peak of my roof is approximately four feet above my ceiling. The slope of it means that I have room to move, in an area approximately three feet wide, running down the centerline of my house. Can't stand up, so I either crouch, while doing the tightrope routine on the 2x6, or crawl, on the 2x6.

 

So, I put on my nytril gloves, get my garbage bag (to take my trophies to the street in), put in my earplugs (so I don't go deaf), strap on my trusty 22 (loaded with CCI shot loads - don't want to be shooting holes in my house if I miss), turn on my headlamp and start up the ladder.  Just in case there is something large up there (like a possum, maybe) I have a 45 revolver under my arm, also loaded with CCI shot loads. These, however, have #9s instead of #12s, and have both a larger load and a heavier powder charge.

 

Once I get up there, I look around at the evidence of little furry brother's residence. Lots of evidence, but no little furry brother. So, balancing carefully on the 2x6, I start down the length of the house, looking from side to side.

 

Oh, look. There's a rat nest. Br'er Rat lives there. But he's not home. Where at he? Keep on. Get all the way to the back of the house. See one of Br'er Rat's ancestors. Musta been an Egyptian rat, 'cause he's a mummy.

 

Get to where the house originally stopped.  An addition had been built, years back. To get to the addition, you pass through a doorway, cut in the original eaves. Maybe two feet wide. I decide I don't want to go through. I look through the door. Br'er Rat, sitting on top of the gable vent. Damn, he's big. Probably go five pounds, maybe more. I've seen chihuahua dogs that weren't that big.

 

I forget all about the 45. Good thing, too, 'cause if I'da pulled it, I'da never got it back in the shoulder rig. Not enough room to move. I pull the 22.

 

PAP. Br'er Rat jumps, then turns and heads left (south), across the gable window. As he starts down the left side of the window, PAP. Br'er Rat jumps down to the ceiling and heads towards the south edge of the roof, then takes another left and heads east, then another left, now heading north, back towards me. I hold my fire, 'til he's about three feet away. PAP.

 

Br'er Rat jumps in the air, and changes direction again, now heading SW, toward the west wall.  He gets to the wall, and turns right, heading north.

 

PAP. He jumps, but keeps on north. At about three feet, while he's crossing in front of me, PAP. Br'er Rat jumps again, and runs off to the north wall, where he disappears into the shadows.

 

I shot ol' Br'er Rat FIVE times. And, since he jumped each time, I figger I hit him FIVE times. Guess I just didn't hit him hard enough. 'Course, I'll know for sure about day after tomorrow. If I did get him good, that's about when he'll start to stink.

 

Lessons learned: CCI 22 shot loads suck. I've got some empty 44 capsules somewhere around here. I'll load me up some of them, and stick 'em in that 696, for my next safari.

 

I'm in worse shape than I thought I was. Just the crawling around up there, and having to keep my balance so I didn't go through the Sheetrock, left me shaking, and with a pulse of waaay over a hundred, when I got down.

 

Shoulder holster is a waste of time, up there. Space too cramped. Need two hands to reholster, and don't have two hands available (need one to hold on, so don't step off 2x6).

 

 

 

Now, maybe you would get some distance and killing power with a smooth bore, unlike that 1⅞-inch rifled barrel I was using.

 

I have heard that the Remington crimped full length brass shot loads are good. But I have never used them. But you do not want to waste your time or your money on the CCI 22 rat shot. It is useless.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

A little over 50 years ago, my buddy and I bought an old log cabin/cottage, right on the water, on a beautiful trout lake.

(Real problems with the "Authorities" after that, but that's another tale!)

No electricity, it used plumbed in propane lights.

Our wives had gone to bed while Bill and I sat up with some Irish.

It was early spring and a little too cool. so we decided to light a fire in the stone fireplace.

Sitting there, communing with Bushmills, we started to see mice bailing out of the nooks and crannies of the holes around the stones in the fireplace.

Out came a couple of .22 Browning Challengers with bird shot with which we tried to end the attack of the mouse horde.

Strangely, it woke Sherron and Eileen. who were somewhat ......disturbed and said ................unkind things to us.

We later decided to use Warfarin around and under the place and plugged the holes, in the fireplace with cement.

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

On 5/13/2024 at 5:06 AM, Father Kit Cool Gun Garth said:

Thanks everyone for the input.
Currently I'm 85% effective in dispatching the squirrels that are eating the bird seed left for our fine feathered friends. 
I use my Stoeger break barrel .22 pellet rifle with scope

shooting this ammo of choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice looking air rifle.  And interesting pellets.  About $15/tin?  

I don't know why air guns aren't more popular in the US.  They're fun, inexpensive to shoot, and a good way to keep up your skills.  

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

3 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Nice looking air rifle.  And interesting pellets.  About $15/tin?  

Looks like about twice that,

https://www.pyramydair.com/product/h-n-hornet-pellets-22-cal-16-grains-pointed-200ct?p=1206

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

I order them from Amazon.