The most useless but beautiful .22 rifle I have seen.

[Hokkmike]

Was window shopping at a LGS. Very nice folks. Checking out the .22 rifles I came across a laminated green Henry .22 rimfire lever action rifle. It was priced at $490. A little much I thought, but do-able. The gun was gorgeous. And then I noticed the tag said, "smooth bore - shot shell only". The owner showed me his ample supply of .22 shot shell ammo. But, the rifle is not suitable for target shooting, small game, or much else. A snake gun he told me. I suppose rats too, if they are a problem in your area. As far as SD goes it would be just irritating enough to enrage an already mad intruder.

 

[mcb]

Sort of a specialty but that gun would be outrageous fun in a barn infested with mice, rats and pigeons. Trust me steel BB's from a BB gun are a bad plan in that setting especially in the lower levels with expose stone foundation.

 

[someguy2800]

useless to you perhaps

 

[Hokkmike]

useless to you perhaps

You are correct.

 

[Seedy Character]

Skeet shoot?

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

The smooth bore are called garden guns. My LGS sells them too,

 

[jmorris]

Yeah, I think I’d rather grab a hoe for snakes than a .22 LR shotshell in anything. Both have the same effective range.

 

[Bcwitt]

Skeet shoot?

More like MOskeeto shoot.

 

[Bcwitt]

It is good medicine for pests inside your perimeter. ( garage, shop, garden etc.)

 

[Chuck R.]

More like MOskeeto shoot.

Maybe in the lower 48, in AK you'd be under gunned.

 

[Gordon]

Yeah, I think I’d rather grab a hoe for snakes than a .22 LR shotshell in anything. Both have the same effective range.

Not with a Rutledged Choked smooth bore ! I have an Anschutz one that will kill the biggest rat to 50+ feet and about the same for ground Squirrels. My old Remington Smooth bore will do almost as well and you would be shocked with the accuracy of regular .22LR in it to 50 feet and maybe rabbit sized groups at 100 feet !

 

[jdsingleshot]

Love to have a smoothbore .22 for carpenter bees...

 

[Hokkmike]

More like MOskeeto shoot.

My brother has a little rifle that shoots salt crystals for flying insects.

 

[someguy2800]

Demonstration of pattern size of a smooth bore 22 vs rifled barrel.

 

[45/30-06OKIE]

Maybe in the lower 48, in AK you'd be under gunned.

Mosquitos in Oklahoma get huge lol. Like they escaped from Chernobyl or something!

 

[PapaG]

My brother and I had a Remington pump with the Routlege bore. 22 shot deadly on sparrow and starlings to 20 yards or so.

 

[PistoleroWadcutterGANG]

A lever smoothbore would make cleaning up around feed / Cow / chicken farm buildings pretty fun. (or a really nice air rifle)

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

In the Depression era, major manufacturers made smoothbore variants of their regular .22s to be sold as "gallery guns" for use in circus carnival shooting galleries. The lack of cut rifling made them cheaper to produce and buy, the ranges were very short, and it was not in the carnivals best interest for them to be particularly accurate.

 

[tactikel]

.22 shot shells are great for shooting pigeons in barns. You can keep them from shi##ing all over farm equipment but you are not punching holes in the roof.

 

[redneck2]

There used to be smooth bore .22’s made for shooting mini skeet

when I was a kid we used .22 rat shot on the farm. Great for pigeons and rats

 

[PapaG]

There used to be smooth bore .22’s made for shooting mini skeet

when I was a kid we used .22 rat shot on the farm. Great for pigeons and rats

Mossberg Mo-Skeet-O with a trap mounted on the barrel. Mini birds.

 

[kennedy]

we use smooth bores at our indoor turkey shoot at the american legion, we shoot federal 22 shot shells at 16 feet. I use the same ammo in my high standard 9 shot revolver on rats around my chicken coop, good for 25 feet.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Skeet shoot?

Well, I was going to post a joke about using potato chips for skeet and then redneck mentioned there used to be mini skeet and they would use .22s for those. Well, come to find out, mini skeet is still a thing. There is a championship circuit. Nobody appears to be using .22s, however.
https://www.claytargetnation-digital.com/articles/2022-mini-world-skeet-championships

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Mo-Skeet-O was a thing over half a century ago: skeet shooting with smoothbore .22 "shot guns" at scaled down clay pigeon targets.
(I see Papa G remembered it too.)

Marlin had a .22 Magnum bolt action Garden Gun out for awhile. While a useful niche gun, they were not popular, But they did handle shotshells much better than a rifle does.

 

[entropy]

I have some of the clays. They're small!