Why aren't there more smoothbore .22's?

[.455_Hunter]

Greetings!

It seems like the .22 smooth bore would be just the thing for a low-noise "garden gun", shooting both the CCI style and traditional crimped style .22 LR shot shells with far improved patterns over a normal rifled barrel.

Why are they not more popular, especially in semi-rural areas, where firearms discharge for small varmint control is legal, but neighbors are still too close for safety and/or noise concerns with normal loadings?

Thanks,

Hunter

 

[RecoilRob]

The only thing I can think of is the .22 can't carry much of a payload which really limits what you can do with it. The CCI shotshells have to be right on top of whatever you shoot to penetrate it, and even from a long barrel that would concentrate the pattern I can't see them doing much to a rat at 50 ft let alone farther out.

Thinking about it, if you made a special .22 Extra-long rifle shot shell specially for such a gun, the shot would still have to be tiny just to fit and a super long stack of them probably wouldn't go down the barrel so well. Short and fat seems to work a lot better than long and skinny when it comes to launching shot for some reason.

I think someone DID make such a gun in the past and I guess they were used to some effect on rats at close range, but I can't see much else they could do for you. Perhaps the close-range ratting marke isn't so large these days? An air rifle will do everything, power wise, that you can need for rats or bigger which might partially explain the reluctance to build new .22 shotguns. How's that for a hugely long rambling 'I don't know'?

 

[PapaG]

just sold my 572 smoothbore "Routlege" Remington. Brother and I shot cartons of 22 shot out of that to keep sparrows and starlings out of moms garden and out of the Martin house. Shells were about $5/carton back then, not $12/box like now. Range on sparrows, about 25 feet but that was a special boring.
Pellet guns are much better now for urban pest control. That 22 shotshell sounded just like a 22. A good Springer with regular pellets is much quieter and cheaper to shoot.

 

[Ron James]

Why don't they make more 22 smoothbore rifles? Sorry to say, not enough people will buy them. They've been made before and always failed to attract enough buyers to keep them going.. I believe it was Remington that even sold a mini skeet outfit.. alas no go.

 

[AI&P Tactical]

Because the .410 fits the bill for that perfectly.

 

[Merle1]

Why don't they make more 22 smoothbore rifles? Sorry to say, not enough people will buy them. They've been made before and always failed to attract enough buyers to keep them going.. I believe it was Remington that even sold a mini skeet outfit.. alas no go.

I remember shooting them at Boy Scout camp. They were called "mo-skeet-o" IIRC.

 

[ZBill]

Family had one that we used for shooting reduced-size clay pigeons as a kid. Was a fun setup.

 

[toivo]

I remember shooting them at Boy Scout camp. They were called "mo-skeet-o" IIRC.

I believe the "Mo-skee-to" was made by Mossberg.

 

[.455_Hunter]

The .410 is not really in the same league as the .22 shotshell- too loud, too much shot, just too much for a garden gun. The 9mm rimfire is also pretty good, but expensive and a bit too slow.

 

[Kookla]

Marlin had the Garden Gun if I recall right.

 

[Onmilo]

I've always liked the 9mm shotgun concept for use as a garden gun

 

[Merle1]

I believe the "Mo-skee-to" was made by Mossberg.

Could be, that was about 55 years ago & my memory ???

 

[Scooter22]

I believe the "Mo-skee-to" was made by Mossberg.

Yes there was the Mo-skee-to and Targo was Mossberg. Both Remington and Mossberg offered guns and accessories. Nice thing about the Mossberg guns is they were SB but had two screw on ends. A choke and a rifled tube. So you could fire both shot and bullets. I picked up a Mossberg 42TR clip fed B/A in good shape. I need to get the ends. But as is it shoots the crimped Federal shot shells a tight pattern covering a paper plate at 25-30 feet. Not long range but definitely useful for getting rid of pests without shredding the background. I was luck to find some of the Fed shot shells at Bass Pro for 10.99 for 50. Not cheap but better that the CCI stuff.

 

[cfullgraf]

I still have a Mo-skeet-o trap and a few targets. I remember shooting them with my Dad while growing up. If you think skeet with a .410 is humbling, Mo-skeet-o with a 22 LR smoother bore is down right discouraging.

Last I looked, Mo-skeet-o targets are no longer available. They are about the same size as a small sporting clay targets but the sporting clay target is much tougher. I was able to attach a Ritz cracker thrower to my trap without any modifications. Not the same as the clay targets but difficult just the same.

I have a Remington pump with a Rutledge barrel. Good for small pests at short ranges. Definitely not as loud as a .410 or as much potential collateral damage as a .410.

 

[DM~]

Not long ago, my LGS had a NEW Savage bolt action smooth bore, it had sat there a LONG time. Finally he lowered the price until someone bought it.

Remington had a bolt action smooth bore, I have one.

DM

 

[Gordon]

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the two bottom guns arre smooth bore, a Remington tube feed with Rutledge choke that only feeds the crimped rounds and the Anschutz garden gun which feeds and likes the CCI plastic shot caps. The smooth bore guns are about 300% more effective than rifled guns, well make that 200% for the early Remington and 300% for the Anschutz . You can kill starlings to 50 feet with the anschutz and rats about the same. They are less than half as loud as a .410, especially with their long26" barrels

 

[Telemachus]

I believe that Remington made a smooth bored version of the 550. I've always wondered how well that worked since the 550 was semi-auto. The rifled version is a great little gun for squirrels and such. The barrel on it is so long, the action on it makes about as much noise as the bullet.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

We just used CB Caps or hollow point standard velocity 22 shorts. On the farm the standard 410 sheep in Number 8 shot was used in the garden with great effect.

 

[TimSr]

Air rifles. Learned to hunt by shooting sparrows and starling with BB or pellet rifle.

 

[rule303]

Smoothbore .22's are fun to play with, but they are all but worthless for pest control. .22 shot loads just don't have enough payload to reliably kill the kind of pests that cause garden damage (magpies, rabbits, moles, gophers,etc). Most won't even puncture an aluminum can past 20 feet. It is great for bumblebee control at close range though.

 

[Panzerschwein]

There is such a thing called the "9mm Flobert" that I think should be more popular, and is more effective than any .22 smoothbore gun.

 

[win71]

It's a bummer

When the rifles were plentiful I bought one in the 50's. The .22 shot shell ammo was different than now. Some were actually paper hulled with wads. Some were brass that were crimped kind of pointed. My guess is for function in some type of magazine fed bolt action or pump. I shot them in a Win 62A. Anyway there was no shot column or capsule. Just wads so the shot flew down the barrel on it's own.
Out of a smooth bore that combination was great for killing anything up to a coon at 20 feet. Small pattern even if it was with #12 shot.

Having had some experience, a couple years ago I finally found and bought a old Anschutz bolt action single shot .22 smooth bore.
Dang, the current ammunition in .22 shot has a plastic enclosed shot column. No doubt designed for use in rifled barrels.
When I got the rifle I did some simple tests. It had been 50 years since I had used 22 shot.
With the current shot column ammo shot out of an old smooth bore I will guarantee you can tear your wives rose bush completely up at 30 feet.
The pattern doesn't open up when fired in a smooth bore rifle.

 

[TTv2]

because it's limited to .22 shotshell, which is becoming difficult to get, and the .410 has been popular for such tasks. My grandfather had one gun that I knew of and it was a single shot .410.

.22 shotshell is limited to #12 shot only. That doesn't do much. .410 has a larger variety of shot available it can shoot and it can even shoot slugs; it's multi purpose.

Then the reason you don't see more smoothbore .22's is because there aren't a lot of smoothbore .22's that exist. The word doesn't spread about them unless someone has one and since few do, few know about the supposed benefits of them.

 

[hdbiker]

I looked over a Rem. model 514 single shot .22 smooth bore at a sport shop once.I caught my attention because I have a rifled model 514. It looked exactly like mine on the outside and the muzzle was counter bored.Odd I thought. hdbiker

 

[natman]

When the rifles were plentiful I bought one in the 50's. The .22 shot shell ammo was different than now. Some were actually paper hulled with wads. Some were brass that were crimped kind of pointed.

The blue plastic capsules are from CCI. Both Winchester and Federal offer the crimped brass case style.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/47...ng-rifle-25-grain-12-shot-shotshell-box-of-50

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/95...tion-22-long-rifle-25-grain-12-shot-shotshell

A smoothbore with triple the effective range of these loads. However the tiny #12 shot is called "dust shot" for a reason, so using a smoothbore means it'll be good out to 10 yards instead of 10 feet.