Quackenbush rifle top; Rossi RB22 Compact, bottom.
Posted on 01/26/2024 6:13:59 AM PST by marktwain
The Quackenbush .22 rifle was popular a hundred and 20 years ago. Advertisements for the rifles are easily found. They were mostly sold mail order.
The prices for the rifles seem modest. A rifle with a wood stock and an 18-inch barrel cost about six dollars. The price of gold was fixed at $20 a Troy ounce. A day laborer might be paid $1 (and fed) for a 12-hour workday. It was the beginning of the petroleum age. While people were far more productive than they had been a hundred years earlier, the industrial age with power machinery, cheap steel, cheap transport, and cheap food was just getting into full swing.
The Quackenbush was a good single-shot rifle, by all accounts. It was developed before smokeless powder and non-corrosive priming became the norm. Today, the norm is the semi-automatic rifle. Manually operated repeaters are still popular. They have an advantage as training arms and with silencers/suppressors, as the sound of the action is more easily controlled.
The Rossi RB22 Compact is a modern equivalent of the Quackenbush.
The Rossi RB22 is very light, very compact, and inexpensive. The Quackenbush commonly had an 18″ barrel, The RB22 Compact has a 16.5″ barrel. The Quackenbush weighed 4 1/2 pounds. The RB22 Compact weighs 3 lbs, 5 ounces. The cost of Quackenbush model, most comparable to the RB22 Compact, was $6.00 in 1906.
There are several ways to compare prices from 1906 to today. Measuringworth is an excellent website that explains how prices can be compared and supplies calculators to do comparisons in several ways. Six dollars in 1906 would be worth between $767 and $367 in 2023.
The $165 for the RB22 Compact would be about $1-$2 in 1906.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Quackenbush rifle top; Rossi RB22 Compact, bottom.
There’s a old, worn-out, single-shot, Winchester Model 22-02 that’s been our family for years and years. My great, great grandfather won it as a prize in a CrackerJacks box way back in the early 1900s when he was just a young boy. He filled out the form that was in the box, mailed it and a few weeks later, the little .22 showed up.
That little rifle has probably over a million rounds through it now....LOL. Every boy in our family, thru all those years, has probably shot the living daylights out of that thing...me included. The barrel looks to be just about completely shot out now. My younger brother still shoots .22 shorts thru it every once in a blue moon. It looks to be from the same era and approximately the same size as the Quackenbush and Rossi.
There are people that go nuts for these.
Highly collectable. highly sought after.
When I looked at the vintage ad, I was drawn to the gun at the bottom of the page: the Quackenbush bicycle rifle. I must have one of those.
I think it would be fun if someone made a Quackenbushmaster AR-15 in .22 LR.
????? The Quackenbush was at the bottom of the “boys’ rifles” quality tree. Better to have compared this Rossi to a Stevens Favorite or a Remington #4 rolling block. Perhaps he’s taking a subtle dig at the Rossi?
My father had one of these in his collection. I always thought the name was unique.
Would that be considered an “assault” bicycle rifle, folding stock and all 😂
Good question, Doctor. It is quite ugly after all (isn’t that what makes for an assault rifle?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quackenbush
Quackenbush is a surname of Dutch origin that is an Americanized form of the Dutch Quackenbosch. It is a toponymic surname from the Dutch kwak ‘night heron’ + bosch ‘woodland wilderness’. The surname Quackenbosch is no longer found in the Netherlands. The family descends from 17th century immigrant to New Netherland Pieter Pieterzoon Quackenbosch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Quackenbush
Other innovations
The company also developed and manufactured many other products over the years — ranging from rifles and sport firearms to kitchen gadgets and seafood tools. Based on U.S. Patent Office records, H.M. Quackenbush and his company were responsible for inventing, or significantly contributing to the development of, numerous early 20th century inventions, including: bicycles; a foot-powered wood lathe; the scroll saw; darts; stair rails; the extension ladder; a bathroom shelf; the nut cracker and picks; the .22 caliber rimfire rifle (3 models, including a bicycle rifle); various air rifles and pistols; ammunition for airguns, including lead air rifle shot (commonly known as “BBs”), felted slugs; the Kaleidoscope; and garment hangers (”coat hangers”).[4]
Indeed😎
“The barrel looks to be just about completely shot out now.”
I’ve never seen a .22 with a ‘shot out’ barrel. Might be just so fouled that the rifling is nearly filled with lead. Try scrubbing the bore with a brass brush to see if the rifling becomes more visible.
I purchased an old Smith & Wesson model 66 .357 magnum that was so leaded that the rifling was nearly hidden. The previous owner must have been shooting hot handloads with cast bullets. Took a brass brush and lots of elbow grease to remove the leading.
“..I’ve never seen a .22 with a ‘shot out’ barrel. Might be just so fouled that the rifling is nearly filled with lead. Try scrubbing the bore with a brass brush to see if the rifling becomes more visible....”
Thanks for that suggestion..
I’ll pass it on to my brother.
Next time we’re visiting, I’ll try it...IF he hasn’t done so before we get there.
It would be sweet to get that old little rifle back to where there’s some rifling in it.
Best cleaner I ever used for bla k powder and corrosive primers is plain old windex the kind with ammonia kills anything corrosive in the barrel. I mop my barrels out as soon as I’m thru shooting then normal maintenence when I get home my barrels look new even after years of shooting surplus ammo.
I hope they weren't using that rifle for big game!
When you podsted this, I thought you meant this one:
https://www.quackenbushairguns.com/
I was anticipating a shoot out.
You know, velocities and group sizes for each.
One of my favorite .22’s is a #4 Rolling Block, octagon barrel takedown in .22 short. Made in 1909.
The Ruger 10-22 is the Best available these days as it’s popular,inexpensive and Very customizable. From the Charger to the long Range Target market you’d be hardpressed to find Any rifle more versatile and supported with aftermarket accessories.
IMHO
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.