Choke on a Rifle and a Usable Garden Gun – .22 Shot Shells #12 Shot

Ammoland ^ | 16 October, 2019 | Dean Weingarten

[5by5]

They work good on mice. Fun too—quiet enough to shoot in a skeezy appt.

Don’t ask me how I know this....

[Feckless]

Many a rattler and copperhead has died from 22 rat shot fired from my 10/22 and my 9 shot High Standard 22 pistol.

I used it to do what generations of "old folks" have sworn can't be done... breaking a dog from killing chickens. When I was done neither Cooter nor Otto would eat even KFC. They had a little white hen that stood in their food pan eating and slept in their doghouse in winter.

[Rio]

There’s a .22WMR version, too. I shot a BIG rat with one right in my kitchen cupboard once.

[marktwain]

The experimental choke pictured is .55 inches inside diameter. Bullets never touch the choke.

[marktwain]

How does a 22 shot shell work in a 6” 22lr pistol barrel?

My tests with a .22 Sentinel revolver show it patterns a little better than a rifle with a 20 inch barrel.

With the choke, it also patterns a little better, probably 15% better than the rifle. I suspect a shorter length of rifling upsets the pellets a little less.

With the experimental choke, the range of the pistol with #12 shot was extended to 30 feet.

[marktwain]

So..Ammoland never heard of the Remington 514?

Why do you say that?

[Openurmind]

Thank you, I was curious about that, having fired slugs through chokes, there is a practical limit to how tight you can get away with.

[Beagle8U]

The old Remington 514 was/is a smoothbore 22cal rifle made for shooting 12 shot.

[Beagle8U]

They didn’t even mention the old Remington 514 in the article unless I missed it?

[Sasparilla]

I know snake shot won’t cycle a Ruger MKIII
pistol. But,with it functioning as a single shot, I wouldn’t trust it to take out a viper at 8 feet.

[marktwain]

There’s a .22WMR version, too. I shot a BIG rat with one right in my kitchen cupboard once.

The .22 WMR shotshell holds 70% more shot.

I thought Henry should have come out with their Garden Gun in .22 magnum.

The shotshells are only a little more expensive than the .22 LR, and should increase the effective range to 40-45 feet.

The energy on these #12 pellets drop off so fast, I doubt they would do much damage beyond that. At 20 yards, 60 feet, they are down to 502 feet per second.

At 15 yards, they are traveling at 604 feet per second.

I think you need the next size up, #11 shot, to be effective to 20 yards. At 20 yards, #11, starting at 1000 feet per second, would be down to 623 feet per second, with a 40% heaver pellet.

[Beagle8U]

I don’t know why you couldn’t take a old 22cal barrel and ream out the rifling, except the chamber, and put a ‘jug choke’ in the end?

A ‘jug choke’ can make a CYL bore shoot a tighter pattern.

[marktwain]

The article mentioned dedicated smoothbore .22 long guns.

There were a number of them. Henry just started making one they call the Garden Gun.

The Remington 514 was made in both rifled and smoothbore versions, as I recall.

The smooth bore guns bring a premium price today.

[marktwain]

I don’t know why you couldn’t take a old 22cal barrel and ream out the rifling, except the chamber, and put a ‘jug choke’ in the end?

A ‘jug choke’ can make a CYL bore shoot a tighter pattern.

I think it would work. A fair amount of effort.

I don't think you need to ream out the whole bore. The experiment indicates the choke overcomes the rifling effect.

More experiments are ongoing.

I could see barrels that are rifled for 12 inches, and smoothbore, at a larger caliber, say .38 for 12 inches, with a choke on the end, that would shoot both bullets and shot well.

[Wonder Warthog]

"How does a 22 shot shell work in a 6” 22lr pistol barrel?"

Dunno, but I carried a beater .22 9-shot revolver with a 2" barrel and shotshells for years when out in the fields bush-hogging hay and other farm work. Great for snakes.

[USS Alaska]

That is the "Bucket of Death" and chippies can't he'p themselves, even when they look down and see 2-3 of their kin folk lying face down in the seeds.

I don't use it until there are 20 or more of the rascal roaming all over my place, just stripping it down.

If there are only about a dozen or less, I keep the population under control with the 22 and #12 shot.

BTW, I just tried a 'home made' choke this morning and it worked at 40'.

Worked means that the critter is dead with the first shot.

I filed the front sight off of the rifle, and slipped a 3' piece of aluminum pipe over the end of the barrel, and used Gorilla Tape to secure it in place.

I'm going to experiment with shorter lengths of the choke and see what works the best, but I know that the 'choke approach' does work. Three extra feet makes the gun awkward and makes it hard to store, so like President Trump says, "We'll see what happens".

[marktwain]

It has already been done.

Everything old is new again.

It was called a Routledge bore, and claimed 85% of pellets in a six inch circle at 33 feet!

Very impressive. I would like to duplicate that!

It used a smoothbore from the start, though. During the 1930s, mini-skeet programs utilzing small clay targets were promoted by several firms. One such program was offered by the Routledge Manufacturing Co. of Monroe Mich. In april. 1937 Fred Routledge of that firm applied to the US patent Office for a patent on an invention that "relates to training equipment for skill in marksmanship" His patent application noted the use of a counterbore smoothbore barrel. The cal .22 portion of the bore at the breech end spanned about one-half the length of the barrel. The remaining 12 or 13 inches of the barrel was about 0.40" in diameter. In US patent no. 2,185,523 granted to Routledge on Jan 2, 1940, this counterbored barrel section was claimed to control the pattern of a standard cal .22 long rifle shot cartridge (containing at least 120 #12 pellets) so that 85% of the pellets would strike within a 6" circle at 33 feet.

Between 1945 & 1955 inclusive, Remington produced 2,653 model 121 Fieldmasters and 2,118 model 510 bolt-action single-shot smoothbore guns under the Routledge patent. Also produced by Remington for the Routledge firm were 5,557 model 514 bolt-action single-shot and 3,991 model 572 slide-action rifles with STANDARD (not Routledge) smoothbore barrels.

The above info is from an article that appeared in the November, 1974 issue of American Rifleman.

[Big Red Badger]

Interesting,,,
They had an indoor range
In the 1970’s called
Wingo,IIRC.
With lanes like a Bowling
Alley they would Lob an
Ice ball and you
Would shoot it with
A
22 rifle using shot.
I guess it didn’t
catch on.
It seemed fun.
The Building is now
A Traffic Court
in Kearney Mesa,San Diego.

[marktwain]

Here are the patent drawings for the Routledge bore:

What is claimed and it is desired to secure by Letters Patent is: r

1. A gun adapted for miniature skeet including a barrel consisting of a smooth bore section of approximately .22 inches bore and another section of at least 25% increase in bore throughout its length, the proportionate lengths of said sections being in the ratio of 2 to 3 respectively.

2. A gun adapted for miniature skeet shooting including a barrel bored to accommodate a shot cartridge, said bore being approximately .22 inches for a portion of its length adjacent the breech and the remaining portion being bored at least 25% larger, to control the pattern ofthe shot, the proportionate lengths of said portions being in the ratio of approximately 2 to 3 respectively.

3. A gun adapted for miniature skeet shooting including a barrel bored to accommodate a shot cartridge, said bore being approximately .22 inches for a portion of its length adjacent the breech as the minor bore section thereof, and the remaining portion being as much as twice the diameter of the minor bore section throughout its length, to control the pattern for reduced scatter of the shot, the length of the minor bore section being approximately in the. range of one-. quarter to one-half the length of the barrel.

4. A small bore gun adapted for miniature skeet shooting including a barrel bored to accommodate a shot cartridge, said barrel being of a small bore for a portion of its length adjacent the breech and the remaining portion being at least 25% larger, to control the pattern for reduced scatter of the shot, thelength of the minor bore section being approximately in the range of one-quarter to one-half the length of the barrel.

FREDERICK J. ROUTLEDGE.,,

[Oatka]

Remington 514 some decent prices here.