Boring out a 22 barrel
I just won a GB auction for a beat up 22 that's pretty ugly but shoots. I've got a number of 22s but don't have a smoothbore for shooting pests up close. Any ideas on how I can remove the rifling? Should I leave the barrel length alone or cut it down to 18.25"?
Thanks
Jim
Thanks
Jim
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WHy remove the rifling? 22 shot is not know for much of anything other than mouse killing maybe and at the distance you are going to use it the rifling wont affect it. It's not like you are shooting something at 20 yds. 0 -
do you have any experience with 22 shot it hardly stuns rats at 5 yards i've had to shoot a lot of them repeatedly to finish them off and these aren't big rats either. 0 -
I knew an old guy here in south Tx that had I think a Remington smooth bore (maybe it was a winchester) pump he rode around in his Pickup and shot out the window .. on top of that he could start making a funny whhistling and they would run out of the brush towards the whistle and he would pop one or two and then drive off and go find more.
it was fun drinking the beer and watching him get[:D] supper0 -
no need to try to ream it out. the worst thing that will happen with bird shot in these rifled barrels is lead build up. 0 -
let them say what they like but, rifling raises hell with shot. those little plastic capsules dissintegrate long before they reach the end of a barrel and flat sided shot flies all over hell. thats why shot gun barrels are smooth bore. at one time shot was only held in place by felt and cardboard wads. now with plastic full size wads the shot is more protected. get a long course flex-hone (180) and have-at-it. it will shoot better than haveing rifling tear up the shot. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by victorj19
I just won a GB auction for a beat up 22 that's pretty ugly but shoots. I've got a number of 22s but don't have a smoothbore for shooting pests up close. Any ideas on how I can remove the rifling? Should I leave the barrel length alone or cut it down to 18.25"?
-Barrel length is utterly irrelevant here. If you want the gun to be more portable then by all means cut it down to 18.5" (or 16.5" if you keep some rifling), but I don't think you'll see ANY difference in shot pattern.
-Putting this as tactfully as possible, .22 shot is really not suitable for shooting anything bigger than a mouse, nor at distances greater than about 7 yards.
If you understand that limitation, then I don't think it makes any difference if the barrel is rifled or not. Having a smoothbore will just buy you a better pattern and maybe a few more yards of useful range.
In all honesty, I think you'd end up with a better short range/indoor varmint gun leaving the barrel intact, and using the Aguila primer-only rounds. You may or may not derive some benefit from a dot or laser sight to help aim.0 -
Hm...a smoothbore rifle that started out life with a rifled barrel. Sounds like ATF's version of a "smooth bore rifle" to me, and I'm not sure that's kosher...please correct me if you find other refference . I'm pretty sure that's why C&R Remington Routledge bore guns are so collectible, as they started out life that way.
Anyway, I agree that rifling in a barrel does very little good for patterning, and that is a reason why the old front stuffer guys had a shotgun and a rifle if they could afford it. A 22 rimfire, however, has really shallow rifling, and will not "flat side" shot and cause it to spread like a centerfire rifle/ handgun perhaps would.
In the end equation, I would stay away from honing the barrel smooth, as I am not entirely sure of the strict legality, and I see little utility to do it anyway. Spend a little more time cleaning the fouling out after shooting rat shot and it should be OK to about 12 feet on vermin with that longer barrel.
Additionally, if you manage to get a really tight pattern on rat/dust shot and are using it in the barn, you WILL start to tear up the planks on the siding. As I recall, this was one of the original selling points of rat shot claiming indoor pest control without significant property damage.0 -
As BTS suggested, leave it be an get some Aguila Super Colibri rounds. They are 22 lr length, 20 grain projectile, uses only primer so they won't cycle a semi-auto so they become manual-operation-only guns, but work fine in pumps, single shots or bolts. I use them to kill cottontails and the occasional mouse or rat that creeps in the garage.
In the garage, they're no louder than a hi-power pellet gun from a 18" Reminigton #4 rolling block. Outside they're almost silent.0 -
Take a steel brush and run it down the barrel with a drill with some polishing paste until the rifling is shallow. Keep you out of trouble and help keep the shot from spinning too much. Never tried it, just my 2 cents[:)] 0 -
I picked up a .22 single shot rifle that someone had cut off the original barrel and replaced it with what appears to be a .410 barrel. Sort of a homemade garden gun. It will give the stray troublesome dog or cat a reason to find another spot to hang out. I once shot a squirrel from about 25 feet but it didn't phase him. Now I am wondering if this is a legal gun? 0
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