Thread: Redundant Calibres

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

one could add some oldies now thankfully redundant - 16 gauge shotgun ( still have Dads old 1890 hammer gun -not to be fired ) .22 short .22 birdshot most all bloody useless - although I understand the short was popular early days indoor target shooting - but some one here can answer this one -I have always wondered about -if a .22 was supposed to be for short-long and long rifle as many early .22 were stamped then surely the jump of a short from breech to rifling must give the start of rifling problems - one old remington pump .22 I had -very clear ring about 1in from breech end - I often wondered if that was to many shorts early days as it was from twenties

Had an old BSA bolt single shot when I was a kid we'd shoot trout with. Me and my mate would load it with a short and put the whole gun under the water, inch it close to the trout and pull the trigger. We got a lot of trout with that gun and the barrel was 'ringed' all along it's length. It think we fired long-rifles through it too - I think my mate said it was legal back then.

We did that in those 'jump across' farm streams - got some big eels out of them too.

Those 'shorts' didn't make much noise - they had their uses around houses as they didn't upset anyone - wouldn't try that with an high velocity.

Never did figure out what the 'birdshot' ones did - I shot a rat in a garage once and the bloody thing kept going ...........