What's new
What's new

Re-chamber old 22 single shot .22 for .22 magnum rat shot

crossthread

Titanium
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Location
Richmond,VA,USA
This may be a stupid question but maybe not. I have an old single shot bolt action .22 that I was thinking of opening up the breach a bit to chamber a .22 magnum rat shot shell (long story). My first question is : will it blow up in my face? The second question is: to do this do you just bore out the chamber a bit and then bore the recess in the bolt face? I would not be firing solid shot in this. Thanks.
 
Without knowing the model and condition of the "old single shot bolt action .22," it would not be a good idea to render an opinion. Furthermore, once you have rechambered to .22 WMR, it would be unsafe for use with .22 LR (case dia .226" vs. .242" for WMR) and there is no way that you could prevent a subsequent owner from firing bulleted .22 WMR rounds in it, which probably would be a bad thing considering the bore is .222" for .22 LR vs. the .22 WMR bullet dia at .224".
 
After taking Gaskill's comments to heart and if you decide to proceed, the firing pin may not strike correctly unless it is moved.
If I lived out on a ranch or farm and no one else had access to it the modified gun, and I needed it, maybe I would do it. A stamped warning on the barrel could be a good idea.
 
Another thought, if you have a need for snake or vermin control at short ranges with 22 mag rat shot, a cheap 22 revolver with a 22 mag cylinder might work better for you.
Rifles do not give a good pattern with the common CCI blue capsules shot shells as a hand gun. I had an imported revolver with both long rifle and mag cylinders, did not pay much for it made a couple parts for it to make it more reliable and used it for several years when I was care taking a ranch in the old days.
In the ancient past you could get a Remington long gun made especially for 22 shot shells. It had no rifling but did have a choke. Not legal to make anymore, but an old timer showed me his and I held it in my hands for a couple of minutes so they still exist but may be pricey as they are rare and may not be legal every where.
 
This is stretching back to a 70+ year old memory, so it may be imperfect. A neighbor kid had a .22 shot gun for shooting around 2" diameter clay birds. The name "Tomlinson bore" seems to go with a tapered bore that was noticeably larger at the muzzle. That would negate the use of a wad, but that is what I seem to remember. Could it be a short effective bore and an oversized extension to make it a long gun? Google didn't help here.

Bill
 
Maybe there was a second type, the Remington had the inventor's name on it besides Remington, pretty sure it was not Tomlinson just can not remember for sure. I am certain it had a choke and not blunderbuss end. Just tried a search and could not find it.
Must be very rare so if I found one certainly would not spoil it converting it to 22mag. Plenty of other ways to kill vermin.
P82A0032.jpg
 

Attachments

  • P82A0032.jpg
    P82A0032.jpg
    89.5 KB · Views: 527
Thanks for the replies. GGaskill, I did not know the bore of the WMR was different then a .22 LR. My wife has an old two screw Ruger super single .22 that has the two cylinders with it. She carries it with her everywhere outside because of all the copperheads we have. She only uses magnum snake/rat shot. If only the cylinder is changed then how does the larger bullet diameter work with the same barrel when using solid shot? Or is there such a small difference that it is not an issue? It must not be because it shoots solid shot and rat shot fine out of the same barrel. I was going to stamp the barrel with .22 magnum rat shot only if I was to do this. I just wanted to do this to keep the rifle in the barn to kill rats. Every other gun I own is way overkill.
 
.222 and .224 are not much different. Rimfires are forgiving and revolvers with 2 cylinders may compromise at .223, I do not know, but there are a lot of them out there.
You can fire 22 long rifle shot shells out that old rifle now, does it not make a real wide pattern at 10 feet with holes in the pattern now? It will be similar with 22 mag. For a special barn gun maybe reaming out all the rifling but the last inch near the muzzle might give a better pattern, and may be legal as it is done in my Bond 45 Snake Slayer in the photo above.
Getting rid of the rodents will help the snake situation as there will not be as much for them to eat.
 
Not known widely is the fact the shot shells with hard shot is hard on the rifling in 22's. My brother ruined the rifling in a 22 pistol shooting at rats in the foundation of an old garage. Literally tore the rifling up very badly. Using an old gun I guess it may not be a factor worth considering. The ruined pistol barrel had a couple of hundred shot shells fired thru it. It isn't wise to ream a chamber to fire magnum cartridges thru a gun not specifically made for magnum. I saw a pistol for 22 that was reamed to fire magnum and it loosened the barrel in the frame badly. It was a pressed fit barrel with the pin thru the frame/barrel to hold the barrel in the frame.
 
Thanks for all the information guys. Fred I will try a .22 in the rifle and see how it shoots. I have just seen how effective the WMR rat shot is and wanted that performance. Thanks again.
 
If only the cylinder is changed then how does the larger bullet diameter work with the same barrel when using solid shot?

With a revolver, the cylinder gap will vent any excess pressure and the forcing cone will swage down the bullet. Without reducing the reamer pilot diameter, there is a chance of breaking the reamer.

Rimfire cases are a balancing act between being hard (strong) enough to contain the pressure and soft enough for the firing pin to be able to crush the priming compound to ignite the powder. Even a little bore constriction will increase the pressure and MAY cause the case to split.
 
I learned a lot from this thread, with the references to recently produced garden guns I now understand that smooth bore 22 long (I keep wanting to say rifle but with out rifling they are not rifles are they?) guns are not illegal. I might have spent more time looking at that sample if I was not worried about the feds breaking down the door and catching me with that thing in my hands.

For crossthread when the rats get too smart to let you shoot them try a trap like this till they catch on to it. Our rats are too tough to be killed by the spring bar, the small nails keep them from getting away. The safety wire keeps them from dragging the trap off. The 2 large nails make them take the bait from the kill zone, if they take the bait from that side they are launched instead of caught.
RatTrap.jpg
 
The Winchester 61 was offered smooth bore.
Collectors piece now with decent premium over rifled version..

We had a flood of rats in our urban home some years back- smart bastards, I couldn’t get them to take bait in snap traps.
I ended going all Elmer Fudd on them and shot them out over a couple of months.
Still tough to do as they were so cautious.

I went through lots of quiet ammo types to get something that would drop them reliably.
Ended up using Remmington CBee’s.
Since any new comers take snap traps- I shot out the smart ones..?
Recently though we have had smart mice- who ever heard of a mouse that would shy from traps?

Lots of the Winchester model 1890’s have rifling gone- just get a beater and run the WMR shot shells in that?
 
The Winchester 61 was offered smooth bore.
Collectors piece now with decent premium over rifled version..

We had a flood of rats in our urban home some years back- smart bastards, I couldn’t get them to take bait in snap traps.
I ended going all Elmer Fudd on them and shot them out over a couple of months.
Still tough to do as they were so cautious.

I went through lots of quiet ammo types to get something that would drop them reliably.
Ended up using Remmington CBee’s.
Since any new comers take snap traps- I shot out the smart ones..?
Recently though we have had smart mice- who ever heard of a mouse that would shy from traps?

Lots of the Winchester model 1890’s have rifling gone- just get a beater and run the WMR shot shells in that?

Whatever pest you go after you get the dumb ones first and have to vary your approach to clean up the rest. We had mice that could clean out the peanut butter in the bait loop of a victor snap trap. I guess they licked out. Stuff a raisin in and they could not get that out without tripping it.
I like CB caps also, use the CCI version, but be careful they will go through a 1 by at short ranges. I shot a dog with one at 20 yards and thought I would just scare it off. Evidently broke its spine and had to kill it, quite embarrassing as I lived in town then. Looked around to make sure no one was watching when I put it out of its misery.

On making a garden gun I think a single shot would be best as anything that used to feed long rifle ammo will probably be too much trouble to convert the magazine. But we is machinists!
 
I really want to try to make a "garden gun" if it does not look like a good idea to convert this old .22 single shot. The only reason why I haven't made a gun at all is that I don't have the tools for rifling. Since these do not require rifling, it would be a very easy matter to throw one together. I would probably use 4140 PH since I have a lot of it and it is more or less my go to tough steel that's easy to machine. Thanks for the replies.
 
Not sure if a 22 barrel needs to be that hard. Almost think 12L14 would do. You might try to find an old worn out model 67 Winchester for parts and ideas. Like some others the receiver was milled into the barrel. Pretty simple really.
Also it is common to line 22 barrels with a rifled line, do not see why it could not be done with a smooth liner, maybe even with a choke.
 
Unless you have a gun drill, cutting that long hole is going to be a challenge to say the least. Perhaps you can find some thick wall 4130 tubing of .25" ID. Looks like .50" OD, .12" wall is available from Aircraft Spruce in short lengths.
 








 
Back
Top