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just want to know if there was ever a muzzle loader smaller than. 32 cal. That’s the smallest I’ve ever heard of.
Smallest caliber
- Thread starter Bernard Streeter
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Treestalker
Treestalker
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I have no personal experience with them, but I have read of 27 and 29 caliber varmint guns, and also repurposed .22 caliber barrels being utilized. I too, wonder how well they would do? I have at present a smooth barrel 9mm/.35 cal. that I've breeched and drummed w/nipple. It's about 29-30 inches long, and tapered from about 3/4 inch to 1/2" or so. I am trying to talk myself into a fantasy 'birding' gun; a long barreled, light pistol of sorts with possibly a full fore end and front and rear sights for a patched .350 RB for tree squirrel fighting or a 5/8ths shot load for doves, bullfrogs, packrats, and as a cure for rabid armadillos. Also, have considered a BB rifle barreled device to shoot vintage phonograph needles in places requiring really small bore stealth and penetration, with an old steel clothes hanger for a ramrod, heh heh. Thanks for this thread! Geo.
You see a lot of the SMR made between 1870s and the 1930s that we’re .25,.28,.30 ect.
Comfortably_Numb
The Evil Mike Brooks
I had a H. House rifle in .29. Smallest caliber I have built is a .25. they start to get a little impractical when they get that small in caliber.
I have a .29 Enterprize Gun Works.
If you throw handguns into the picture there were pepperboxes made in .25 and .28 caliber. Colt's Paterson revolver #1 model was a .28 caliber.
I don't recall reading or seeing a longrifle that was smaller than a .32 if we are limiting the type of gun to something that wasn't a special order.
I had a .30, and it was a pain. The tiny little balls and patches were hard for me to handle without a loading block. My Mike Keller rifle started as a .29 and somewhere down the line before I got it, it was rebored to .36. Before I talked to him, I wondered why the rod was so small for a .36. Now I know.
hanshi
Cannon
Loading a .32 is a challenge for me although I like them. I imagine caliber smaller than that weren't that popular back then. But what do I know?
Keb
50 Cal.
I had a .25" caliber rifle & a .20" caliber smooth rifle that were both made by JR Salvo. Sold them both. My better half shoots a .30" rifle on occasion. I hate cleaning them little buggers.
This is the .25
And this is the .20
This is the .25
And this is the .20
zimmerstutzen
70 Cal.
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I had an original 28 caliber muzzle loading rifle made by Wurfflein in Philadelphia in the mid 19th century. Even had double set triggers. It had a box lock action.
appalichian hunter
75 Cal.
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I think somewhere in the past there was a reference to parlor shooting ,believe mostly they were pistols of small caliber, seemed to be fairly popular in Victorian times. Perhaps someone else has more information on these. It would seem to me these would be small caliber.
I have a friend who cobbled together an ml rifle using an old .22lr barrel. He use a shotgun buckshot (I forget the size) loaded bare. He was a meat hunter and that rifle accounted for hundreds of squirrels.
In the mid to late 70's and early 80's one of my mentors had a .28 caliber flintlock. I would attend shoots and Rendezvouz and we'd shoot together, I was from central Georgia and he was from Tennessee. Some of you might remember him, his name was Charlie Haffner Sr. and we lost a great one when he passed.
.275 caliber here
