My American Rook Rifle

[Traffer]

Congratulations, A work of art. I predict that you are going to end up shooting that one a lot. I hope it turns out to be a super accurate unit for you. Keep us posted.

[Jeff Michel]

Nice job, thanks for sharing.

[dverna]

Always intrigued by guns like this even though I have no use for one. Something sweet about a light walking around gun.

Most of my shooting is from a bench and break open guns are not the best. Looked at converting a BSA Martini into a .38/.357 but the practical side of me won out. What the heck would I use it for? Easier for me to carry the 686 in a holster.

Nice build though. Let us know how it shoots.

[richhodg66]

I want such a rifle very much, but likely in a .32 S&W Long. A slim, trim, cast bullet small game gun is a very useful thing. Closest I have at the moment is my .22 Hornet Savage 219 and I love to squirrel hunt with it using light cast loads.

I have a couple of different 219s and one ruined .30-30 barrel I am eventually going to have relined to something for this very purpose. Won't be quite as slim and light as yours though.

[tbx-4]

Just ordered Lee .38 SC/LC die set and Starline brass. I'm thinking 158 gr semi-wadcutter with about 1.5 gr of BE would make a good varmint round out to 50 yards.

[JoeJames]

I want such a rifle very much, but likely in a .32 S&W Long. A slim, trim, cast bullet small game gun is a very useful thing. Closest I have at the moment is my .22 Hornet Savage 219 and I love to squirrel hunt with it using light cast loads.

I have a couple of different 219s and one ruined .30-30 barrel I am eventually going to have relined to something for this very purpose. Won't be quite as slim and light as yours though.

I agree. I have thought for a long time that a 32S&W Long single shot would be the perfect rifle for woods walking. But in this day and time the biggest market is for other less pedestrian firearms. Black plastic wonder nines and such.

[John Taylor]

Nice job, looks better than some of my first trys. Way back when, I was converting H&Rs to muzzle loaders before all the inlines hit the market. Some of the early H&Rs had silver solder holding the lug on the barrel so that's what I used and still do. I shy away from using liners for these project after a few failed attempts. Reaming a 410 barrel out will most likely cause it to warp ( experience ). Turning a liner down may cause the bore to to have loose and tight spots ( experience ). New barrel are harder than liners and may hold up better. I try to save relines for old guns that need to keep the appearance, and I have plenty of those coming into the shop.

[Traffer]

I am planning on drilling out a 22lr barrel to 38 and pound a rifling button down it with a sledge hammer...I mean what could possibly go wrong?

[Texas by God]

I am planning on drilling out a 22lr barrel to 38 and pound a rifling button down it with a sledge hammer...I mean what could possibly go wrong?

Pics or it didn't happen

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[Traffer]

Pics or it didn't happen

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

I didn't happen.

[tbx-4]

Thanks to everyone for the generous comments. This little rifle came out better then expected, especially after a couple screw ups. Converting shotguns to usable rifles has been quite enjoyable.

The other thing I like is the low cost. I paid $75 for the 410 and $41 for the barrel, ya can't beat that for a good bang for the buck!

[barrabruce]

Nice and keeping with the concept.

[tbx-4]

Some progress with loads.
Started with 1gr of Bullseye and worked up from there.

Now I'm a thrifty sort of fella (wife says cheap!?) so I use what's on hand. The load that seems to be working the best is 1.5gr BE with 124gr 9mm hard cast boolit. Why? Because I have them and 158gr .357 boolits shoot all over the place. Odd.


So here is my first five rounds of 9mm powered by 1.5gr BE.
Range: 50 yards.


Shooting at another target I noticed after awhile the group opened up some. Wonder if it's just fouling in the barrel. Bullseye leaves a lot of crud.

So then I tried 1.7gr BE with same 9mm boolits and an elevation adjustment. No, I hadn't cleaned the barrel and I shot 10 rounds at another target between these two groups.


It's a local guy I bought these boolits from and he said he could size them to .358 so I might try that and see how it does.

[nekshot]

that is a awesome little rifle. You did it good! Keep us posted on your load development because this kinda stuff beats gun rags to read!

[NorthMoccasin]

Richhodg, what loads do you use in your hornet? I use lyman 225415 50 gr gc over 4.0 unique, 3.0 and 2.4 red dot. Low report and accurate. I have a NOE 45 fn mold to try out soon.

[Texas by God]

I love the rook rifles but I’ve always been puzzled as to why the Brits needed cartridges bigger than the .22 rim fire to shoot crows?

[Outpost75]

I love the rook rifles but I’ve always been puzzled as to why the Brits needed cartridges bigger than the .22 rim fire to shoot crows?

Because they got used for bigger stuff too, like "park deer."

[barrabruce]

Ok I’ll bite.
What are "park deer"
I have herd the term bandied about but can never get a explanation to what that means or they are.
Deer the size of cats maybe?

[Outpost75]

Park deer are those living in the Royal Reserves. Roe deer are native to Britain and were hunted almost to extinction by the 1890s, although healthy populations exist today. They weigh about 20-25 kg.

Six species are common in Great Britain.
https://www.bds.org.uk/index.php/adv...cation/species
https://www.countryfile.com/wildlife...sh-deer-guide/
The reason the larger caliber rook rifles went out of fashion is because Queen Victoria found out poachers in the country were using them to illegally harvest her deer.

[tbx-4]

Update:
Been having a difficult time getting consistent accuracy with the rook rifle. Sometimes it would group tight and other times spread out 3"-4". I quit using my trimmed cases and bought 100 pcs of Star Line .38SC brass but it didn't help. It get tedious loading when you measure exactly each powder throw. After about 300 rounds of .38SC I decided to ream it out to .38 Spl.

Once done I started shooting Remington 130 gr FMJ. After about 20 rounds the accuracy began improving dramatically. I'm seeing 1.5"-2" consistent groups off my shaky folding table at 50 yards. Now I repetitively hit my 6" gongs off hand at +50 yards. After I put about 100 rounds that first shooting session I went out the next day with a fresh start shooting off hand. 25 rounds at 55 yards without a miss. Every trigger pull I heard the satisfying "ping" and saw a gong swing.

Now I have some 125gr RN and 158gr SWC cast boolits that I'm going to load and see what kind of accuracy I can get out of this...