Smallest caliber?

[.30carbnut]

Hello all just a question, what is the smallest caliber muzzle loader you have seen or heard of?

[M-Tecs]

[scattershot]

Heard of a .22 rifle once. Not sure how practical it would be, though.

[John Taylor]

I made a 17 caliber many yeas back. No rifling and polished BBs would hit the target at 100 yards. Barrel length was only 2.5" and with about 3 grains of 4F it sounded like a 357 when it went off. It would put a steel BB through a 1" board at 25 yards.

[Reverend Al]

Many years ago when I first started shooting muzzle-loaders (about 1969?) one of the fellows in the local club I was shooting with took an old .22 single shot bolt action rifle, re-worked the wood, added a home made brass trigger guard and buttplate, and a traditional looking set of sights. He would put a .22 "acorn" crimped blank in the chamber as the "cap", and then muzzle load it with a few grains of 3F and a .22 calibre lead round ball from an air rifle. Then he'd cock the bolt by hand and shoot it. It fouled up horribly within a few shots and it really wasn't terribly accurate either. It was pretty much a "make work" project just to have something a little bit different from everybody else!

[pietro]

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Experimental/one-off smallbore muzzleloaders not withstanding, NAA (North American Arms) has been making/marketing their Companion 5-shot .22cal Mini revolver for quite a few years now.





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[JeffinNZ]

I know of two .22cal MLers.

[bob208]

when I worked with bob hoyt we made .25 cal. barrels for some of the squirrel hunters. I shot against one in a match two years ago.

[SSGOldfart]

Smallest I own is a 40 caliber Ky with a 48" barrel, I've shot a number of 32 calibers,and a buddy had a home made muzzleloader in 38 caliber that was the most accurate muzzleloader,I've ever seen.he was always wanting my HBWC's I even once watched him pull rounds apart just to get the wadcutters.

[Buckshot Bill]

I have a .22 inline I built on a bicycle rifle concept. I shoot unpatched .224 RB in it. Patches seemed a bit fiddly on a bore that small so opted out of using them. 10 grains of pyro p gives me about 980 fps and not terribly loud either, about like a .22 short

Need to keep it pretty clean though, I swab every 2 or 3 shots to keep things loading easy

[bedbugbilly]

I think the smallest I've personally seen was a .20 cal. rifle. Years ago, I believe Myron Carlson, who was known for his hand forged rifle furniture and his love for Bean rifles, made up a scaled down Bean rifle and he utilized a .22 barrel. It was a very nice little rifle - cute as could be. I remember seeing it at Friendship when I was visiting with him - a very fine gentleman who is now gone.

The smallest I own now is a .36. I had trouble enough handling the .32 cal - always fumbling with my old fingers and hands. Got to admire those that play with the really small bores and i'm sure they are a whole different animal. Lot's of fun I'm sure!

[Ithaca Gunner]

I wonder how .22 air rifle pellets would do in a .22 muzzle loader?

[mooman76]

32 is mall enough for me. I'm sure the other are just as fun.

[rfd]

i dunno the reason or need for an ml less than a .32 caliber. smaller calibers can suffer from fouling issues, after having a few .32 and .36 flinters. these dayze .50 is the lowest i go.

[bubba.50]

weren't some of the Remington Parlor Pistols that used a small lead ball powered by just a cap .17 caliber? seems I read that somewhere.

[KCSO]

I have shot an original parlor rifle that was muzzleloading and shot 17 calibre round balls propelled by a primer. It is a faux percussion lock with a rifled barrel 4 inches long at the muzzle and the cap is fired by a rod connected to the hammer.

[Buckshot Bill]

I wonder how .22 air rifle pellets would do in a .22 muzzle loader?

All the conventional air rifle pellets I have tried the skirts are too thin and they blow off. heavier eujin (sp?) more solid base pellets would be a different story, those are supplied with the NAA C&B kits. I thought some 40ish grn cast boolits would be fun to experiment with

[victorfox]

There s a guy on YouTube who made a 177 percussionista pistol...

[KCSO]

I make a conversion unit for Buffalo guns that used a 22 calibre barrel liner and shotgun primers. It will shoot into under an inch at 50 feet and is not only good for target practice with or big sharps indoors but is dandy for rabbits in the garden. I have to do one up next week I will try and post pictures. BUT you need to choose your pellets carefully as with some cheap ones it will blow the skirt off.

[Squeeze]

Saw a guy on another forum who made a smokeless capable with a .270 barrel. He was posting some amazing groups at longer ranges.