Yesterday's Weapons Forums

What kind of hunting rifle would be used for rabbits around 1860-70? What kind of range would it have? Thanks.

Malcolm

now thats an interesting question , its out of my collecting era [so far] so ill be interested to see what those who know about this time period offer up

I would say a percussion rifle about .36 caliber. Breech loaders weren't readily available until after the war. I bet muzzle loading shotguns and fowlers were widely used.

wow - 36cal might waste a lot of meal , i bet your right about the shot

quite a few folks used buckshot charges to hunt small game

GG

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Gungrubber

Even my 36" underhammer with a 32" barrel starts to peter out past 125 yds or so. Not enough wieght vs. resistance. In the black powder world, bigger is better.... more weight can carry velocity at greater distances as a heavy round ball is less affected by wind & friction.

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
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Jeff

The Garendoni Air rifle carried to the Pacific and back worked the whole trip for Lewis and Clark. It killed quite a bit of food for the party. Buck or ball.
They were actually an Austrian Military issue rifle at one time.
I think they almost killed a fella, on accident, with theirs , befor the trip started.
Clak used it to amaze Whites, while the indians were content to be amazed with regular muskets, and Lewis's Black indentured servent...~!LOL!~ (I forgot his name), but he was quite the ice breaker, with Sacagawia and baby Pompe'. Kind took the Indians as a surprize, and war partys did'nt take women, commonly, so all went well.

Even 58 cal Springfields could shoot buck or shot as well as Minie's ball.

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Hailstone

Shotguns were most common for small game I guess and many people in country where both rabbits and other small game as well as larger game were found a smaller caliber rifle would have been used.
You must remember that we are talking about an era when shot and powder were precious, when often as not your shot was depended on to put game on the table, when often as not there was only opportunity for one shot. Back then they were good shots and the art of shooting was a science, they had it down to perfection. In those days they also competed a lot against each other at village fairs and so on as there was not tne range of distractions there are today and one had to make ones own fun and so shooting competitions were quite common and most people were indeed good shots. They hunted large and small game with muzzle loading rifles and as often as not each shot was a kill - I really should take a lesson from that as I use a semi auto .22 for rabbits!

i learned a lot from this thread - thank you

prompted by this discussion i looked into things a little [granted i just got a rifle i was interested in researching ] and found that ....

in 1887 "Stevens" developed the 22LR round , i thought it was sooner myself

I have heard that the shot gun was the 1 gun most people had and used doing this time.Old greener or Snyder's i would think.

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JOHNNY WACKO

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