rat shooter

[randyt]

Years ago my father had acquired a old single shot 22 bolt action rifle that someone had cut down into a handgun with a 12 to 14 inch barrel. They had engraved and burned the words " rat shooter" on the side of the stock. My father rebarreled it and restocked it. He had owned a trailer court in east tenn. There were some colorful characters there to say the least. It probably came from one of them, he simply wanted the action.

Anyhoo, I was searching out some info on Sylvan Hart and came across a cut down rifle called a rat gun. Sylvan had lived in Idaho, my dad Tennessee. One of my gunsmith friends here in Michigan was looking for a stevens crackshot. He said he was having a hard time finding one because most had been cut down by trappers in this area of Michigan.

Is rat shooter a common term for a cut down 22 rifle?

[crashdive123]

Maybe, but I know it is for an old curmudgen from Kentucky. :whistling:

[rebel]

Moniker for a perceived purpose? Like “snake charmer” or “street sweeper”. My guess would be when it’s not likely to be used for hunting, it should have a designated name. IDK

[JohnLeePettimore]

Maybe, but I know it is for an old curmudgen from Kentucky. :whistling:

Great minds think alike.

[kyratshooter]

I never was much for cut down .22 rifles due to the NFA and their promise of a 10 year bed and board program.

My leanings were more to the .38 special, .45acp, and .44 special revolver offerings that kept prison out of the career plan. You used a revolver because one did not want to hunt for empty cases at the dump. Besides that, my reloads cost less than .22 ammo.

Many of the cut down guns came from the era before the NFA back in 1937. That is why the people in reference are old uncles and GG-dads.

One might think a cut down .22 would be handy but they are just as difficult to carry as a normal sized rifle. Not much way to make a holster and they are usually very clumsy and off balance.

The old timers carried them because they were cheap. You could get a used .22 for pennies back then, and a revolver would have cost several dollars.

BTW, never dispatch a rat using a .38 shot load inside the house at 2am. Your next of kin will still be bringing that up 30 years down the road!

[hunter63]

.........

BTW, never dispatch a rat using a .38 shot load inside the house at 2am. Your next of kin will still be bringing that up 30 years down the road!

Humm Kyrat...Ky rat shooter.....Got it....LOL

Used to shoot my Savage SS with out a stock on it....
Simplest cocking and trigger in the world.......Wound be easy to add a piston grip or mini stock...

Pic from web...mine doesn't have a scope...but check out the trigger.....

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/hunter63/2107%20july%20flood%20and%20place/2107%20july%20flood%20and%20place001/20jmxz9.jpgsavage_zps9awhtfyp.jpg (http://s4.photobucket.com/user/hunter63/media/2107%20july%20flood%20and%20place/2107%20july%20flood%20and%20place001/20jmxz9.jpgsavage_zps9awhtfyp.jpg.html)

[kyratshooter]

I have one of those.

It is cut down to the size of a Cricket rifle and was the first gun my son ever fired.

It does still have a short stock and a 16" barrel and I use an old style 7/8" 22 scope on it.

It is about due for a new mainspring after all these years.

Come to think about it that might be a good project for this afternoon.

Besides, the neighbors are complaining about me trying to play Salsa music on the electric guitar. Trying being the key word there.

[hunter63]

I have probably killed more,... varmints of all kinds, rabbits, squirrels and a few crows.....as well as grouse....than any gun I own.

Salsa on the electric guitar.....huh....How about my neighbors bagpipes ?

[randyt]

LOL, ya know I completely missed the connection between our friend from Ky and my original post.

It's kinda crazy, Hart's cut down rifle sits in a museum out in Idaho and I bet there is not a lick of federal paperwork for that rifle but maybe museums get some kind of a exemption.

[randyt]

here is a photo I pulled off line of Hart's cut down rifle.

https://i.imgur.com/fMKy6J9l.jpg

[crashdive123]

For a short barreled 22, this one is sure fun to shoot.

http://cdn2.armslist.com/sites/armslist/uploads/posts/2014/05/21/3087730_02_lnib_ruger_10_22_charger_640.jpg

[hunter63]

I don't know about rats so much....don't shoot pigeons in the barn ...from in the haymow.....from the inside...
Just saying.
Does remind me of a couple of "trapper guns" I have seen........
I gonna guess Kyrat was correct.....a $3 buck .22.... is cheaper that a $20 pistol.