doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Rook rifles ?

It's time I learned some answers to some questions I have had about "rook rifles". Let's start with what I think I know. I think rook rifles were mostly mid-caliber centerfire single shots that were used to take potshots at crows (rooks) in G. Britain. From what I have garnered a gamekeeper, or other shooter, would slip surreptitiously into a rookery ( a crow roost?) and look to take potshots at crows sitting in trees.

If any, or part, of this is accurate I have a couple questions that are bugging me about it all. Why were calibers used that seem to use bullets that are heavy and slow, and with a rainbow trajectory? Why was the .22 LR not used in these rook rifles, since it is entirely capable of taking out a crow? I've killed many with it, with never a wounded loss.

It just seems to me that the whole concept of single shot rifles to reduce the number of crows on an estate would have been much better served with a .22 LR. Was it a matter of timing? Had the .22 LR not been developed by the time the mid-caliber, so called rook rifles were in demand, or was there some other obvious reason I am missing?

Rook rifles were developed by extremely vindictive English chess players in the early 1880s. Because it would have been unseemly and uncouth to target the Bishops, the Queen, or the King. But rooks... Well, who gave a damn.

Accounts that I have read seem to suggest that this was as more a sport activity than merely a crow cull.
The "rooks" were juvenile crows sitting on branches - and referred to as "branchers".

This rooking was done before the 22rf became popular as I understand.
The slow bullet was likely preferred for a short carry.
YMMV.

It is a shame so many were converted into a .410. Trying to convert them back, into a proper rook caliber, is often impossible due to liner wall thickness and lack of bore diameter even in a .410. Plus many of the original calibers are for long discontinued calibers which even hand loading are a bit of extra work. You often can just line them to .22 and alter the bolt to put them back in service. I guess with the .17 rim-fire you cold go that direction. But I liked the low power nature of the original caliber, which limited their range and their being used in tighter spaces. If you bullet carries a mile you have a back stop issue.

Had they not been converted to .410’s, giving them a new lease of life and much simplified legal status, many of the rook rifles that still survive would have gone as scrap.

The pity is that so many, on conversion, had the front part of the barrel turned down from octagon to round with the change being marked by 2 or 3 circular grooves turned into the barrel.

This was pretty unsightly and in my view the rounding down of the barrel was unnecessary as in boring out to .410 a lot of metal is removed from the barrel leaving the octagonal barrel, if left alone, quite nicely balanced.

It also made it much more difficult to restore them to their original state as rifles such as .32-20 as many have done in recent years.

To prove it could be done nicely (if it had to be done at all) here is how it was done by Charles Edward Greener ( W.W. Greener’s son) for his daughter May.



The original fully octagon barrel has been blended into an ovate shape with the original matted top flat being preserved all the way to the muzzle. Note the chisel work done to blend the change.