Originally Posted By: Lowell Glenthorne
What is the "False-barrel rifle."
Something new to me!


Around the turn of the century gallery shooting (sort of an indoor Schuetzen shooting) was very popular, they shot .22 shorts at 75 feet offhand in a 100 round match. The final shoot off was at the Zettler gallery in New York City, folks came from all over the USA to compete. A.O. Niedner did some experimenting and decided that a barrel 7 ½” long would not foul with the black-powder shells of the day. So he built himself a gallery rifle with a 7 ½” barrel that is inside of the false-barrel.

If you look at the picture you can see Niedner with his Ballard which has a short barrel as well.



MP Sadly Deceased as of 2/17/2014