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A 20 bore single certainly works well, but a 16 is probably getting a bit close to 12 bore shot weights for the recoil to be comfortable if it is built as a light gun.

There is a reason why all those basic 12 bore singles are built with thick walled heavy barrels.

AGS,

One reason for the number of conversions was an unintended consequence of the Firearms Act. Prior to the introduction of the Obsolete Calibres List both original calibre Rook rifles and those tubed to .22 were required to be held on a Firearm Certificate with the need to demonstrate “good reason” to possess and use (difficult when the ammunition ceased to be made).

It was much easier to re-bore them to .410 so the owner just needed a Gun Licence (10 shillings over the counter at the Post Office) or after 1968 a Shotgun Certificate with no good reason having to be demonstrated.

Lagopus,

We know from the Greener records that mine was bought in for 35/- from “Thomas” who was almost certainly the Patentee John Thomas .

He had been for 8 years work’s manager at Tipping and Lawden but by 1880 was trading in his own name 66 and 67 Slaney Street, Birmingham as a maker to the trade as set out in his advert reproduced in Vol. 2 of Crudginton and Baker.

Mine was clearly extensively re-worked by Charles Greener for his daughter May and almost certainly re-stocked ( I don’t think that even in 1882 35/- bought you walnut that nice in a Rook rifle).

What Greener’s records do not show was whether at 35/- the batch of .380 Rook rifles arrived as barrelled actions or substantially finished?

It was the lack of centre fire rook rifle ammunition being produced and the .22rf. that sounded then death knell. Main options were to re-bore to .410 or re-tube and convert to .22rf. or .22 Hornet. All those options can be found. The valuable ones now are those that are original.

Most of the rook rifle models had full length octagonal barrels and when converted to .410 had the main part of the barrel taken down to the round leaving about 8 inches of octagonal area at the breech to balance them better for shotgun shooting. Lagopus.....

"all those basic 12 bore singles are built with thick walled heavy barrels.""

In my experience not äll"quality singles have heavy barrels or are heavy overall. What I did see in many of these quality singles is a geneeours barrel wall thickness, usually around 40 thou combined with slight overboring. Forty thou in a single yields similar weight to a 20 thou double with none of the weakness. At first I thought the overbore was the result of honing, but I have seen it in so many singles that it cannot attributed solely to honing. I suspect that it might have been an attempt to lessen recoil.

I did have a single barrel 12 bore with Damascus barrels and originally black powder proof. It started life as a 16 bore and was then later bored out and re-chambered to 12 bore and then nitro proof tested.
These singles were often made with thicker barrels to tame recoil and this just goes to show how much can be taken out and it still pass as safe. It did kick a bit though. Lagopus.....