Parlour Pistols and Flobert Loads

by JimT, Texas, Sunday, February 04, 2024, 11:46 (91 days ago)

Messing around with some .22 caliber round balls in the air rifle, I hit upon the idea of loading and shooting them in my little .22 caliber Bearcat Shopkeeper. No powder charge, just the priming. And it worked pretty well! So from there I decided to see how they compared to the Colibri .22's loaded with a 20 gr. “pellet” and are pretty silent, running a bit over 400 fps.

I set up my .22 bullet trap with 14 sheets of cardboard in front of it. Past experience taught me that when shooting indoors you ALWAYS need to make sure none of the projectiles go any other place than where you intend them to go, and to make preparations just in case they have more power than you think they do. (no .. don't ask)

Using the Russian primed cases I loaded 2 round ball loads in my “Parlour Pistol” and fired them into the cardboard from about 5 feet. I round ball penetrated 6 sheets of cardboard and was stopped by the 7th. One round ball penetrated 5 sheets of cardboard and was stopped by the 6th.

I then loaded 2 of the Colibri rounds and fired them. A “clang” told me one had gone through all 14 sheets of cardboard and into the bullet trap. Examination of the sheets confirmed what I heard. The other shot penetrated 13 sheets and was stopped by the 14th sheet.

More than twice the power of my home-made round ball loads.

I then decided to try some pointed .22 caliber pellets loaded into the Russian primed cases. To get them to fit I had to mangle the hollow base. I am sure that did not help velocity or accuracy. Firing them into the cardboard I pellet penetrated 4 sheets and stopped in the 5th sheet. 1 pellet penetrated 5 sheets and stopped in the 6th sheet.

The round ball is much easier to use.

Recovered pointed pellet

Recovered round ball

There was no leading in the cylinder or the bore. I lubed all the rounds I shot before loading them into the pistol. There was some carbon in the chambers and the bore. A pass with the brass brush cleaned it right up.

The .22 Round Ball weighs 15 grains.
The .22 Pointed Pellet weighs 14 grains.
The Colibri Pellet weighs 20 grains and is rated at 420 fps by Aguila.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.