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?
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