doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Interesting Double .22 rifle

I was perusing Cabelas website and found this interesting double rifle. Ive seen the single shot rifles like this but not a double before.
Cabelas.com

Wow! There are proof marks and makers marks on the left side of the action... Black powder proof no earlier than 1893. The makers were F. Ernotte and Aciers Simon-Martin. Very unusual to see a sxs parlour gun.

Not sure what you would call that type action. I wonder what they would make of it on the ASSRA site.

Pete

Serious WOW!!!I have never understood why so few double 22s were made. Just the thing for following up wounded squirrels in heavy cover. I've seen one example from Churchill, a couple from Tony Galazan and from Peter Hofer. All wonderful toys and fine examples of the gunmaker's art. I also believe Famars is about to complete one. Now, if Tony were to offer spare 22 barrely for his RBLs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I dunno, a wounded squirrel in close quarters is nothing to take lightly. Once you have been among them you realize that there truly is no such thing as too much gun.

Glenn

Interesting little gun. The action looks most like the Flobert style but I've only seen them in single shots.

Mr. Fewless is hereby awarded the "Order of the Wounded Squirrel"

Glen,
Couldn't agree more. It may have been Ruark who said, "Once you look him (a gray squirrel) in the eye, there's one thing clear, one of you is going to die...although it may take a long while."

Yep it's a Flobert and probably twice as dangerous to shoot as it's single barrel compatriots.
Jim

Can't take that "Grey Death" to seriously,those little buggers just look you in the eye like "you own them money".I like my hunting buddy to back me with some big bore like a 22mag,up when I go in the brush after those nasty wounded greys

Acier Simon-Martin is not actually a maker. That is French for Simon-Martin steel. If I remember correctly that was an early electric reduction process for refining steel.

"Le Qui est Qui de L'Armurerie Liègeoise 1800-1950", par Guy Gadisseur, Michel Druart. Page 333,
"Abréviation SM, Titulaire Aciers Simon-Martin, Profession Canons de fusil"

I wasn't translating, it was a direct quote about a company. Simply forgot to note the source. There is not enough documentation available to accurately give a range of operational dates or location. They did register their "punch" with the Banc D'Epreuves des Arms a Fue Liège as SM.

The process you are referring to is the Siemens-Martin process which was an enhancement of the Bessemer process. I do not believe it was an electric furnace when invented in 1865. Aciers Simon-Martin was a Belgian barrel maker who was taking advantage of the confusion their name would cause.

Glenn, pay no attention. I have been in your Wisconsin forests and barely escaped from those vicious grays lurking the branches. I hear the WDNR is now issuing squirrel alerts on a regular basis to warn the tourists. Something about the nuts from Illinois makes them crazy.... Though I was told by a local that Green & Gold hats calm them down.

Pete

Give the guy a break, he needed a recoil pad on this gun, so a squirrel probably was dangerous game in his mind.

Jim

Heh, heh, that's a good one. Said local must have recognized you as a Flatlander. Fact is most of the squirrels are rabid Bear fans, dating back to when the team moved its training camp up into the heart of Wisconsin squirrel country. It seems that the squirrels are particularly cranky this year...


Glenn

Flobert?...looks like a Warnant to me....or do I have it backwards?

Warnant is Belgian and Flobert is French

This one was photographed shortly before an attack just outside the Elkhorn restaurant in Clam Lake.



Pete

Pete:

If you are out in the oaks and you see a small phone booth...



Glenn

Have been doing some serious squirrel hunting this fall with a high powered pellet gun and they ARE hard to kill. Even a head shot doesn't always stop them before they run off. Going through the lung cavity sometimes means they can run back home before their lungs fill up with blood and die. They make 'em tough around here.

I have squirrel hunted for well over 50 yrs now & drawn my own conclusions as to suitable arms. I have always found the squirrel to be a tough, vivacious little animal which deserves adequate "Killing". Over the years suspect I have lost more hit ones than any other game I have hunted. While I will occasionally use a shotgun my prefered arm is a .22 RF. I like the 40gr LR in a flat point, but absolutely do not want the "Crack" of a high velocity round. When a "Gang" of squirels are cutting a single tree, I have found that Supersonic "Crack" the most efficient "Tree-Emptier" possible to find, while with a subsonic they simply continue feeding. I have fired an old Stevens Favorite in .25 Stevens RF & with it's 60 gr flat point bullet @ 1050 fps was as quite as a .22 short. I feel if these were still readily available would be the ideal squirel gun. The 29gr wt of the .22 short can give reliable kills with head shots, but of all the various .22's I have hunted with over the years none would shoot them accurate enough (all were average guns chambered in LR). I have absolutely no desire to go less than this nor to see how "Minimum" I can use & still kill a squirrel. Most "Cheap" .22's with a litle ammo selection are simply superior to the finest pellet guns ever built at collecting squirrels (just one rednecked hillbilly's opinion).