Your post only just arrived on this server, I had checked the shotgun maximum and as you say it is 2" which Equates to just over a 2 pound lead shot. The 4bore is tiny in comparison.
I'm sure you could buy .22 rimfire ammo with just a few small shot in them, maybe 9 No.8, for ratting.
AJH
Yes, dust shot for small birds/rats, not seen any recently (not been looking mind), probably out there, but whose got a smooth bore .22? A rare beast, and with .22 rimfire solids being quite common even the 100 year antique doesn't apply so I suspect any .22 would have to be on FAC with the apropriate condition for use for "vermin"?
Niel.
This was the No.3 bore or 9mm Garden Gun. The 3 bore here is not from the same series as the '12 bore', '16 bore' etc (number of lead spheres to the pound), but some other separate, archaic nomenclature.
The ones I've seen (and used to own) were single shot, bolt action, Belgian, I think.
They are rimfire. The (shot) cartridges used to be made of thin card/thick paper with just a one-piece metal end where the brass would be on a 12 bore cartridge. The difference was that the paper burnt up when the round was fired, leaving just the metal to be extracted. At least, that was the theory. The paper remnants in practice often ended up in the barrel to be cleared by the next shot,
I have heard that there is one foreign manufacturer still making the cartridges, but in an all-metal version.
In principle, the calibre would be easily allowable on a shotgun licence in UK, but in practice I think all examples have relatively short barrels which are less than the permissable shotgun length. So they would need to be on an FAC.
Don.
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