Shooting the 22 short butler derringer

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WestKentucky

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Today I shot my little derringer a few times. Under the house at 5 yards. I was surprised by the noise of the short barrel mouse gun, even for shooting indoors it was a bit ridiculous. I very quickly determined that accuracy was next to nothing with this thing. As a defensive weapon it’s really a joke. 22 short with no accuracy in a defensive situation is better than nothing, but it’s still a liability. The only honest hope of success is to go point blank shoved against the assaillant and pop off the round. I fully expected this and really only intended the little gun to be a fun toy.

10 rounds of short was enough. My pattern was about a foot at 5 yards. I partially blame the terrible sights, but also the shallow almost nonexistent rifling in the unlined zinc barrel. Between the accuracy and noise I was done with shorts. I grabbed the #1 write drill and the cordless drill. Not worried about a clean chamber because I have already decided to reline it, I took the chamber deeper ever so slightly until a colibri fit. 22lr still will not fit, so there’s no dangerous conditions created.

Colibri ammo is quiet, but not silent. It was much more tolerable on noise, and shot a little bit better, but not much. When I reline this barrel I will probably buy a 22lr liner, and trim the chamber back to roughly what I have now. I don’t want to push LR through this zinc frame, and I thoroughly enjoyed burning a box of colibri. When I get a chance on a nice day I will go after a paper plate and post pics. It’s wet nasty and rainy today and the paper plate got destroyed when I slipped in the mud coming back up from my crawlspace door.
 
Today I shot my little derringer a few times. Under the house at 5 yards. I was surprised by the noise of the short barrel mouse gun, even for shooting indoors it was a bit ridiculous. I very quickly determined that accuracy was next to nothing with this thing. As a defensive weapon it’s really a joke. 22 short with no accuracy in a defensive situation is better than nothing, but it’s still a liability. The only honest hope of success is to go point blank shoved against the assaillant and pop off the round. I fully expected this and really only intended the little gun to be a fun toy.

10 rounds of short was enough. My pattern was about a foot at 5 yards. I partially blame the terrible sights, but also the shallow almost nonexistent rifling in the unlined zinc barrel. Between the accuracy and noise I was done with shorts. I grabbed the #1 write drill and the cordless drill. Not worried about a clean chamber because I have already decided to reline it, I took the chamber deeper ever so slightly until a colibri fit. 22lr still will not fit, so there’s no dangerous conditions created.

Colibri ammo is quiet, but not silent. It was much more tolerable on noise, and shot a little bit better, but not much. When I reline this barrel I will probably buy a 22lr liner, and trim the chamber back to roughly what I have now. I don’t want to push LR through this zinc frame, and I thoroughly enjoyed burning a box of colibri. When I get a chance on a nice day I will go after a paper plate and post pics. It’s wet nasty and rainy today and the paper plate got destroyed when I slipped in the mud coming back up from my crawlspace door.
Good post. Do you find the Colibri ammo an interesting smell like I do?
 
Haven’t really paid it much attention. Every time I have shot colibri I have been in spots with strong smells that would likely overpower anything colibri puts off anyway. Flowers in the yard in the spring, dust under the house in the fall etc. now that it’s been mentioned I will pay attention.
 
Today I shot my little derringer a few times. Under the house at 5 yards. I was surprised by the noise of the short barrel mouse gun, even for shooting indoors it was a bit ridiculous. I very quickly determined that accuracy was next to nothing with this thing. As a defensive weapon it’s really a joke. 22 short with no accuracy in a defensive situation is better than nothing, but it’s still a liability. The only honest hope of success is to go point blank shoved against the assaillant and pop off the round. I fully expected this and really only intended the little gun to be a fun toy.

10 rounds of short was enough. My pattern was about a foot at 5 yards. I partially blame the terrible sights, but also the shallow almost nonexistent rifling in the unlined zinc barrel. Between the accuracy and noise I was done with shorts. I grabbed the #1 write drill and the cordless drill. Not worried about a clean chamber because I have already decided to reline it, I took the chamber deeper ever so slightly until a colibri fit. 22lr still will not fit, so there’s no dangerous conditions created.

Colibri ammo is quiet, but not silent. It was much more tolerable on noise, and shot a little bit better, but not much. When I reline this barrel I will probably buy a 22lr liner, and trim the chamber back to roughly what I have now. I don’t want to push LR through this zinc frame, and I thoroughly enjoyed burning a box of colibri. When I get a chance on a nice day I will go after a paper plate and post pics. It’s wet nasty and rainy today and the paper plate got destroyed when I slipped in the mud coming back up from my crawlspace door.

Sounds like an interesting project. If I can remember where I stuck it I have short section of RedMan barrel liner left from a rifle project I would be glad to pass on to you. I'm just sitting here wasting time so I'll go look for it.
 
OK, I should have just kept my idea to myself. I thought it would be with the deep drill I used to do the rifle. Nope, and it's nowhere to be found. I did dig out a few things I had squirreled away and forgot about but no liner and I'm out of hiding places to look in.
 
OK, I should have just kept my idea to myself. I thought it would be with the deep drill I used to do the rifle. Nope, and it's nowhere to be found. I did dig out a few things I had squirreled away and forgot about but no liner and I'm out of hiding places to look in.
Thanks, and that’s probably a good thing. It’s going to be a while before I tackle that anyway. I have projects that are not functional that need to be functional before I move on to improvements anyway. My winter project list is 2 antique revolvers, 1 reproduction SAA buntline, and a S&W model 10 ppc budget build, and I fully expect to not finish that list because I have about 80 small trees to cut and other “around the house” stuff going on. Not to mention some work projects and a boat to finish and sell in “prime time”.
 
After a couple incidents in my valley where people shot another with a
small caliber Derringer.

I decided to get a big one.
DTa18.jpg
With only 2-shots vs 5-shots.

The Bond Arms is slower to reload, but I still like it
over a LCR. Maybe not a Bond Arms BP9 if
they ever get them into Dealer hands.
 
. Maybe not a Bond Arms BP9 if
they ever get them into Dealer hands.

As I understand it, they're still selling them direct as fast as they can make them. Give Bond a call, they'll get one to your FFL for you.

I've been EDC'ing one for almost a year now, and it's by far the best built, best finished, and most reliable gun I own.
 
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