http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....is-the-historyOriginally Posted by ccdjg
Very interesting. I had a quick look on the net and found this, which describes a signed Flobert pistol dated to about 1855, and definitely .22. https://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24936
(In France the metric system was in place, so Flobert would have considered his calibre to be 5.6 mm rather than .22 inches)
So we can now push the date of .22 calibre back to the 1840-50’s period, and can assume that airguns played no part in developing this calibre. The question now remains, did Flobert come up with the size himself, or was he just using 5.6mm percussion caps that were already in common usage at the time?We now need an expert historian in early nineteenth century firearms to comment.
Incidentally, it is very true as noted earlier that it is often the simplest questions that are the most difficult to answer. A classic example is the waisted airgun pellet. Despite being one of the most important advances in airgun technoloigy, no one has yet been able to determine who invented them, or who was the first to commercialise them.
The other thread covers derivation of .22 as a caliber - first introduced in 1845:
"...A gallery gun, Flobert gun, saloon gun, or parlor gun is a type of firearm designed for indoor shooting. These guns were first developed in 1845 when French inventor Louis Nicolas Flobert modified a percussion cap to hold a small lead bullet." [source: wikipedia]
In the same year: "Flobert modified the cap further by creating a rim at the edge so that the cap and bullet could fit in a chamber of a pistol
So we already know use of .22 in rimfire appears well before airgun.
HOWEVER: I am intrigued to know when the first waisted pellets are invented - I believe someone has already offered this to be after 1900?
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