Originally Posted by
zippy
Wouldn't you need to change the barrel sleeve for a .177 rifled one as well?
The drag differential between head and skirt keeps the pellet travelling headfirst, like a shuttlecock.
In my misspent youth, I did some experiments with a .22 rimfire smoothbore garden gun. When I shot rifle cartridges like LR or Shorts, the bullet toppled within a foot or two of the muzzle and I couldn't keep them all on a roughly foot-square pistol target at 10 yards. When I tried a .22 airgun pellet propelled by a starting-pistol blank, the results were far better - about 1.5 inches offhand at 10 yards.
Regards,
MikB
...history... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. (Edward Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)