i have seen these rifles listed in my 1912 Holland&Holland catalogue, chambered for the .250, .295 and .360 rook cartridges.

and it immediately got my intention, this should surely be a splendid gun to use in the garden, and around the house.

i understand this was a British "thing", are you still performing this kind of sport?
if so, which guns and cartridges are you using(since the rook cartridges are obsolete)?

any directions on where i can find information about the guns, cartridges or the sport, would be really helpful.

There was a book written in England within a year ago but I have not got one yet. In had 10 rook rifles in all different variety's.I only have 5 or 6 left but hunt groundhog's a couple times a week with my Holland 300 rook hammerless ej. I also hunt squirrels with them. They are sometimes hard to find for sale but come uo here and there.I have a Woodward that I am going to sell soon to make room for other guns.

Steffen,

The rook rifle is a throw back to the days when every parish/village/esate had a rookery. it was traditional in the sping just before the young rooks were able to fly far, to shoot some of them. They were called branchers. basically these rifles were designed for this reason. In those days the rook was thought to be a good table bird and rook pie is something that many enjoyed.

Since corvids are now collectively seen to be bad news, and many rookerys have been shot out the rifles are not such a usefull tool. Those undertaking corvid control often either decoy with shotguns like they would shoot pigeons, or use rifles like the .17HMR or some of the 22 centrefires. Overall corvids are more likely to be trapped than shot though.

We had some good sport this year thinning out the local rooks/crows and Jackdaws, and accounted for about 300 or so in a 2-3 outings. I'll be a little more organised next year and try to get a few more as we have them in huge numbers.

As for the rabbit rifle, I think the advance of the accurate and cheap .22LR made any other tool for rabbit control obelete very quickly.

Squidgells are usually shot in Jan-Feb by poking the dreys with long poles and shooting the bolted squidgells with shotguns. We manage to shoot between 3-10 each day we go out pheasant shooting, accounting for about 35 through the season. However for effective controll the only way is with tunnel/fenn traps. I have a keeper friend that caught 28 squidgells in a single trap by a pheasant feeder last march!! Rifles tend not to be so effective!!

The 9mm garden gun is still popular for the shooting of rats and pests in barns/shed etc. however that fires a small load of shot.

Rgds,
FB

Steffen, I have little to add to the very complete answer from Fallow Buck, but just to say that I learned to shoot with what might have been termed a "rook rifle"; this being a general term for low powered rifles of small calibre. The weapon I used was in fact a Colt .22 rifle chambered for .22 rimfire short pistol ammo. It was a pump action 10 shot hammer rifle made in the 1890's in Massachusets. These rifles were made for fair ground rifle ranges and had fixed iron sights. It was accurate (after a lot of practice!) to about 50 metres, but on occasion I managed to pull off longer shots - thanks to youthful eyesight. I shot squirrel, rabbit, brown hare, red fox, crows and other corvids, rat and god knows what else, but it was a great way to learn as I had to learn real marksmanship. These days there has been a resurgence of the popularity of small calibres as the air rifle has been transformed into something useful. I have recently got a .177 air rifle which will roll a bunny over at 50 metres - I'm having a lot of fun!