Rook rifle
The rook rifle, originally called the rook and rabbit rifle, is an obsolete English single-shot small calibre rifle intended for shooting small game, particularly rook shooting. Design The rook rifle was designed to be light enough to be carried for a walk in the country, accurate and powerful enough to take small game and usually elegant in balance, fit and finish. Almost always single shot, various actions were used including break-open actions, but the miniature Martini, a scaled-down version of the military Martini-Henry, was a favourite due to its strength and accuracy. The first rook rifles fired calibre bullets, although subsequently a number of cartridges were developed for this purpose ranging in calibre from and firing bullets at the usual black powder velocities of . History The rook rifle was developed in 1883 by the gun-makers Holland & Holland as a breech-loading equivalent of the muzzle-loading pea rifle. Holland & Holland made a particular specialty of producing rook rifles, reportedly selling around 5,000 of them in the late 1800s. Westley Richards and W.W. Greener were also noted for their rook rifles. Rook rifles were used extensively both in Britain and throughout the British Empire with large numbers being exported to