By Mike Schoby
I geek out over micro smoothbores, often referred to as garden guns. In a world of urban sprawl and ever shrinking landscapes, something that will kill small pests and even game like cottontails and squirrels around the house, suburban or rural, with minimal noise without disturbing or endangering the neighbors has a place.
While widely used overseas, the garden gun is not a firearm that caught on stateside. I would attribute it to our common use of pellet guns and .22 rimfires and historically more rural landscapes than England or continental Europe. Even though we at FE often joke about “safety third,” touching off a .22 LR in most backyards (unless you live in the country) is often not responsible. As most will remember from hunter ed, a standard .22 LR can travel over a mile if unobstructed and even ricochets can go half this far. However, a smoothbore rimfire shot cartridge is probably harmless after 50 yards.
I have owned and used several smoothbore .22s over the years, but they all have been chambered in .22 long rifle, even though CCI has manufactured .22 WMR (magnum) shot loads for years, to the best of my knowledge no major manufacture has built a smoothbore rifle in a magnum. Until now.
The Magnum Garden Gun
Henry introduced its lever-action H1 Garden Gun in .22 LR several years ago. For 2026, they chambered the gun in .22 WMR and I had to test it out. Both guns look nearly identical—black ash stocks are rustically finished to give it an old time feel, unlike the company’s standard H1 Classic lever action, which sports a more traditional walnut stock and finish. The tubular magazine holds 12 magnum shot cartridges versus 15 in the long rifle. It is a small gun at a touch over 5 pounds and 36.5 inches in overall length.
While the guns are nearly identical, what I really wanted to know is how much more effective is the magnum load? This is something I had to test.
There are only three main shot loads for .22 rimfire—CCI, Federal and Winchester. In my testing I have found the plastic-cupped CCI superior for uniform patterns. Between the magnum and long rifle offering the numbers are as follows. The CCI .22 LR fires a 31-grain payload of number #12 shot at 1,000 fps. The .22 Magnum load still uses the same #12 shot at 1,000 fps, but the payload bumps up to 52 grains. This is a difference in pellets of 278 versus 165—roughly a 70% increase in total pellet count.
For testing purposes, I decided to use my old 1930’s Remington 510 Target Master .22 LR as a baseline. This model features the Routledge bore, which throws extremely well balanced, even patterns. The Routledge bore was names after Fred Routledge, a competitive trap shooter of the day who invented this barrel design, which is essentially a standard .22-caliber smoothbore for the first 10-14 inches of barrel, which then expands to .375 or .410 bore for the remainder of the barrel.
Starting at 15 yards, I used a sheet of 8.5×11-inch copier paper and counted the total number of hits. I repeated this test several times then averaged the total count.
Testing on Paper & Pests
The .22 LR Remington put an average of 59 hits onto the paper with good dispersion and few holes. At 20 yards the number of hits went down to 32. Next up was the Henry Garden Gun. At 15 yards the magnum averaged 114 hits, and at 20 yards the number was down to 47. At 15 yards, the 22 LR keeps about a third of the total payload on paper. The Henry .22 Magnum keeps a bit more than a third of the total payload on paper, but when you stretch it out to 20 yards the .22 Long Rifle has a slight percentage increase of total payload on paper, indicating there may be something to the Routledge bore, but not so significant that it makes much of a difference.
I did not paper test any further than 20 yards as the energy per pellet is so low it renders itself ineffective even if the target is struck.
Now for real world testing. Luckily around my house I have plenty of starlings and sparrows to eliminate. I shot numerous of the pests with the Henry stuffed with the CCI loads. At 10 yards and in, the results were instantaneous death with no misses. Birds at 15 yards still died, but a bit more flopping around occurred. There were also no misses at this range. Between 15 and 20 yards you could tell the pellets were hitting with less energy and holes started to emerge in the pattern with occasional misses on small sparrows or single-pellet winged birds that my Brittany begrudgingly dispatched.
Overall, I applaud Henry for being the only manufacturer to release a smoothbore rimfire in modern times. In addition, they are the only ones to do it in a magnum offering. So, what to choose if your backyard needs protection? If you want the ultimate in performance, the Magnum is the clear winner. But if your shooting is under 10 yards, the Henry long rifle version is quieter and cheaper to shoot. At least you now have choices.
Price: $500
Pros: The Henry Garden Gun is the only smoothbore currently made for the .22 Magnum, and the extra payload makes it superior to long rifle smoothbores.
Cons: I would prefer the gun without sights; a simple bead would be equally effective and likely cheaper to produce.
