The blue CCI caps due seem to pattern better (further) than the crimped shells.

Wonder if you can take an old cheap single shot and scrub the rifling out?....

I don't have the Garden Gun but I shoot the CCI shotshells out of my 2 oldest single shots... they ain't smoothbore but I can still hit a sparrow at 30-35 feet

I thought that but I wasn't sure how to execute the derifling

You're right on the 18" barrel, I never thought about legalities til you said it.

Looks like it should work well for you. The CCI's are big money for birdshot .22. lol

I got one. Shot it quite a bit. The blue shot shells are a nightmare. The plastic breaks. The crimped brass are better but still have issues with extraction. I shoot carpenter bees with mine and it don’t get much funner. Safety glasses on and let em rip. I’ve prolly went thru 500 rounds over last 4 years. Noticeable lack of bees last year. I’m putting it on em.

A Hopper hunting gun. Boy you could really go through the ammo with a lever action gun. Mine is a single shot Savage Jr-rifled.....jk

you can

There's an article Hal wrote in FFG about it

neither do a lot of people
I was talking to a guy at the gym old marine he just bought himself a new Mossberg 20ga auto , he was going to sell his rabbit gun , I thought I would buy it as a loaner for the 4H kids he is the kind of guy who always takes good care of his gear. he handed it too me , it was about perfect.

but I tossed a tape measure on it 18 1/2 to the end of the poly choke but if you unscrew the poly choke 17 1/4 I told him the law and that I was sorry I couldn't play that close to the line. he had it cut down by a licensed gun smith 20 year ago for his son , never thought anything of it.

well he went home and started researching , I saw him about a week later and he had decided he had to torch cut it because it wasn't worth the hassle he had even contacted the ATF.
it was a single shot 20ga

sometimes I hate to be right because there was nothing wrong with it , just dumb 92 year old unconstitutional dribble.

he said he had stopped with that gun in his hands and talked to the warden a dozen times over the years
I said the warden probably figured it met 18 , the US government sold over a million SBRs before they changed the law , they hadn't thought to toss a rule on a M1 carbine , then in 1967 some one did and in 1968 they made center fire rifles 16 inches as an M1 carbine is 17 3/4
in 1936 they made 22rimfire rifles 16 inches because it had been a common size for boys rifles barrels for many years by 1934 22short started in 1857 22long in 1871 and 1887 for 22lr
1936 also brought about the AOW so that the many Ithaca defender shotguns with 14 inch barrels could be registered for 5 dollars by the congressmen and wealthy business men who owned them.

they had tried to eliminate pistols and were told they could not with CGA 1934 so but they left all the language about cutting down rifles and shotguns in that went with the pistol ban.

Poor killing range will bounce off a bottle pretty easily at a few yards distance, it’s an up close and personal round from my experience.

BB gun BB's will go through the tin on my shed, this doesn't. It'll kill sparrows though

I bet you could load it with shorts fine and it would group ok at 50 feet

things don't need spin stabilization till they start to slow down

Wonder how a Thompson contender might be classified with # 12 shot?I know that works up close on snakes and carpenter bees in 45 cal.

I tried cci 22 shot shells as a kid and found out fast that you’d be better off throwing a handful of sand.

On the barrel it's stamped ".22lr shot shells only"

I have no idea if it's a bit different chamber or barrel size or if that's just a precaution for the lawyers

I use an old Winchester model 62A . A pump gun, tube fed top ejection. I've put a whole bunch of CCI's blue top threw it with no trouble at all. At the farm I called it my relax time. I'd good by the machine lean too where the carpenter bees were trying eat it down and have at it. The Winchester crimped ones would jam in the chamber many times plus they sounded louder. Had yourself some fun but wear some safety glasses.