Zimmerstutzen rifles
B.B. has written an interesting article on early target shooting with the Zimmerstutzen rifles.
The Zimmerstutzen was the ancestor of the 10-meter target [air] rifle and extends back to at least 1840. Zimmerstutzen is the rough translation of “parlor rifle” in German. The first zimmer was powered by a percussion cap that propelled a small lead ball through a short rifled barrel.
What I found fascinating was that there were 25 different Zimmerstutzen calibers!
A Zimmerstutzen comes in the nominal caliber 4mm, but in fact there are over 25 discrete calibers that range from 4mm to 5.55mm, in half-milimeter increments.

Zimmerstutzen vs .22LR
Read the article here.

Awesome blog post.Thanks Again. Awesome.
Zimmerstutzen is “room shooter” in German
i have one of these rifle in excellent if not nearly new,what are they worth? mine is complete with the removable peep site.
thank you
grumpy
My Grandfather has two of these rifles, and they are a BLAST to shoot in the basement with the special target he made for us. On my 13th birthday we went down stairs and had a contest, and that’s a memory of me and my Grandpa i’ll never forget.