Apache (Simco?) .22

[TerryM]

  Found this item at a gun show this morning.  Not a maker's mark anywhere on it.  Found one a few years back that was the dual caliber, .24 ball with round hole loading port and .177 BB insert.  This one is .22 caliber with an open breech.  Does not pump up but seems mechanically sound.  Has a ball detent for holding the pump arm shut.  Maybe I can get this one shooting.  I wonder how many were made like this.
   

   

[oldair]

You found an odd one; Simco/Texan rifles in .22 are scarce compared to the .24 and .24/BB versions.  Very cool!  That ball detent may not be original though.

Don R.

[JoninMA]

D.W. Trull is going to learn you very shortly, he knows his stuff. I had one a few years back, bb barely insert and .24 lead balls. (Screened #4 shot work great). Mine was unmarked too.

[Latches]

I have two of these. One works fine.  Neither has the metal plate with ball insert at the end of the pump arm, but both have a hole in the receiver that could hold a ball for retaining the pump arm.  Yours is probably an early version before cost cutting removed the retaining ball feature.

[DWTrull]

Your apache is a home-made .22 conversion. They simply cut open the breech and added a .22 caliber barrel. I've seen several of these garage made apache conversions. I posted three different homemade examples below.

Makes sense, since the .24 lead shot is a pain in the @@@ to get. Simple to open up the breech and add a .22 caliber barrel so you can use .22 pellets instead of .24 ball ammo.  I bought an apache that had a .177 barrel swapped in and use ball shot.

Simco experimented with using .22 caliber lead shot using a repeater receiver without the magazine. I've seen three or four of these.

Lastly Simco produced the .22 caliber Texan just before going out of business. These models had a open breech and are featured on the Texan Flyer.
I have only seen two .22 caliber Texans. One is pneumatic and the other is CO2. So factory .22 in ball or pellet are pretty rare and are made by SIMCO.

There is no ball detent, all apache receivers have this hole, its just part of the casting.

[Latches]

Dave: You say there is no ball detent on these rifles.  Is the ball detent shown in the photos an aftermarket addition?

[JoninMA]

Apache lead shot is near unobtanium, but the #4 buckshot trick works great. On its own the shot is too small and will not catch the rifling and just roll out the barrel from gravity. The trick is to "screen" it. Take 2 small squares of window screen and sandwich 1 #4 buckshot at a time between them. Just roll the shot between your fingers and the screen for a bit. This feathers up the shot enough for it to catch the rifling. Accurate? Well I had a squirrel get smacked by one at 15 yards with 10 pumps. He wasn't coming down for breakfast the next morning.