[Drakejake]

I know that some revolvers were made for .22 short and cannot take .22 LR, but why would anyone pay premium prices to buy and shoot .22 short? Is there some reason for shooting .22 short or .22 long in pistols or rifles that can fire .22 LR? (I bought some .22 short and some .22 shot shells today.)

Thanks,

Drakejake

[Soap]

Pest disposal.

[Drakejake]

Is .22 short used for pest disposal because it penetrates less? Is there any other reason to use it rather than .22LR?

Drakejake

[Peter M. Eick]

Skunks in the garage sucumb to 22longs out of my k-22 and rats in the brush go to shorts with the same gun!

[Crimper-D]

The .22 Short is an exceedingly accurate load... Used a .22 Short to shoot Rapidfire matches in college (old Hi Standard Olympic) = Good gun, Good load = great scores:p

[Drakejake]

Why would .22 short be more accurate than .22LR?

Drakejake

[Standing Wolf]

The .22 short is the round of choice in a number of competitive shooting events.

I have to confess I've never seen a .22 long.

[firestar]

I used to shoot alot of pest birds and I found that the .22 short seemed to kill much faster and better than the .22lr. When it hits a bird, it tends to dump all its energy into the bird and knock it down while the .22lr might zip through the bird and give the bird a chance to fly off. It probably dies anyway but you asked what the .22short was better at than the .22lr.

The quiteness is the main selling point of the short, it is only a little louder than a .22 cb but is more powerful.

I shoot .22 shorts and CBs in my garage sometimes and the neighbors never hear it.;)

[Matt Sutton]

My Marlin 39 will hold 25 of them in the tube. 'Nuff said!

[Shmackey]

Rapid-fire competition = 22short.

[labgrade]

I'll always buy any firearm to shoot .22LR and will still see what shoots best, not with shorts, but actually CB caps, etc.

I like the option of an accurate dowloadable & more quiet round. & that Colibri "no-powder" round is a pretty nifty alternative, BTW.

Still, I want the option of shooting the "beefiest" (if that can be said of a .22 LR).

I only have one .22 rifle that'll shoot LR, longs, shorts, etc. interchangeablly - a nice option. 'Course, all .22 revolvers'll do that.

BTW, Drakejake, do pattern those .22 "shotshells" on an emplty coke can at 10 yards to see what you think first. My experience is they suck = 2-3 holes of #12 shot .... YMMV, but I'd save my money unless you lucked out with somethig that'll actually shoot 'em worthwhile.

Too, many of the shorts are "high velocity" - just with a lower weight bullet so gives nothing away as far as quiet.

Go CB caps, etc. for that.

[MLH]

Are great for hunting squirrels. You can just sit in one place and pick the little critters off without disturbing any thing cause they don't make much noise. When you get your limit go around and pick them up and take them home for the SO to clean and cook!:D

[El Tejon]

CBs in short and longs. Great for teaching kids to shoot, no crack.:)

[rick_reno]

I don't believe the 22 short is inherently more accurate than the 22 long rifle. In rapid fire pistol competition the short has less recoil and you're able to get back on target and do shot set up a little more quickly. Many of these events you have N seconds to deliver some fixed number of shots, and that little bit of extra time you get with the short could be important.

[ArmaLube]

Revolvers chambered for 22 LR are ideally suited to using any of the lower powered 22 cartridges. Reasons for doing this could include any combination of the following reasons.

a. Lower powered round is sufficient for the task.
b. Reduced noice.
c. Short range shooting.
d. Improved safety, in the event of ricochets or missed backstop.
e. Lower ammo costs.

"ArmaLube (http://www.armalube.com) Hits The Mark"

[Mike Irwin]

At one time the more powerful the .22 round, the more you paid for it.

In relative order of expense, from around the turn of the century:

.22 CB
.22 Short
.22 Long
.22 Long Rifle

You can get a good feel for that if you look in an old Sears or Monkey Ward catalog reprint from the turn of the century.

These days, though, it's economy of scale. Billions of .22 LRs are made and sold, but not nearly as many .22 Shorts. Because they're becoming increasingly a speciality item, the Shorts are rising in price.

I'm not so certain, but I think that .22 Longs may be pretty much out of production now.

[VictorLouis]

In two different revolvers, the shorts seem to shoot tighter. In my BL-22, I can pact twenty-two of them in there vs. only 15 with Long Rifle.:D Velocity is right there with many standard-velocity LR loads, also.

[Wil Terry]

all the rest of my 22 sixguns and leverguns.
Paid 110 bucks for a case of 7600]?] Russian 22SHORT INTERNATIONAL RAPID FIRE cartridges last year. In a rifle they're as silent as any c/b cap and accurate as all gitout.
In november past I bought a case of 5000 22SHORT HI-VEL cartridges for 88 bucks setting on my doorstep.
Shop around boys, there are some bargains out there. For pure plinking nothing beats 22SHORTS.

[TracerSpies]

Pidgeon (flying rats) control. Shorts, or especially CBs, are quieter than my 1000 fps pellet gun.

[ArmaLube]

Now we are getting some high-powered participation. It is great to have renouned gun writer expertise here.

Best wishes,
Bob

"Armalube (http://www.armalube.com) Hits The Mark"

[Kilgor]

Gun writer?

[Greybeard]

FWIW, I e-mailed CCI last year asking the difference in noise level of their CB Short vs. CB Long. Quasi-Answer was that fps on both was identical - around 725 IIRC. Said CBs also made in Long for guns that might not feed Shorts.

Coincidently, I did quite a bit of testing with various "quiet" .22 ammos last week. From 18", 24" and 27" rifle barrels, when zeroed at 50', CCI CBs dropped somewhere completely off 9" paper plate at 50 yards. I used predominantly Longs. (The Shorts were a real PIA to feed manually into semi-auto chamber.)

With the same scoped rifle (Marlin semi-auto carbine), I got an almost identical point of impact at 50' as 50 yards with Remington Subsonics in Long Rifle. It became "the load" for current crop of crows. :D

Another FWIW: The Aquilla Colibri "primer only" stuff did not group worth a durn even at 50'. Compared to most others, around 3" low and a 2" group was the best out of any of 3 rifles. Also have had some "squib" rounds with Colibris (did not make it out of 27" barrel). No chrono, but I suspect Colibris fps may be greater out of handguns than rifles. Pretty much a very short range revolver round where minimal penetration is needed. Foul odor. :( Also sometimes seemed to muck up chamber so that Long Rifle rounds did not feed well unless gun was cleaned first. Last time I used Colibri on a crow at around 60', I held point of aim way high and saw the little bullet impact the crow (facing me) in the chest and it just flew off :( . But quickly. :D

[Shalako]

I just picked up a box of the CB Longs. I figured they would be lower pressure due to the same velocity as CB Shorts but in a larger case.

I can't wait to try them in the scoped MkII.

[EJ]

Generally the longs are basically short power levelin a case that allows functioning in magazines/firearms that work with lower power but not shorter cases--
It will also prevent any cylinder wear at the short case edge in revolvers--

[tech]

I find shorts will dispose of coons and possums on the deck without overpenetrating and gouging the deck. Also does not alert the neighbors to my nocturnal hunting.

Mike

[labgrade]

Depending, a CB cap will do just as well (think pellet gun power) with proper shot placement as will anything LR - within rasonable range.

Always think proper placement to do The Job.

Shorts, etc. usually bring a premium price somehow lately because they're specialty ammo .....


Some of the "short ammo" is touted to be (if you read the box) as "high-velocity" ammo - which to me, seems to discount the whole idea of a "quieter thing." It doesn't.

Try a CB cap, or ? ammo

[clem]

.22 shorts in my Sear's J.C. Higgins Bolt Action scope mounted rifle, take care of the; pack rats, and other walking, crawling and flying varmits in my yard.

[BigG]

The short was the original self contained cartridge featured in the S&W Model 1, IIRC around 1857, again IIRC. The long was an extra power upgrade using the same 29 grain bullet but with a longer case sometime later. The long rifle was created by Stevens by combining the 22 long case with a new 40 grain bullet.

I have read several times that the manufacturers have tried to stop making longs but there is a steady persistent demand from uninformed people who go to the store and ask for longs instead of LRs.

I have a Sears 22 tube fed autoloader I bought new in the 60s that will shoot S, L, and LR interchangeably and mixed. Unreal - and one of the most dangblasted accurate 22s I've ever shot.