.22 s-l-lr; stupid question

[learnedmonkey]

Howdy folks. I have a bit of an "OMG I can't believe I don't know this!" question. My old Mossberg 46B has a marking on the barrel that reads:

22 S-L-LR Pats. Pdg. I know that there's a difference between long, short, and long rifle, but I'm not sure what to make of this marking. Is it that this rifle can fire any of those three, or that model 46b had patents pending in all three variants? The reason I ask is because I have a couple boxes of .22 short we dug up somewhere, but I wanted to check and see if it was a good idea before I fired them.

Thanks!

 

[dakotasin]

your rifle can fire all 3 is what the mark means.

 

[learnedmonkey]

Sweet! I was hoping that's what it meant, but I figured it was better to ask a stupid question than explain to the doctor why you were doing something stupid.

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

"And knowing is half the battle!"

Yo JOE!


learnedmonkey- on THR (and pretty much everywhere else as well) the only stupid question is the one not asked.

 

[Jim K]

The markings are separate. The ".22 S-L-LR" means that the rifle can operate with any of the three cartridges. The "Patents Pending" marking means that a patent has been applied for on some part or parts of the rifle design, not on the capability to use the three different cartridges.

That .22 S-L-LR marking was once very common, and a big selling point for the rifle, since .22 Long and especially .22 Short was much cheaper than .22LR. Obviously, any .22LR rifle could chamber and fire shorts or longs, but many would not feed them, and most semi-autos would not work with them.

FWIW, .22 Long is about obsolete, and .22 Short should not be fired in a .22LR chamber because it tends to lead up the chamber.

Jim