Shooting 22 shorts out of LR cylinder

22 short, 22 long and 22 long rifle can all be shot out of a 22 long rifle chamber, be it a rifle or a hand gun. Shorts and longs may not activate a semi auto.
I used to by 22 shorts for $0.15 a box of fifty, longs for 0.25 and long rifle for 0.35. I shot a lot of longs hunting rabbits and squirrels. Used shorts to shoot rats in the barn and long rifle when coyotes came into the chicken yard.. At that time I had a Stevens My Favorite single shot.

buflow

To add to Buflow response, my experience has been that short rounds in a LR chamber will leave a carbon ring that impedes the loading of LR rounds because of the carbon build up - simply requires aggressive cleaning of the carbon ring and then all is well.

Yep. I used to shoot shorts, and both CB and BB caps from a Taurus 94 I had at the time. I did indeed keep the cylinders clean due to concern over "short-case carbon rings" as mentioned above. I also shot them in a Stevens 89 (a Favorite modified with a fake magazine tube to look more like a "real" lever rifle.)

Most of us old farts shot a lot of .22 short in various .22LR guns. As has been noted, shorts, being shorter, leave a ring of bullet lube and "carbon" about where the mouth of the case would be and so can impede the .22Long and Long Rifle cartridges from fully seating. No surprise this ring was easier to remove BEFORE one forced the longer cased ammo in and shot it on top of the goo.

I had a .22 semi auto rifle that fed and cycled .22 s,l, &l.r. and said so right on the barrel. After a summer of almost exclusively short shooting I learned this the hard way when the bolt would not completely close with a LR in the fall without a bump forward with the hand on the cocking knob.

-kBob

No problem with the shorts as the others have said.

Easy way to clean the chambers, is to cut a patch from one of those lead wipe away clothes...a SMALL patch, and use it to clean the gunk out. Then clean as normal. You'll be amazed how much "stuff" will come out, especially in an old gun.

(Yes, the wipe away cloth can damage bluing on guns. Don't use it on those parts.)

Accuracy may not be as good with shorts. The rifling twist rate is different. Ok to shoot.

My question is, why Shorts? They are no longer common or cheap. There are so many LR variants that there seems little need for Shorts or Longs unless you still have one of the few guns made specifically for them.

Is the Chiappa revolver sold as short, long, long rifle?
https://www.chiappafirearms.com/p.php?id=48
"SAA 1873-22 revolver ... Caliber: 22LR"
I suppose that is enough to create doubt about using .22 short in a Chiappa.
During my lifetime as a shooter (starting at age six in 1954) the selling point on .22 LR revolvers is that they shoot .22 Short, Long, Long Rifle, roundnose, hollowpoint, standard velocity, high velocity, interchangeably. You can't always count on other .22 LR firearms to function with shorts or longs.
Upto the 1950s there was a price difference between short, long, long rifle that made the ".22 S,L,LR" marking on a firearm an important sales point. By the mid 1960s mass production of .22 LR lowered the ammo cost until people saw no advantage to .22 Short or Long and a lot of .22 LR Only firearms took over the new gun market (like the Marlin Model 60 .22 LR only, eleven million sold so far).
.22 Short and .22 Long are almost specialty rounds today, a few made for people who prefer the round for hunting game or pests, or own older guns that are .22 Short or .22 Long only.
I am going to hazard a guess that there is no problem firing .22 Short in a Chiappa 1873-22 Revolver .22 LR cylinder. I dare opine that the caliber is listed as .22 LR because the average shooter today is not going to find much .22 Short or .22 Long on the store shelves.

Some old 22 rimfire rifles, like my Mod. 67 Winchester ( single shot bolt action produced from 1934 - 1963 IIRC ) state right on the barrel markings; " SHORT - LONG AND LONG RIFLE" and they all work well in it so I've always figured that it was just a matter of a good cleaning after a lot of 22 shorts and then going to 22LR. After reading this thread I think my 22 cal. Ruger Single Six Convertible 22 LR cylinder is going to get some 22 short loaded into it next time out. Would be interesting just to try and if I think of it I'll do it someday at the range when the chronograph is set up. It's always fun to compare velocity differences in rimfires based on which ammo? what barrel length? etc.

kBob said:

Most of us old farts shot a lot of .22 short in various .22LR guns. As has been noted, shorts, being shorter, leave a ring of bullet lube and "carbon" about where the mouth of the case would be and so can impede the .22Long and Long Rifle cartridges from fully seating. No surprise this ring was easier to remove BEFORE one forced the longer cased ammo in and shot it on top of the goo.

I had a .22 semi auto rifle that fed and cycled .22 s,l, &l.r. and said so right on the barrel. After a summer of almost exclusively short shooting I learned this the hard way when the bolt would not completely close with a LR in the fall without a bump forward with the hand on the cocking knob.

-kBob

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Remington advertises the Model 552 Speedmaster as the only semi rifle which will chamber and fire short, long, and long rifle, not sure how they manage it- but they are very fine plinkers.

I recently shot some CB shorts from a Double Nine with no issues except it was noticeably quieter than any LR loading......no where near as quiet as in a long barrel rifle but not as loud as any other pistol load tried.

I may try some CCI CB Longs next or even a few rounds of "Quiets" just to see if it might annoy the neighbors less.

-kBob

22250 Remington,

Try some CCI CB Longs in that model 67. If it still has its original length barrel I think you will be amazed at the lack of noise.

-kBob

It has always been my understanding that the relationship between 22 Short, 22 Long, and 22 Long Rifle is the same as 38 Special/357 Magnum and 44 Russian/44 Special/44 Magnum.

Guns chambered for the longest round can safely fire the shorter, less powerful cartridges.

Of course, with 22 rim fire guns, 22 Short or 22 Longs may not cycle the action of a semi-auto gun chambered for 22 Long Rifle. If I remember correctly, my Ruger Mk II cautions that use with anything except high velocity 22 Long Rifle may result in malfunctions of the gun. (I have slept a few decades since I last looked at the Mk II's manual though).

Also, as mentioned, shooting lots of shorts in a long rifle chamber will build up carbon and/or lubricant in front of the the short case just like happens when firing 38 Special in a 357 Magnum chamber.

The stereotypical 22 Short has a 29 grain bullet with a short case. The 22 Long has the same 29 grain bullet with the same case as the long rifle round. The 22 Long Rifle has a 40 grain bullet with the long rifle case. Now a days, there are lots more options with the Long Rifle round. The only difference in the case dimensions is the length of the case.

I would not hesitate to shoot 22 Shorts in the Chiappa but unless I got them cheap, I did not have another gun that would shoot 22 Shorts, or they were the only ammunition I found, I would not bother.

Finally, 22 Magnum Rimfire is not the same case dimensions as the Short, Long, Long Rifle series. It is not prudent to shoot 22 long Rifle in a Magnum Rimfire chamber.

cfullgraf said:

The 22 Long has the same 29 grain bullet with the same case as the long rifle round

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Close, but the LR case is actually longer than the Long....and the CCI Stinger case is even longer! Lol.

Here you go...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Long_Rifle

"History[edit]
American firearms manufacturer J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company introduced the cartridge in 1887[4] by combining the casing of the .22 Long with the 40-grain (2.6 g) bullet of the .22 Extra Long. The round owes its origin to the Flobert BB cap of 1845 through the .22 Smith & Wesson cartridge of 1857. It is one of the few cartridges that are accepted by a large variety of rifles, as well as pistols. The .22 Long Rifle and related cartridges (.22 Short, .22 Long, and .22 Extra Long) use a heeled bullet, which means that the bullet is the same diameter as the case, and has a narrower "heel" portion that fits in the case."

With some of the specialized 22 Long Rifle ammunition on the market today, there are different case lengths for 22 Long Rifle ammunition.

But the original case length of 22 Long Rifle is the same as the 22 Long.

INDEED BUFLOW !!!

Circa 1966, my mother gave my "dad" a Mossberg 346KA bolt action.22 for Christmas (for us-boys, me and my two brothers). He might have shot it once, but me and my older brother would go into town on our bicycles on sat morning and pick up Coke bottles to take to a service station for deposit (.05). We would take our proceeds and see the sat matinee, and then go by the Western Auto store and get .22shorts for same price! We discovered that the .22shortHP killed as good as the 3X more expensive.22lr, and were just 3cents more than solids.
They were the Imperial brand, made in Canada. Very, Very accurate! They were standard velocity, without the "crack" of current HighVel .22short. Waxy lead bullet and all... Closest thing now are the CCI short CB. Neither as powerful, accurate, or affordable as the "OLD SHORTS".

More evidence that the world is just "upside down" !!!
1/2 the lead, 1/2 the powder, 1/2 the brass, 2X the PRICE! ( of comparable.22LR).
And they didn't STINK like Aguila or Eley! Smelled good, like Vita Vouri powders...

We were totally baffled when the '68 GCA said we couldn't buy .22's anymore. It was 10yrs before I could buy .22's again.
So, since we couldn't buy .22's, we had to settle for R rated movies... And they wonder why kids are so screwed up today...

Still have that rifle... many stories, memories, not to mention many, many fried squirrel suppers...

For a brief period, the 40 gr .22 Extra Long in the Long case was known as the .22 Stevens Long.
Apply a good crimp so as to not dislodge the bullet in a revolver and you have the .22 Smith & Wesson Long.

kBob said:

Try some CCI CB Longs in that model 67. If it still has its original length barrel I think you will be amazed at the lack of noise.

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............. Haven't seen any CCI CB Longs around but recently picked up some CCI Longs. One of the things on my "to do" list is to have a chronograph session with that Mod. 67 ( it's all original; been in the family since the latter 1930's ) and try all 3 - short, long, and long rifle. Like the barrel markings state and compare velocities of each. Don't think I've ever put a 22 Long in it but I'm sure my dad did back in the late 1930's- early 40's. 22 shorts are pretty quiet and I've also got some CCI Quiet 22 which is a 22LR with a claimed 710 fps velocity but I've yet to fire one. It'll be interesting to chronograph all of them in one session at one uniform temperature. My next range trip not counting sporting clays could be later next week, Wed. through Friday weather permitting. This could be interesting. E.T.A. Per the original topic of this thread I'll even bring the Ruger Single Six Convertible and run a few 22 shorts & 22 LR's out of the 22LR cylinder over the chrono.

My old Winchester model 190 says "LR only" or something like that, but that's only because the shorts or longs may not cycle the gun reliably. In fact, I've shot shorts and longs through it in the past with no cycling problems, but the last time I tried it a couple of years ago (with shorts) it wasn't quite working right. Might be a different charge in that brand of ammo or maybe the internals need cleaning again. Shorts are a blast in my .22 Heritage Rough Rider SA revo, but I'd avoid them in most semi-auto pistols. Rifles might work, however - as with my 190 - or might not, but it's worth a try.

My question is, why Shorts?

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Sometimes you don't want the full power of a LR. Sometimes less noise and penetration is better. I carry shorts in my revolver on the trap line because it doesn't hurt my ears, and its still enough power to dispatch small game with a head shot. Same for shooting rats in the barn and starlings in the yard, less likely to ricochet or put a hole in something that I don't want an extra hole in.

Another vouch here for shorts, you can fit a whole bunch in the tube mag of a .22 rifle. They still pack a whole lot more punch than a CB or Colibri, too - as well as shooting straighter and farther.


Back when the big .22 ammo drought first hit, I picked up a brick of shorts and was glad to get them. Good to have guns around that will digest them IMO.

I will shoot Aguila Super Colibri .22 in my Remington 581 to thwack cottontails that infest my yard occasionally...super quiet, it's a .22 cal bullet powered by the primer alone. It's accurate enough out of the long-ish barrel the 581 has for such an underpowered load, but hits the bunnies with just enough to drop them where they sit.

Our local Walmart now has 22 lr . In stock but I haven't seen 22 shorts on the shelf in several years. As a young man without extra cash the shorts did as they were intended,I saved money and we still had squirrel or rabbit to eat. They do the same job at close range as the long rifle without squirrels two ridges over running for cover. The quietness of the shorts has benefits too. I have not killed a deer using 22 shorts but have been guilty years ago of taking a neck shot right at the base of the head at close range using long rifle cartridges. To be honest I know from more than one experience the 22 rifle is as effective as any heavy magnum in optimum circumstances.
Would I use the 22 now for that purpose, probably not. I have more firearms now and we eat less wild game than we did say 35 years ago. My cook has been slacking on the job as they do when children leave home, and with fewer mouths to feed it takes less food period.
One more reason not to shoot rabbits with shorts:

Riomouse911 said:

I will shoot Aguila Super Colibri .22 in my Remington 581 to thwack cottontails that infest my yard occasionally...super quiet, it's a .22 cal bullet powered by the primer alone. It's accurate enough out of the long-ish barrel the 581 has for such an underpowered load, but hits
the bunnies with just enough to drop them where they sit.

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I know a man who gives twenty bucks for a rabbit live. That will buy a good many 22 bullets now that the shortage is past. My 2 live traps keep these handy to the house out of the garden.
Keep shooting shorts when you find them,safely and have fun doing it.

I got my 1st BB gun for Chirstmas before I truned 3. It was a Dasiy Red Rider.

Dad gave me his old Springfield youth model 22 that was used when he got it. He started me shooting it the summer before I was 5 that fall. There was a bayou across the road from the house Dad would take me there and I killed a many snapin' trundles.

By the next fall there wasn't a rabbit, squirrel or quail that was safe from me and my 22 shorts.