230RN has the answer to "why Can't"
The short, even in modern loadings, leaves a ring of lube and unburnt powder in the LR chamber. This is not as noticable to folks that regularly switch back and forth as to someone that uses Shorts for many rounds over time. Even with modern ammo the ring of goo that can build up in the chamber can get to the point where it is difficult or occasionally even impossible to seat a LR in that chamber.
The answer to the lube and powder build up is a deep dark secret no one ever talks about called "cleaning your rifle or pistol" A few quick strokes and twists with a brass bore brush and the issue is usually gone. Now if the firearm stood out in someone's barn being shot for thirty years firing nothing but shorts and that ring sort of petrified in the chamber it may take a bit more work.
As with any gunk in the barrel that ring can retain water against the steel and rather than Erosion cause rust which can be a problem.
As a kid, a bud had an old single shot that his dad and granddad had shot nothing but shorts in though it was clearly marked S, L, &LR.
A loaded LR just would not chamber. After looking a bit we could see that ring of goo and tried to remove it with patches as that was what we had. No joy. So we took a spent LR case from my rifle and inserted it in his chamber up until it stopped, then attempted to close the bolt and it would not go fully forward. So we took off one of my brogans and used the heel to drive the bolt fully closed ... 12 year old boy brains at work!!!
Brief panic that bolt would not retract, but hey we got this low top boot we used for a hammer to close the thing with right here, so we hammered it open. The extracted shell had crud in the mouth of it. It functioned as a scraper. We used our patches to clean the chamber again and visually found the ring MUCH reduced and then shot LR in his rifle when he could afford it.
Sometimes it is merely hard to chamber LR in such a short used chamber but sometimes it is difficult to extract a LR that was forced in and shot anyway. In fact some folks notice the issue more on extraction than loading and so assume it is an extractor issue. Same cure.
I know, I know! No one EVER cleans a .22, but sometimes under some conditions it ain't a bad idea... and it gives you and excuse to shoot up more ammo plinking to "condition your bore" and "test your action" after a good cleaning
-kBob
.. The Polish 22 Shorts (advertised as olympic match ammo ) averaged 798 fps.. The CCI Shorts ( 29 gr. bullet claimed to be going 1080fps - From a rifle, perhaps? ) averaged 1059 fps out of the 5.5" Single 6 barrel. The Wolf Match Target 22LR was only doing 937 fps average. That surprised me, as I was expecting more than that from a 22LR round. Last time I chronographed some CCI Blazer 40 gr. 22LR through that gun they were running about 1164 fps. It was interesting and I was surprised at the CCI 22 Short @ 1059 fps. Wasn't expecting much from 22 Shorts but what do I know? I know they work on small game & tin cans but didn't realize they were going faster than I thought. Just for comparison CCI .22 Mag. ammo with a 35 gr. bullet gets about 1503 fps out of that gun. Didn't do any formal 22 Short accuracy tests other than some clay pigeons on the berm @ 25 yds. and it did OK on those when I didn't wiggle the sights and had good trigger control. Never messed around with 22 shorts in a handgun before but this is getting interesting.
