.22 Shorts in a Single Six?

[James K2020]

Just purchased a pre-warning Single Six Ruger without the transfer bar mod (1958 birth year) and I read/heard somewhere that it will shoot 22 Shorts. Not that I want to go buy a brick of Shorts, but I do have some.
Is that true? Not recommended? LR only seems more logical.

 

[Mizar]

.22 LR is basically a lengthened .22 Short - your revolver is fine shooting them.

 

[doubleh]

I have shot a bunch of them in my 3 screw single six. Never a problem.

 

[.308 Norma]

LR only seems more logical.

Why's that?
The shorts probably won't shoot to the same point of aim as the LRs. But you're going to be lucky if you find any 2 brands or types of LRs that will shoot to the same point of aim anyway.
After running a bunch of shorts through your Single Six, you might find that you'll have to clean the cylinder chambers before you can push LRs all the way into it. No big deal.

 

[James K2020]

I have shot a bunch of them in my 3 screw single six. Never a problem.

Thanks, good to know. I've heard they may fowl the chambers more but probably not a biggie.

 

[James K2020]

Foul

 

[ontarget]

Shoot, clean, repeat. No problem.

 

[mavracer]

If you shoot a lot of them you'll get a carbon ring that you'll need to clean up. I use CCI long CB caps for low powered plinking instead of shorts.

 

[doubleh]

Thanks, good to know. I've heard they may fowl the chambers more but probably not a biggie.

Just clean the chamber now and then and you won't have a problem, Of course they will shoot to a different point of aim than LR or long for that matter. Just find and remember the difference between each. Shorts now cost more than LR so I don't see a point in using them unless a slight reduction in noise is what you are after.

 

[Riomouse911]

They will also shoot .22 Long rounds. As was stated above the POI changes with the various lower powered rounds.

The .22 WMR cylinder (if your revolver so equipped) will also chamber .22 WRF.

Like the Short and Long, the WRF rounds are not cheap.

Stay

 

[MikeJackmin]

CCI makes an excellent round called the CB Long - a CB cap (lower power than even the shorts) in a full-length case. It delivers the power of a good airgun, with less noise.

 

[Jim Watson]

It used to be written right on the gun, or at least in the catalog:
".22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle".
I shot a lot of shorts in my Marlin 39A, they were then cheaper and the tube magazine held a lot of them.

 

[reddog81]

Shorts are typically harder to find, more expensive and less powerful, but they will shoot out of the gun.

 

[Sistema1927]

Feel free to shoot all the shorts, longs, and long rifles that you want in that Single-Six. I have a couple of bricks of the original Aguila Colibris (primer only), and they are a hoot shoot out of mine.

 

[BigBlue 94]

Feel free to shoot all the shorts, longs, and long rifles that you want in that Single-Six. I have a couple of bricks of the original Aguila Colibris (primer only), and they are a hoot shoot out of mine.

I never bought bricks of the Colibris, but had a couple boxes of them and the supers. My air rifle was louder! But only use in a pistol... They like to lodge in rifle barrels.

As for the OP, ive shot 22 shorts in pretty much every 22 i have that is a revolver, bolt action, or single shot. Never an issue. And i have 3 single sixes of varius vintages.

 

[tark]

Shorts are typically harder to find, more expensive and less powerful, but they will shoot out of the gun.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I don't understand WHY anybody would want to do this. The shorts are still too loud to shoot without hearing protection so that reason doesn't fly. They won't be as accurate as the LRs and the residue they leave in the chamber makes for extra cleaning.

 

[Bazoo]

Nice revolver! Congratulations.

I occasionally shoot shorts out of my late moms single six. I even have bought a couple boxes of shorts here and there. Now think of that, paying slightly more for an inferior in every way round. Anyways. If you shoot a couple cylinder fulls, maybe half a box, then shoot a cylinder or two of long rifles, you won’t get a carbon ring that will stop the action. Now if you shoot a few boxes of shorts and then switch, you will need to clean the chambers for long rifles to chamber. I enjoy shooting shorts. For me part of it is that mom enjoyed them. She called them babies, and always wanted to shoot them. Part of it is just the neat factor.

 

[J-Bar]

I have heard of some old guns that were originally chambered for Long Rifles that experienced erosion in the chamber after shooting years and years of Shorts, so that attempting to revert to Long Rifle ammo caused difficult, if not impossible, extraction. Not a fouling problem…the LR case expands into the eroded “ring” and doesn’t want to come out.

I never experienced it my own self, perhaps one of those “old wive’s tales”. I suspect it would take many thousands of rounds to cause such a problem.

I don’t hesitate to shoot a few Shorts in any of my .22s now and then. If I owned a Winchester 52 or Anschutz I wouldn’t. Single- six? Go for it. The pop is kinda cute.

 

[cfullgraf]

It used to be written right on the gun, or at least in the catalog:
".22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle".
I shot a lot of shorts in my Marlin 39A, they were then cheaper and the tube magazine held a lot of them.

I have a Winchester 69 rimfire rifle that was my grandfather's. It has 22 Short, 22 Long, and 22 Long Rifle roll marked on the side of the barrel. It even has two different magazines, one for shorts, the other for Longs and Long rifle.

Semi-auto 22 rimfire firearms are generally limited to one kind of 22 rimfire ammunition. The springs would have to be re-adjusted for the different power of each round.

 

[Jim Watson]

Remington had two different autos for S,L,LR, models 550-1 and 552.
Stevens 87 autos would feed shorts but not cycle on them, operating as a straight pull.

 

[Speedo66]

There were also “gallery” guns, chambered for only .22 short.

Gallery ammo also, designed to disintegrate on contact with a hard surface.

 

[chicharrones]

It used to be written right on the gun, or at least in the catalog:
".22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle".
I shot a lot of shorts in my Marlin 39A, they were then cheaper and the tube magazine held a lot of them.

Maybe it was different in the early days, but Single Six Convertibles just say .22 CAL. on the frame and .22 WIN. MAGNUM CAL. on the magnum cylinder. The .22 S/L/LR cylinder is unmarked.

 

[12Bravo20]

It used to be written right on the gun, or at least in the catalog:
".22 Short, Long, or Long Rifle".
I shot a lot of shorts in my Marlin 39A, they were then cheaper and the tube magazine held a lot of them.

My old Winchester Model 190 rifle is marked that way and it functions just fine with S, L, or LR ammo.

While my H&R 949 is only marked 22lr, I have shot 22S and 22L in it with no problems.

Shooting shorts or longs through a long rifle chamber is no different than shooting 38 Special through a 357M chamber. At most you will need to clean the chambers out before shooting the longer cartridges.

 

[doubleh]

I have heard of some old guns that were originally chambered for Long Rifles that experienced erosion in the chamber after shooting years and years of Shorts, so that attempting to revert to Long Rifle ammo caused difficult, if not impossible, extraction. Not a fouling problem…the LR case expands into the eroded “ring” and doesn’t want to come out.

I never experienced it my own self, perhaps one of those “old wive’s tales”. I suspect it would take many thousands of rounds to cause such a problem.

I don’t hesitate to shoot a few Shorts in any of my .22s now and then. If I owned a Winchester 52 or Anschutz I wouldn’t. Single- six? Go for it. The pop is kinda cute.

.

I am in the old wive's tales camp. I still have my dad's model 12 Remington and I shot a lot of shorts in it as a kid because that was all I could scrape up the money for. I also shot a lot of LR as I became older and a tiny bit more "affluent". It shows no erosion in the chamber or barrel at all. If the 22 rimfire were to cause erosion I would think you would find some right in front of the chamber of guns with a high round count that shot the LR version that but have never seen any at all in any rifle. My hobby for many years was rescuing old, beat up, 22s and returning them to good condition and I never found one with that.

 

[jstert]

22shorts run fine out of my ruger single six, wrangler, bearcat and lcr. when my favorite cci 22lr minimags and standards were out of stock on cci’s mail order website i bought some 22lr quiets at $5/50 to feed these revolvers, which were pleasantly fine.