I have a S&W Model 17 revolver that shoots .22 caliber. In this revolver, I shoot .22 LR. I want to know if I can also shoot .22 short and .22 long in it.

Absolutely!

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Dave Brown
SWCA #3279

Yes you can. Be careful with the shorts. You won't even know you shot them.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Welcome to the S&W Forum. Just remember that shooting shorter rounds you will need to clean the chambers real well with a brush as the shorter rounds will leave a carbon ring at the shorter case length point. Failure to clean out this ring will cause difficulty seating a Long Rifle round, and will also make for harder extraction.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

You can shoot shorts in your gun, and you can shoot your gun in your shorts! Oh, wait...you can shoot your gun while WEARING your shorts.

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protocalldesign.com

You can also shoot shorts in your gun without wearing your shorts.

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That's just somebody talkin.

Don't shoot your gun in your shorts! It is very dangerous and the powder burns don't come out in the wash.

Those aren't powder burns!!

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"You're messin' up my Zen"

What H Richard said. Clean the chambers!

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Pine_Worker
Ex-LEO, NRA Life

In my 60 years of shooting,I dont think I`ve ever shot a 22 Short. Do they still make them?

In my 55.5 years, I don’t think I’ve shot a short, long or extra long, just thousands and thousands of long rifle.

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213th FBINA

I think the Long had a slightly lighter weight bullet?

Yes, I believe it had the same case as the long rifle, but with a 29 gr bullet. I don’t recall ever seeing the for sale. Just never paid attention when looking for 22 ammo.

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213th FBINA

It all depends upon your objective when you shoot. Some, many it seems, fire a gun to hear it go bang. All of the cartridges you name will go bang in your gun. Others, members of what seems to be a vanishing breed, actually want to hit something-----something they aimed at. The real loony tunes not only want to hit what they aimed at, they do their damnedest to get all the shots after the first one through the hole made by the first one---or at least touching it------and they want to do that at rather astonishing distances. These folks are known as shooters.

Shooters---a vanishing breed, know and think about things like the rifling in the barrel of their gun. That's pretty much the deciding factor in hitting what you aimed at----at anything approaching a challenging distance----any distance further away than you can throw a rock----and hit something---something small----like a bumblebee.

So what's the rifling best for a .22 Long Rifle? I don't know right off---something like one turn in 15-16 inches maybe? Yeah, something like that-------how 'bout for a .22 Short-----or a .22 Long----they use the same bullet as a Short, right? I don't know that either, but it's different. Next time you get your paws on a gun made for Shorts, check it out.

All you have to do after that is decide if you're a shooter or a noise maker.

Ralph Tremaine

It just dawned on me----they do stuff like stamp .22 Long Rifle on the barrels of guns for a reason.

I have fired many rounds of .22 short, and long rifle, in my model 17. Works great. .22 short cartridges are still available at least where I live.

I’m 45 years old and I can’t tell you how many gun shops, pawn shops and gun shows I’ve been in and out of...I’ve never seen .22 long ammunition.

I was given some shorts. Fun in a revolver though not quite hearing safe. I have a special mag for my 10/22 to shoot them, though they will short-stroke the action. You hold the bolt closed with your off-hand thumb.

.22 Longs are pretty hard to find. Same case length as Long Rifle, .22 Short bullet. The 30gr Aguila super high velocity stuff pretty much takes care of the Long niche unless you have a real antique. .22 Shorts remain with us b/c there are still plenty of working firearms chambered exclusively for it. The .22 Long, not so much.

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Psalm 27:2

Though the Pistol Competition Classes that used to require the use of Shorts are gone, I have not had any problem finding shorts. Some have competition pistols that can only short shorts or conversion kits for .22 short for the Model 41 or many of the High Standards. You can also get .22 Shot Shells, .22 Sub Sonic Low Noise.22 CB Caps and .22 BB Caps, all of which I have shot in some of my .22 LR Revolvers. As pointed out, just like shooting .38 Specials in my .357s or .44 Specials in my .44 Magnums, since the round is shorter than the chamber, clean real well after use.

I was recently at a Walmart in North Carolina (Well pre-lock down) that was closing out their ammunition department. I bought a lot of ammo at 70% off including a bunch of CCI .22 Short Sub-Sonic Low Noise. They sound like my pellet pistol.

Bob

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Sag Harbor & Manhattan, N.Y.

When I was a kid we shot tons of shortsfrom remington 510's. Soda bottles were the best thing ever invented. Not for targets, but 2 cent refunds on small ones, and a nickel on the large ones. 10 cents was all it took to buy a box of shorts at the Navy exchange. I might even have a box in a 30 cal ammo can somewhere

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

I used to have a High Standard Olympic in 22 Short and still have some boxes of shell around. Never did shoot any 22 Longs because back then, always wanted the "More Power" from the 22 LR. As Narragansett pointed out, the refunds on the soda bottles paid for many a happy day at the range.

Ah, for the days when 22 shells were $.50 a box and white, winter jack rabbits sold for a $1 and every hay stack had some around it. Drive around a night with your spot light and make some money. $30 or 40 bucks for a night was big money in the 60s. In the mid 70s it was raccoons for me. Partner and I got 32 of them one night and got the amazing sum of $12 apiece for them round. To bad there we not more corn fields in eastern Montana. Buddy, Jerry, whose dad owned the farm, wounded a coon and it was going across a corn stubble field. While I held the light he chased it and when he tried to kick it, it turned, climbed up his body to his head, then he threw it off and killed it. I was laughing so hard, he wasn't. No sense of humor I guess.

When I was in Jr high and high school these things were true. Then they quit poisoning coyotes, DDT was outlawed and owls, hawks and eagle populations came back and the jack rabbit population dropped as did the demand for jack rabbit fur. For a while you couldn't find a jack rabbit in this part of the country. But, the must be coming back as last winter I started seeing some of them smashed on the roads.

Yea, most 22s will shoot shorts, but they are not much cheaper They are less powerful and much quieter. Unless your trying for a one hole group, the accuracy is OK for rabbits, bird, etc. Less worry about the bullet going far. I once decimated a flock of sparrows on a farm miles from anyone else with shorts and a Winchester pump to have something to do one boring summer day.

CCI sells a .22 Long CB that has the same length case and bullet weight as the generic Long , just about 400 fps less muzzle velocity. Fits any LR chamber without the dreaded chamber carbon ring. Quieter, as well.

Regards,

Tam 3

A person could shoot all sorts of things from a K22:

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But here's my favorites:

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And when I'm "flush":

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I went to the Dulles Gun Show (Chantilly, VA). There were many pallets with cases of ammo (primarily 9mm, .223/5.56 ). People were buying cases and hauling them out on carts!!! By the second day of the gun show, most of the pallets were empty. I did find that there was a good supply of .22 shorts available. I bought a few boxes to shoot.

.22 shorts still have their place in the ammo line up, especially in a revolver.

My Ruger Single-Six convertible (22/22WMR) will shoot anything you put into it for 22. Way back, before even the 22 ammo shortage of some years back, I had "over -stashed" on 22 ammo of all kinds due to my kids all were of a beginning shooting age and we had access to a farm so unlimited "range" time so to speak.

The kids loved the Ruger, took their time (SAO helps here), learned good shooting habits, and also learned good cleaning skills. The stainless cleans very easily

22 Shorts (CCI-Speer, 27 gr. CP HP) at 1105 fps produced basically, no recoil, no noise....but maximum fun plinking and learning. Still do out of that Ruger, but NOT in my Model 17-3, only because I'm not wanting to scrub the chambers every time out...easier just to use 22 LR (usually Win-SuperX, CP HP, 37 gr at 1280 fps).

One long gun I have simply MUST run 22 Long Rifle and that's the Remington Nylon 66....a real treat and hoot to shoot, but it just has to have 22LR to function (at least mine does).

Kids are grown and gone, but still hit the range with me when home, just don't take out the Ruger much anymore, and their desire to be seen around the local range with a low slung cowboy gun in a Galco western holster/belt rig has gone away like yesterday's newspaper. Just looked......still have 300 rounds of 22 Short in ammo storage....hmm....1 grandson turning 14 in October.....here's hoping someone still likes cowboy guns/rigs!
I know he likes to handle my Winchester 94 lever gun, so maybe.

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Charlie B
SWCA#3083, SWHF#570

Am I the only one here that can remember the days of shooting JR. NRA matches in the high school basement or attic. Or shooting in our own attics or basements?

.22 Shot and Long were purpose built for low noise and low power in bolt action rifles! We shot .22 shorts in rifles that barely made any noise. We didn't wear ear protection!

I still shoot rats in my backyard under the bird feeders with .22 CB and .22 shorts. Little to no noise out of a bolt action rifle. Pretty loud from a revolver though.

For cleaning revolver cylinders in my competition revolvers during matches I use very stiff fiber brushes available at medical supply stores used for cleaning medical equipment. I have these in sizes that fit .22, 38 and 45!

All the best,

I have my Dad's Winchester bolt action rifle. The barrel is marked ".22 Short, Long or Long Rifle". It came with 2 detachable mags that had different size followers.

I also have a Stevens Visible Loader and a Savage pump. Both are also marked like the Winchester. With these 2 antiques one works (feeds) best with shorts and the other with longs.

Pre-ammo crisis, and when Gander Mountain was still in biz, they stocked several different flavors of CCI shorts and longs, but their price was significantly higher than bulk Federal LR.

I have rifles that are chambered in all the different .22 types. Winchester 1890s in specific calibers .22 short, .22 long, .22 long rifle, and .22 WRF. I have a few old single shot Winchesters chambered for short long and extra long. I have rifles and revolvers chambered for .22 WMRF. I have some ammunition in all the above calibers. However with the extra longs they are display only. .22Extra Long brings $400.00-$600.00 a box from collectors. I have a partial box. The WRF is sometimes a little hard to find, but CCI and Winchester have had some reruns over time. Everything else is generally available, but sometimes a little costly.

I am a .22 addict.

Back when I was a kid, and the decades before that ( up to about the late 1970’s I would say) 22 shorts and to some degree longs were very common and often found cheaper than long rifle. In today’s market the reverse is true, with shorts ( if you can find them) usually a bit more expensive than LR. With today’s crazy ammo shortages and such, if I found a good deal on shorts I would buy some, as revolvers don’t care in regard to using shorts.
In rifles the report is much less and in some cases about as quiet as a pellet gun.

Colibri and Super Colibri ammo is primer-only, with a 20gr bullet. The standard Colibri may not be powerful enough to exit some rifle barrels, so Super Colibri is recommended for rifles.

Neither one leaves a ring in my Model 17 chambers, probably due to no powder used.

I consider Shorts to be more of a curse than a blessing
And as reported, Longs can be hard to find even in the Good Times.
So my drop back 22 load is Regular Speed Long Rifle.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

My Grandmother had a cheap, Saturday night special RG revolver in .22 short that she would foolishly let us kids play with. It's quality level was on par with a BB gun or cap pistol, but it went bang. Fond memories of punching holes in a tin can at 10 feet with this feeble excuse for a handgun. Buying .22 shorts felt like buying a roll of toy caps.

Long vs long rifle: same case length, different bullet length. The longs seem less accurate out of my 617ND 6" than the LR’s.

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Not enough 17 pictures on this thread, so here is my 17-2 from 1964. What a sweet shooter! Bob

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Shorts used to be popular on the gallery circuit. There was slightly less recoil for the timed and rapid fire stages. Mostly it was in the eye of the beholder I think. In the early 70's, I started in the game with a model 41 chambered in 22 short. It was an original, not a conversion. I got strapped for cash and sold it for dirt. It was one of those transactions that I look back on and cringe! There are still a few shooting gallery with shorts now but they were expensive and hard to find even before the apocalypse. I think there is still a role for the short and CB for indoor practice and pest control around the yard.

Once upon a time there were the .22 Short, Long, and Extra Long.
About 1887, Stevens put the 40 grain Extra Long bullet in the Long case and announced the .22 Stevens Long, Rifle. Note the comma.

You're a natural Dr Suess...

If you find any .22 long at a reasonable price you should by those. I think they've been out of production for 50 years. I remember those being sold in the 60's but haven't seen any in a long time. You might find some in an estate sale or some other obscure place but most people know they're collectable.

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That's just somebody talkin.

We used 22 shorts in the 60's close to the house for pests etc. I had not thought about 22L at all, in fact I forgot they ever made them. I bet they are rare. We used LR for squirrel hunting, coon hunting and trapping. I am going to keep my eyes open for 22L.

CCI makes them, or at least they used to. They list them as "currently unavailable" but that's true for a lot of ammo these days! Here's a link to their web page:

22 Long

It says they are "the only commercially offered 22 Long cartridge on the market." I would guess that's probably true.

Around 20 years ago I came upon a good deal on a Colt Lightening 22 pump action rifle and was told that it would be best to shoot only longs in it. So I bought a brick of CCI 22L's and had some fun for a while. My poker luck took a turn for the worst and I wound up selling the Lightening. I still have around half a brick of 22L's. Wish that I still had that Lightening. -S2

An older thread and question already asked and answered.

Apparently none of the respondents are old enough to have gone to Frontierland at Disneyland and shot .22 Shorts at the shooting gallery. Sadly replaced many years ago by an electronic setup, and probably soon that will disappear for pointing your finger at a target and whispering “bang”.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

Murphydog, your post got me. I recall going to an amusement park where I lived and for a quarter you got to shoot a Winchester pump with 10 22 shorts in it. It was the best gallery at the park but we had damn few quarters in our pockets at that time and more often than not my brother and I would split a round. Great memory of the early 1950's.

You would probably get thrown out for pointing you finger and going bang,

I remember years ago the "carnies" came to town every year and had a gallery with Winchester 61's shooting shorts,the rifles were chained to the counter for security...My old buddy Fred shoots a lot of shorts on his trapline every year, recently told me they are getting hard to find and expensive!

Can someone tell me if this is the same round as the nicer/neater CCI boxes, just bulk packed? (picked up one of these at a gun show this weekend, 'cause that is all I could find from CCI)

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I grew up with a Winchester 67A single shot rifle. We lived on the farm and I had few ways to earn any ammo money. (Even though it was cheap then.) My Mom had a peach tree that bore white peaches and they were the best ever to eat. Usually just before they got ripe enough to pick, the squirrels would come around and take a bite. If it wasn't quite ripe, they would move on to the next one. I could buy .22 shorts in those days for .25 cents a box. Everytime I shot a squirrel, Mom would fry it and give me a quarter for ammo. I didn't have camo so I'd hide in the hedgerow near the peach tree and pop them on their way to the tree. I got waaaay ahead on the ammo.

I've never shot .22 Shorts through my 17's or any of my other revolvers but I've shot thousands through these .22 Short gallery guns, a 1908 Winchester Model 1906, a 1922 Remington Model 24 and a 1939 Winchester Model 74.

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