I was researching an old 7-shot 22 H&R hammerless revolver I bought this weekend that is simply marked 22 Rim Fire on the barrel. I found an old advertisement that said this revolver was designed for 22 Short, 22 Long and 22 Smith & Wesson.

Hate to ask the obvious but I'm not familiar with a carriage called 22 Smith & Wesson. Is this similar to 22 LR? Which chambers fine BTW.

Here you go .22 S&W cartridge:

"Like its .22 caliber predecessor, the Hand Ejector is a seven shot, but the new gun is chambered for the .22 S&W Long cartridge. Daniel Wesson had originally intended to specify the .22 Long Rifle cartridge for the Hand Ejector but, due to the gun’s light weight, he found that bullets in the uncrimped black powder cartridges of the day would “jump forward and block the cylinder” when the gun recoiled. So Wesson designed a special cartridge for the gun which he called the .22 Smith & Wesson Long. The cartridge had the same 40 grain bullet as the .22 Long Rifle and, according to McHenry & Roper, the new cartridge “differed from the .22 long rifle only in that it was slightly crimped.”

The Smiith & Wesson .22 Hand Ejector

I have not seen any early .22 RF cartridge boxes using that cartridge name. The earliest .22 cartridge boxes usually are labeled as "No. 1 .22-100" or similar. It became the .22 Short somewhat later., after the .22 Long appeared. Not to say that .22 Smith & Wesson was not used as a cartridge name by someone long ago.

Thanks, once I replace the trigger spring I'll try some standard velocity 22 LR. But I think mostly it will eat into my stash of 22 shorts the few times I'll actually shoot the revolver.

If the H & R in question has the same paper-thin barrel shank (not really a forcing cone) of the S & W .22 HE, I would be tempted to shoot it with nothing more powerful than .22 CB caps.

__________________
Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220