22 Short Ammo

[opaul]

I guess I'm the only person that was interested in buying 22 short at my local wallymart. I picked up 20 boxes (50 count) for a little over $3 a box. I have a Marlin 39A vintage rifle and an older 22 Remington pump that should handle them just fine. Who knows what might happen later, could be a good trade item. Are people in your area passing up 22 short?

 

[sipowicz]

I long for .22 short.

 

[rburg]

Is that cheap? I have no idea.

But a year ago we had a widow woman as a table partner. Her deceased husband liked guns. All kinds of guns. He's been gone maybe 7 years now. So she was finally starting to sell off her excess junk. She brought in all manner of ammo to sell. Then on some of it she was higher than current retail, and cheap on others. After about the 8th gun show with no interest she was getting discouraged. Ammo is heavy and lugging it in and out gets old. She finally sold me all her 22 magnum for $5 a box she still had 2 bricks of 22 shorts. She sold them to me for $5 each, too. I tried to argue, but she was tired of hauling it.

And I guess that means I paid $.50 a box for it. I have no idea what to do with it or all the BB and CB caps I've picked up over the years. I'm thinking I need an ancient single shot rifle to burn it in. Either that or see if my son is successful in his search for a lever action.

 

[kcode]

This could mean that my box of CBee22 copper coated just turned into gold coated?

 

[kwselke]

I have not bought .22 short since the 1960s. They do not feed in my semiautomatics, and my single shot Remington bolt action rifle that was given me as my first gun in 1966 will shoot .22 LR just fine.

 

[rdcl]

I have a few hundred .22 shorts. I like the round more than most people.


I have sentimental attachment to .22 short as it is the first round my dad taught me how to shoot as a kid. I can't even begin to speak of all the good memories.

I still have my old Ithaca single shot dad bought me when I was 12 years old. It shoots short, long & long rifle. Although it LOOKS like a lever-action gun, it isn't........ the lever actually drops a block so as to load the single round into the chamber. Just a cheap but well made old gun with no collector value but it is still one of my most valued possessions.

Russ

 

[Straightshooter2]

My Henry shoots .22 shorts quite well and so do a couple of old Stevens/Savage/Springfield Arms single shot .22s. Good round for tin can work, squirrels, chipmunks, etc. I just haven't seen any for a decent price lately.

CW

 

[labworm]

My whole life I have had the fear of being attacked by a tribe of pygmies, so of course I would have an ample supply of .22 shorts just in case.

 

[Mike McLellan]

I shoot .22 shorts through my K-22 & Model 17-3 all the time. It's becoming my favorite round. The other folks at the range notice the quiet little "poot" that shorts produce. I put some in speed loaders just for fun, and I must have looked ridiculous trying to re-load. Anyway, I'm a major fan of those little guys. And by the way, they are real bullets that stay on course for the length of the range. Don't underestimate them. They do require additional clean-up though.

 

[timloomis]

Hey rdcl, I have that exact gun. Ithaca m-49 is the model. My dad gave it to me and told me it was my great-grandpa's when he had it in the 60's. Then one day my family was talking guns and my great uncle was like, oh hey I had an old ithaca that I dont know where it went, haha. I guess my grandpa borrowed it when my uncle went into the military and just never gave it back. My uncle knows where its at now and Ive offered to give it back.

 

[Terry C]

I keep both high-velocity and CB shorts.

My .22 Henry lever-action eats shorts just fine and will hold 21 of them in the tube.

The shorts can give mild to moderate ballistics, while the .22LR are a bit much for backyard plinking.

 

[Vegetaman]

Yeah, .22 shorts are still in stock around here. More like $4/box tho.

 

[opaul]

If I didn't have the two guns that would handle them I would have passed. I think they are the perfect squirrel caliber. Like others have said, they really aren't made to use in more modern rifles.

 

[Stainless44]

I bet you could cut them in half and solder the pieces back together to make .22 longs...and make a profit selling them in this market.

 

[mod34]

If I didn't have the two guns that would handle them I would have passed. I think they are the perfect squirrel caliber. Like others have said, they really aren't made to use in more modern rifles.

1) I've re-read the posts and don't see anything where others have indicated that they "really aren't made to use in more modern rifles".

2) Why in the world not??

 

[opaul]

1) I've re-read the posts and don't see anything where others have indicated that they "really aren't made to use in more modern rifles".

2) Why in the world not??[/QUOTE

I have several newer bolt actions and semi-autos which state 22LR. Only my vintage models state S,L, LR. Thus the basis for my statement, I am not an expert just IMHO. Others on this forum are much more qualified and can judge for themselves.
Didn't mean to imply or put words in other posts that weren't there, Mod.

 

[WuzzFuzz]

Most of the time, not always..the older "vintage" guns were mechanical loaded...Lever action, pump, bolt action...Those could do the short, long or long rifle. My little ole Winchester model 06 does just fine on the shorts. It's good for the short, long or long rifle's.

The semi automatics, a short, just doesn't have enough uhmph to get the slide back.

WuzzFuzz

 

[mod34]

Botom line I guess is that the darn little round is just plain fun. I picked up an old Meridan pump yesterday afternoon and after a really good scrubbin' last night have been plinking away with a stash of CB .22 shorts. Lots of fun for little money and even less noise.
Probably time to start posting some pictures of our .22 short capable rifles

 

[Terry C]

1) I've re-read the posts and don't see anything where others have indicated that they "really aren't made to use in more modern rifles".

2) Why in the world not??

As has been said, they won't cycle the action of a .22LR autoloader. And most simply won't feed the shorts even hand-cycled.

A lot of popular new designs will not feed shorts, they were never intended to. But many will, the Henry for example. It loves them long time.

On the plus side (if you can find them) CB longs give safe quiet airgun-like performance like CB shorts and they will hand-cycle through most (but not all) guns that will hang up with shorts. CCI makes them and yes they will be a little more expensive than regular shorts.

 

[mod34]

As has been said, they won't cycle the action of a .22LR autoloader. And most simply won't feed the shorts even hand-cycled.

A lot of popular new designs will not feed shorts, they were never intended to. But many will, the Henry for example. It loves them long time.

On the plus side (if you can find them) CB longs give safe quiet airgun-like performance like CB shorts and they will hand-cycle through most (but not all) guns that will hang up with shorts. CCI makes them and yes they will be a little more expensive than regular shorts.

"Modern rifles" and rifles that were or were not designed for the round are totally different topics. Modern rifles designed to feed and fire the .22 short are no more or less different than vintage rifles that either were or weren't designed to fire the .22 short.

 

[Alpo]

I just checked my records. In '07 I bought a bunch of CCI shorts from Grafs. 6.59 a box, and since they are boxes of 100, that's 3.30 a box. In '10 I bought some from Midway. 6.47 a box. Again, that comes to 3.25 a box.

Seems like 3 bucks a box, now, ain't a bad deal.

Why You Are Not Supposed To Use Shorts (my opinion)

1 - if you have a box magazine they won't feed. Makes your gun a single shot.

2 - if you have an automatic they don't have enough power to work the action. Makes your gun a single shot.

3 - if you have a tube magazine and your gun was not designed to use shorts (i.e. marked S/L/LR) it will try to feed more than one and cause jams. Puts your gun out of action.

4 - Firing shorts in a LR action leaves a deposit of bullet lube/unburned powder at the mouth of the case, and the more you shoot the bigger it gets, and the older it is the harder to remove. This deposit causes difficulties in chambering LR ammo, and if you get the LR chambered, when you fire it the case fire-forms around the deposit, making it very difficult to eject.

For these reasons I seldom shoot shorts. For Reason #4, even though I have two that are marked S/L/LR, I only shoot them in my 1890 Gallery Gun, which is chambered for shorts. It is nice to know that, if push come to shove, they will feed fine in my Marlin and my Remington, but I save them for my Winchester.

 

[Maddmax]

I still have my old plain jane never missed single shot bolt action Remington shootin' iron from the early 60's. It will shoot short,long and long rifle. Shorts were great for hunting squirrel,rabits and chipmunks when I was a kid.. Always figured that some day,shorts would be my "go get dinner" round. Those days just might be a comin' back. I still have a boat load of old shorts stored in ammo cans that still shoot just fine. I do grab a few boxes now and then just for cheap plinking. Also great for teaching the grandkids weapon safety,how to shoot and cleaning.

As for lead deposite from shooting shorts and not shooting L or LR after. ...It's called weapon cleaning. I'm still old school. ALL my weapons get cleaned after use.

 

[Tenn2]

I have shot 22 shorts when I wanted to be quiet. Have to agree with Maddmax. Clean it when you are done and you will not have any problems.

 

[Nevada Ed]

I have a marlin auto and a win pump and the short can be shot out of both but the auto needs to be feed by hand....big baby, but both get good accuracy out to 25 yards.

The cci CB Long will feed easier and is quite a bit more accurate in both my guns and is a low noise round,great for pest in the back yard, if needed.

Both are close rang loads since the 29gr bullet at 710fps falls off fast on the way to 50 yards.

Good shooting

 

[DWalt]

In my opinion, the absolute finest .22 Semiauto rifle ever made was the Remington 550. It was equipped with the Williams floating chamber, which allowed it to fire .22 S, L, & LR interchangeably, and it worked perfectly. No way I could estimate the thousands of rounds of .22 Short I fired through it before I foolishly sold it 20 years ago for $90. I saw one at the gun show this morning for $250, and was tempted to buy it, but didn't. As I posted elsewhere, there was a guy there asking $10/box for new .22 Short ammunition.

The old Winchester .22 pumps (1890/1906) would handle .22 Short. The '90 was made in Short and Long Rifle, but the Long Rifle version would function with .22 Shorts if you plugged the feed carrier with a wad of paper. The '06 handled all lengths interchangeably without modification.

I have a High Standard .22 Olympic Model semiauto pistol that fires ONLY .22 Short, preferably standard velocity (it has a light aluminum slide). Fortunately, I still have about 3000 rounds of CCI .22 Short Std Velocity, and it is now very difficult ammunition to find.

Of course, any bolt action rifle will fire .22 Short but it may have to be done in single-shot mode rather than feeding from the magazine. Any .22 revolver will handle .22 Short also.

At one time, .22 Short was substantially cheaper than .22 LR. But sadly, the reverse is true now. Regarding .22 CB and BB caps, they are good for sighting in .22 guns in your back yard, as they make very little noise and it doesn't take much to make a simple but effective bullet backstop, like a bundle of newspapers.

 

[Blastmeister]

They fire great out of a Remington 572 pump. Super quiet, accurate, good for rabbits and squirrels, and you can even shoot them indoors . Very underrated round.

 

[richeyo2]

I can't even find shorts around me, which only thing I got that will shoot them is Grandpa's old revolver. My 8yr loves shooting that thing & I know Grandpa is smiling down watching him...

I did find some CCI .22longs but they wanted $10.99 a box so I passed.

 

[alwslate]

The 22 short is a great round. I have several old Winchesters
chambered for the short only. Nice quiet round for bolt action single
shots also but some guns with LR chambers group well with shorts
and some don't. I like shooting shorts in my 2" S&W md 34 and pre 34
because the high speed 22 LR tends to have an irritating muzzle blast
from the short barrels for casual backyard plinking.

 

[Elkwc]

22 shorts are about as hard to find as the LR's. I've always used them like many for plinking and also for varmit getting. I live on the edge of the city limits and they are quieter and also I feel safer. They are what I use for skunks and the other varmits. I bought a Marlin 39A I plan on taking out for the first time in 2 weeks and will use mainly shorts in it. Provided the ones I have ordered arrive. It seems 6-6.50 a hundred is fairly standard. And right now if you wait you lose out around here on any 22 ammo.

 

[arjay]

I had never seen 22 shorts before this shortage.Of course they are gone now.