22 Short Ammo

[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.

 

[westcoast362]

When I was a kid in the 50's walking across the Mojave Desert with my trusty Winchester M-67. I shot shorts because they were cheaper than .22 long rifle. .22 longs were pretty much gone by then.

 

[brokenprism]

I like Shorts and CB Caps, but I really like Longs. They just look serious.

 

[Mike McLellan]

I use shorts, longs, & long rifles in my K-22 and my 17-3. Not only are the 22 shorts cheap and fun to shoot, they're quiet enough so that I can sit on my deck and plink the tomatoes in my butt-head neighbor's garden, not that I'd ever do that.

 

[BigBill]

I try to purchase every 22cal rifle thats says 22 shorts, longs and long rifle bullets. I mainly have the older turn of the century pump 22 rifles. But i did get a new henry carbine 22 s, l ,lr lever action for my sons and grandson.

22 CB's are nice and quiet when hunting varmits and wabbits.

 

[Terry C]

I have a Henry as well, it eats shorts just fine.

The CBs are pretty tame, but high-velocity shorts are not that far behind .22LR in power. And my Henry will hold 21+1 shorts as opposed to 17+1 LR.

 

[shouldazagged]

I haven't seen .22L in years. The Marlin 39A (my second one is forty-plus years old, and I still wish I hadn't traded away the first one) handles Shorts beautifully. Never tried Longs in it. They weren't commonly available even forty years ago, as I recall.

 

[ralph7]

I love shorts and have 2 rifles and a pistol chambered solely for that round.
All semi autos!

 

[str8liner]

I have a Remington 581 that shoots S L and LR.

I would buy it up in a second if any 22S showed up around here but I have not seen any.

 

[k53]

Ive seen a ton of shorts sence this all went down. The funny thing is last year I went LOOKING for them... and everyone looked at me like I was green.. "Shorts? you WANT shorts???" Well now that is [or at least was for a time..] the only thing you could find in 22. I gotta belive that most of the people buying them have no idea that they may or may not load in there firearms..

 

[Tupperware]

I'm a big fan of .22 shorts.
I have several rifles that shoot them just fine and one, in particular, that is especially fun to shoot.
It's a Browning ATD, chambered in .22 short and it functions reliably with CB shorts. That's not a typo, CB shorts reliably operate the action. When I bring it to the public range it's not at all unusual for somebody to come over and inquire if the rifle is suppressed. No, it's not, but it sure is quiet-much quieter than my spring action pellet rifles.