22 shorts thru LONG RIFLE ONLY???

[fox fire]

I tried the search feature but it came up dry so it's up to you guy's again.      The older .22 rifles were shorts,long,longrifle,    so why are they all marked long rifle only now day's  and can you SAFELY shoot shorts thru a barrel marked long rifle only?    and is ther a difference in the way the chamber is manufactured?          THANX FOR ANY RESPONSE       

[Nobade]

No difference in the chamber, but most guns won't feed shorts. Works fine as a single shot.

[Dee]

Fox fire, I grew up with those old rifles, and most were bolt, pump, and lever actions. Now a days most are autos. Nobade is right. They are safe to shoot but the autos won't feed them. 

[fox fire]

Thanx ya'll,  I guess the short aint got the oomph to work the auto guns, maybe.   I went and bought me a CZ 452 bolt gun and wuold like to use shorts to squirrel hunt with if ther accurate enuff, but the gun is LONG RIFLE ONLY, but I didnt know if ther was a diffence in the chamber or what, so I thuoght it mite be a good idea to ask.

[Dee]

Your not going to hurt that rifle shooting shorts in it. Being a bolt it MIGHT feed them, but you probably will have to hand feed it one at a time.

[trotterlg]

I have a Remington 581 that will feed all three with no problems.  Some of the break action single shots are marked long rifle only because a short can be chambered with the ejector over the rim, when the rifle is closed the ejector smashes the rim fireing the round.  Even in them if you load it properly they are fine.  Larry

[no guns here]

I'm thinkin' ya' need to get a Contender with a match grade .22 short chamber in a 16.25 inch barrel.  I'm not sure what match grade .22 short actually means BUT I read about one a few years ago and it sounded pretty dang cool.  Put a 4x scope on it and head shoot grasshoppers...


NGH

[Nobade]

That's for sure - a gun set up especially for shorts, with a 1:20 twist and proper chamber can be incredibly accurate. I got to play with a fellow's 10-22 short shooter recently. It had the proper barrel, special magazine, and an aluminum bolt with a very light recoil spring. With a tactical innovations can on it, there was almost zero noise and it put 10 shots into about a 30 caliber hole at 25 yards. Ammo was subsonic pistol match, RWS IIRC.  What a neat toy! I wish I had the bucks for one myself.

[fox fire]

  Ya just gotta love a .22, especally a short.    I dont care to load them like a single shot, I used to have a old remington target master single shot, great shooter,  i guess thats wher I get my hang up for single shots.       

[Gerry N.]

When I was about 12 I traded my dad's barber three months of lawn mowing for an old Remington rolling block .22.  My cousin chided me about that thing for months until we were out at a gravel pit plinking.  He had a Remington Mohawk Nylon .22 clip fed autoloader.  My dad finally had us compete to see who could get 50 aimed shots into a target at about 30 yards first.  I beat him by over two minutes loading and firing single shots because he had to spend too much time filling the magazine and picking up dropped rounds.  My first 50 were all in the scoring area of the target, Pat had to shoot 65 rounds to get 50 that counted.

That old rolling block was marked "Short, Long, Long Rifle" but it didn't do as well with shorts and longs as it did with long rifles.  My Uncle worked at the Seattle Police gun range and bought me Federal Monark Standard Velocity long rifles for $1.49 a brick when hi-speeds were $2.50.  The rolling block would put those monarks into one hole at 50 yards all day long if the driver paid attention.  The only thing I never liked was that it weighed nearly nothing and was hard to keep on target offhand.  From age 12 to 18 when I traded it away I must have put 20,000 rounds through it.  I couldn't possibly count the number of gophers and jackrabbits I killed.  I had no clue that standard velocity solid points weren't "proper" gopher and rabbit ammunition, I just killed 'em.   I've got self loading and bolt .22's now but I'd sure like to have a rolling or dropping block .22 sized for an adult.  Even a tip up like a Handi would sure be sweet.

Gerry N.

[Rangr44]

[ I'm not sure what match grade .22 short actually means ]

A "match grade" chamber usually means that the chamber is tight, or minimum size - and still fall within the standards for the cartridge.

A "match grade" barrel is generally taken to mean that extra care was taken during it's manufacture, boring and rifling, and that both the bore and groove diameters are to minumum spec for .22 RF, and the rifling twist different per the cartridge application, due to different bullet weights between Shorts & LR's, etc.

.

[IOWA DON]

I had a Ruger 77/22 converted to a .22 short-only rifle by Volquartsen. It is chambered for shorts and has a slow twist barrel. They also converted some magazines to shor-only. It feeds with 100 percent reliability, even upside down. I think the action is technically of the positive feed type. I put a Brown-Precision fiberglass stock on it and a Leupold 2-7X AO rimfire scope. For a long range load I use the supersonic CCI high speed hollow points and with those it's good for 1-inch groups at 50 yards. For quiet shooting I use the subsonic Eley pistol match ammo. They are also accurate and don't make much noise. I've shot many dozens of rabbits and squirrels with this rifle, almost all with the subsonic Eley pistol match ammo. I've also shot a number of racoons, feral cats, and one fox with it. This rifle gets used a lot more than my old Weatherby Mark XXII automatic which will only shoot long rifle ammo. ----- I wish I had a .22 auto pistol which would work with subsonic .22 shorts. Maybe a pistol like that could be shot without ear protection.

[fox fire]

   Definitly see the beauty in a rifle like that, a 1001 uses. 

[Hodr]

In the safe I have my father's tractor rifle.  Octagon barrel 22 short pump comes apart with a side screw, sometimes known as the gallery rifle.  During the depression dad and his brothers used this rifle from the tractor to take tree squirell/cotton tail, quail, pheasant.  Livestock was slaughtered only on custom order from Kansas City and they ate mostly wild game.  I might add grandpa thought even 22 short was expensive and you should not need more than 1 shot, grandma didn't have any use for anything to cook that wasn't head shot.  One of the most accurate and quiet rifles I have ever shot. My son is 26 now and just about old enough for me to hand over his inheritance from my father.

blindhari

[torpedoman]

I've got an old 22 that is semi auto or it can be locked and fired as a bolt action and it is stamped l.r. only for semi automatic. I think it is savage but I'm too lazy to dig it out and check.

[wtroger]

I have a Remington 550 and a 552 they both are semi-auto they are are both marked s-l-lr and they both handle any of these shells with out issues the only thing they won't cycle with is 22 cb's The 552 is still made but it isn't cheap anymore. And yes most of the 22 autos will only fire 22 LR

[gunnut69]

There was a short only conversion available thru Brownells. It fit the Ruger standard model auto pistol. I belive it was Volkartsen(sp.) but CRS has hit again and my catalogues not here just now.. There are actually a couple (at least) versions of a match chamber. A standard match chamber is simply a chamber at the lower end of the tolerance range for a 22 LR. Also most will either lack all together the lead or provide only a minimal lead angle for the jump from chamber to lands.. This usually means the bullet on a round loaded into the chamber is engraved by the rifling before firing, in fact at the time it is loaded! There is also a 'Benz' reamer or chamber. It is mainly a match chamber but retains the lead or throat to allow chambering a round without engraving the bullet. It's main purpose is to provide imporved accuracy for the autoloading rifle(the 10/22 in the main) with better function. The extra force required to engrave the bullet in a match chamber is tough for an autoloader. It must balance the recoil spring force with the lowered pressures of the match type ammo.. In fact some match chambersd will experience hard chambering with some standard grade ammo..