22 Short and maybe shorter

Howdy! Years ago I had a wonderful uncle that was a real sportsman. He fished with a cane pole and could catch fish when no one else could. He did a lot of small game hunting with a single shot .22 rifle using 'shorts' only. He always came back home with plenty of squirrels and rabbits. I recently bought a .22 rifle at a gun show and it can fire short, long, and long rifle. You never hear much about the 'long' varieties and little about 'short' in a .22. A friend once told me that they make (or made at one time) a .22 cartridge that was actually shorter than a 'short'; however, I have never run across any. Does anyone know about this? Also, what do they use in real shooting galleries in .22 rifles? I have also seen something called a .22 CB Short. What exactly is this? Your views would be appreciated. Any suggestions on what to use in my recently acquired .22 rifle for plinking, etc.? Always, Gene

Hello Gene

I favor the CB longs; they do not erode the chamber of a .22 LR the way a short can.

There's the common .22 short, long, and long rifle. I once owned a low wall that shot only the .22 long.

You'll sometimes run across .22 CB Short and .22 CB Long. In the old days, there were .22 CB and .22 BB; far as I know, the .22 CB Short is the equivalent of a .22 CB cartridge, loaded in a Short case.

There was also a .22 extra long; this cartridge was limited, I think, to the Winchester 1903 semi-auto rifle. It's much like a .22 long rifle with a fractionally fatter cartridge (still smaller in diameter than .22 special and .22 mag) which can be a real pain in the butt if you get 'em mixed in with .22 long rifle shells. (Thanks, grandpa.)

For the most part, you'll want to shoot .22 long rifles in your new rifle. It'll shoot the other stuff, but for the most part, even the less powerful .22 long and .22 short shells are more expensive. For special purposes, shorts and longs can be useful. For whacking tiny garden pests (mice + 'feathered things' of similar size) the CB Shorts can be quiet, just remember they have a rude trajectory.

If you shoot shorts or longs in your S/L/LR chamber, you may have to mine out the wax and lead buildup at the front of the chamber before long rifles will chamber properly.

My Winchester '06 .22 gallery rifle won't feed anything shorter than a standard short, but sometimes I'll single-load CB Shorts for dinkin' around.

I routinely use 'CB caps' in my single shot (won't work in my lever). I picked up my last box at a large sporting goods store in Eau Claire, WI. We used to be able to buy 'BB caps'

I believe, but not sure, that cb means 'cap & ball'. In other words the propellant is primarily the primer with little or no powder. This makes the round quiet and weak enough for indoor target practice, but of little use for game shooting. A word about intermixing .22 shorts & long rifles: My Remingtom single shot rifle will tight group shorts upper left of a bullseye, while tight grouping long rifles center right of the bullseye. In other words, if you zero your rifle sights with one size, the other size probably will not be zero. Something to keep in mind.

This might be the 6 mm Flobert, basically a very short .22 rimfire with just the primer as a propelling agent. They were, together with the similar 4 mm Rand and the 9 mm Flobert quite popular for gallery rifles and are fun to shoot in a so-called 'Zimmerstutzen' (=apartment carbine). RWS still manufactures ammunition. Regards, Dirk

..22 CB caps can be purchased in both 'short' and 'long' versions, although I think they achieve the same velocity. Shorts are around 900 fps, and if I remember correctly these are around 700fps. I forget what bullet wt is, I think it is the same as std shorts, maybe that's 36 grains. Federal and CCI still make 'em. They aren't terribly accurate at other than short range, and as you can imagine their point of impact isn't the same as standard velocity shorts, either.

I have found the CB to be useful in shooting blue grouse with a handgun while big game hunting. The quiet report will not potentially spook game a quarter mile away as can the .22 long rifle or .38 special target loads. It also causes little meat damage if the body rather than the head is hit. I prefer to hunt grouse with a shotgun and dog when big game is not in season, but I do not pass up this delicious under-harvested bird when big game hunting if they are in season - unless the chance at venison is