.22 shorts in a bolt action

With the .22 ammo shortage being what it is and me just getting back into shooting, I was forced to buy my supply from a total of five different sources, each offering something different. I ended up buying quite a variety of ammo, including shorts and longs, even though my rifle (Savage MK II) is supposed to be for long rifle only, according to the manufacturer. Today I got out and tested all my ammo. Although the shorts and longs didn't seem to be quite as accurate as the long rifle, they still shot okay with my gun. I did occasionally have a long hang up a little while feeding into the chamber, but the shorts fed smoothly, as long as I wasn't too aggressive with the bolt.

I just thought that this might be helpful to bolt action shooters who are running low on long rifle and might be tempted to try the shorts or longs.

Most every bolt action should handle s,l,lr as long as the magazine will feed them......

I shoot .22 long rifle and shorts and give a way the longs.

Get a .22 magnum and you can do all four, generally.

there used to be a theory going round when I was a kid that continual use of .22 shorts in a long rifle chamber would erode the chamber just in front of the case mouth..........not true....what does happen is a slight build up of bullet lube which unless scrubbed out from time to time, will make it difficult to chamber Longs or Long rifle rounds.

Many of the older tube fed rimfires advertised the fact that ; they could feed "shorts, longs and long rifle rounds interchangeably" so there is NO reason to stress about using the shorter cartridges.

You will of course get a different point-of-impact with the smaller cartridges, due to having less powder capacity and if you're going to use them on a regular basis, you WIL need to re-zero your rifle to suit.

I have a Marlin XT-22 tube fed rifle that will feed and shoot all .22 ammo reliably from the tube. I have never tried mixing the ammo, but I have no doubts it would feed it reliably!

I did try mixing them in the magazine. Again, no real problem there.

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Originally Posted by Bushman

there used to be a theory going round when I was a kid that continual use of .22 shorts in a long rifle chamber would erode the chamber just in front of the case mouth..........not true....what does happen is a slight build up of bullet lube which unless scrubbed out from time to time, will make it difficult to chamber Longs or Long rifle rounds.

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In the old days of corrosive primers and/or black powder that was a very real problem. The corosive primers woud erode a ring in the chamber if you used shorts and did not clean thoroughly.

It is not a problem with modern ammo, but some people get a fouling ring of crud in the chamber that usually cleans up with no real damage.

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Originally Posted by kyratshooter

In the old days of corrosive primers and/or black powder that was a very real problem. The corosive primers woud erode a ring in the chamber if you used shorts and did not clean thoroughly.

It is not a problem with modern ammo, but some people get a fouling ring of crud in the chamber that usually cleans up with no real damage.

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Yeah I have noticed after shooting shorts for a while, the long rifles will not eject ( pull out of the chamber ) until I run a bristle brush through the chamber and bore. It leaves just enough crud to make the longer casings stick!

Henry Lever Golden Boy shoots every thing.

BTW ya gotta clean that .22 ever couple of years or so......

I have a little ethan allen revolver that will only chamber shorts.

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Originally Posted by hunter63

BTW ya gotta clean that .22 ever couple of years or so......

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Depends on your definition of "cleaning".

Occasionally some of mine get sprayed out with carb cleaner if they get cranky, or the bolt guns get the bolt blown out with cleaner and compressed air, but I seldom run a brush down the bore.

The surplus guns, and my black powder guns, get different treatment due to the corosive primers/powder involved with shooting them. Black powder and corosive primers are where the "Clean it every time you shoot it" care set developed. With modern ammo it is not necessary.

Most folks do not know how to properly clean a gun anyway, so the attempts are usually a joke. I used to make a good living getting the weed seeds and crud out of the places most shooters dared not go inside their expensive guns with polished outsides, pristine bores and filthy insides.

Most of my guns will throw the first shot wild after cleaning and need a few fouling shots to settle in. Since every shot at game in the field is usually a cold bore shot I always want the bores fouled and shooting at their best, so they are put away "dirty".

With my BP guns I usually fire a cap or a whiff of powder as a blank charge before I load just to foul the bore before the first shot.

Lots of folks do not realize that a simiauto rifle will often throw its first shot as a flier due to the cycling of the round. the first round is hand cycled and the rest are slamed and slapped into the chamber. The nose of the cartridge is damaged with each cycle and the first round will have different damage from all other rounds.

I learned that while accurizing my 10/22. This is such a standard problem that CMP sport rifle and Apple Seed allow you to throw your first shot into the berm and start record shooting with the second shot if you are using a 10/22.

Some were made by Crescent Arms and labled Newport WRF as well....shorts only
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psba7d965f.jpg

That's a nice un Hunter. here's mine

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...psbc344bc8.jpg

Now that's pretty cool....I see the index groove in the front of the cylinder....
Kinda makes ya wonder what they designed these for.....shorts/cb's only.

Got mine from an old guy the use the Crescent for shooting "rats"....but that meant gofers, squirrels, and anything small.

I believe it's marked shorts. It was my granddads.

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Originally Posted by randyt

I believe it's marked shorts. It was my granddads.

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I believe that thing was probably old when your grandad was a kid!

I think I would stick to CB caps in that one, it is too nice to take a chance on blowing up.

Got another small one marked US Arms...doesn't lock into the index grooves....so is just a paper weight.