Jonno243 Posted April 29, 2012 Report Share Posted April 29, 2012 I am looking for a quick bit of advice chaps. When the old fella packed in the rifle shooting he transferred his .22 ammo holdings on to my cert. I am not that frequent a user of rimfire so mostly it lay about in the ammo safe for a while. I have more or less used it up now, and whilst emptying out the safe to carry out a count of what is remaining found that one of the boxes is in fact .22 short. My first thought was to take it and hand it in for disposal, but then I got to wondering if it is ok to put this through my rifle? And if it is then what on earth would you use it for? Ratting or pigeons inside barns? Plinking at targets? I have no idea... So my question to those in the know is twofold: 1. Can it be fired from a 22LR? 2. What is the point of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedwards1966 Posted April 29, 2012 Report Share Posted April 29, 2012 I think it's fine to use, and probably mostly used for ratting, where a very low powered round is useful. I'd guess at it having around 30 ftlb's of energy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazooka Joe Posted April 29, 2012 Report Share Posted April 29, 2012 I've shot 100's of rabbits with 22 short. They were Winchester 29g HP subs, nice round for rabs...the 27g HP's were a faster round, & no good through the mod. I'd guess at it having around 30 ftlb's of energy. Disagree with that, I reckon it would be double, 60ft lbs +. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedwards1966 Posted April 29, 2012 Report Share Posted April 29, 2012 I'd guess at it having around 30 ftlb's of energy. Disagree with that, I reckon it would be double, 60ft lbs +. You're about right, I've looked it up and they tend to be 70 ftlb's, 29g bullets travelling at 1045 fps. I was thinking of the very low powered ones (not .22 shorts), which are nearer 22 ftlb's, some even less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy H Posted April 29, 2012 Report Share Posted April 29, 2012 The CB cap's in 22 are very low powered 20-30ftlb but a 22 short is 60+ in a 22 short rifle and rabbit's are no problem . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Green Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 shorts are fine, not much different to ordinary .22s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmer Fudd 1 Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 i know of people shooting semi auto 22shorts and them sticking and mag dumping on full auto, i suppose that you havent got a semi auto but if you do,be warned Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigrob Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 i've got an old Browning boys rifle - it's a semi auto - very small - it takes 14 .22 short rounds through the back of the stock and knocks over rabbits very easily. great for creeping around a rough shoot. someone has put a parker hale rear sight on it which makes aiming a bit tricky but great fun all the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazooka Joe Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 mag dumping on full auto The semi I had at the time would do this, problem was low velocity ammo, not enough to recoil the slide back so it carried on emptying the mag. First time it happened was an eye opener.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonathanL Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 I am looking for a quick bit of advice chaps. When the old fella packed in the rifle shooting he transferred his .22 ammo holdings on to my cert. I am not that frequent a user of rimfire so mostly it lay about in the ammo safe for a while. I have more or less used it up now, and whilst emptying out the safe to carry out a count of what is remaining found that one of the boxes is in fact .22 short. My first thought was to take it and hand it in for disposal, but then I got to wondering if it is ok to put this through my rifle? And if it is then what on earth would you use it for? Ratting or pigeons inside barns? Plinking at targets? I have no idea... So my question to those in the know is twofold: 1. Can it be fired from a 22LR? 2. What is the point of it? 1. Yes. .22 RF rounds head-space on the rim so case/cartridge length doesn't really make a difference. 2. It pre-dates the other .22RF rounds (.22 Long, .22 Long Rifle) so old guns will only chamber the shorter round. If your FAC specifies .22LR specifically then, technically speaking, you would be in unlawful possession of .22 Short ammo if you had any. It's another reason why the very specific and pedantic wording on FAC's these days is a pointless waste of time. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonathanL Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 i know of people shooting semi auto 22shorts and them sticking and mag dumping on full auto, i suppose that you havent got a semi auto but if you do,be warned I've never heard of this happening as a result of the use of .22 Short in a rifle chambered in .22LR. I can't see what would make it happen. I suppose that if the rifle were of a type which fired from an open bolt then the Short round may not have enough power to lock the bolt back (Sten guns converted to semi-auto used to do this with under-loaded ammo, so I'm reliably informed) but there are very, very few open-bolt .22's out there. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonathanL Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 The semi I had at the time would do this, problem was low velocity ammo, not enough to recoil the slide back so it carried on emptying the mag. First time it happened was an eye opener.. What was it? Most semi-auto's won't do that as they fire from a closed bolt so cannot do it unless they have a fault. The AR-7 Explorer rifle which became the New England Survival rifle and is now made by someone else (Rossi?) had a reputation for doing this after many thousands of rounds as all the internals were alluminium and would wear and produce weird malfunctions. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazooka Joe Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 It was a short carbine & worked on the same principle as what you've described above with the Sten gun. (Sten guns converted to semi-auto used to do this with under-loaded ammo, Cheap ammo at the time, which didn't last long for obvious reasons.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonathanL Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 It was a short carbine & worked on the same principle as what you've described above with the Sten gun. Cheap ammo at the time, which didn't last long for obvious reasons.. Was it a BSA, per-chance? J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimfireboy Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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