# Ode to the .22 short



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

What happened to the .22 short? 

When I was growing up that's what we used for rabbits, treed racoons, running traps with a .22 revolver, feral cats around the barnyard, and 13-lined ground squirrels by the thousands. Shorts got the job done and were so much cheaper than .22 long rifles. All the gallery guns at the carnivals were .22 shorts for crying out loud. What are they using now? :smile:

Back in the day most .22 rifle models were offered in .22 short only. You don't see that any more.

In the 60s when ya wanted to jump the neighbor's fence and get mess of cottontails you carried .22 shorts. They didn't make enough noise to be heard at the farm house. Looking back it's kinda comical; our neighbor would jump our fence to hunt small game too.

I prefer longs or long rifles for fox squirrels though. An adult fox squirrel is tough and .22 shorts often would just wound them and then they would crawl in their hole in the tree and die. Also squirrels are taken at some pretty long distances sometimes and those shorts, IMO, are not as accurate as long rifles.

Canadian Geese out pulling your corn out of the ground in May? .22 shorts off a tractor worked just fine. 

Lastly, it goes without saying that for slaughtering hogs and cattle (stunning) the .22 long rifle out-performed the .22 short.

Why are shorts taking it in the shorts?


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

I also used to hunt with shorts exclusively. A couple of years ago I saw a brick of shorts at a gun shop. Picked them up for $9.00. The clerk said "those are shorts not long rifles, no refunds". I asked him if he had any more bricks of shorts in the back! Unfortunately that was all they had. My remington semi auto shoots shorts longs and lr


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

LostLouisianian said:


> I also used to hunt with shorts exclusively. A couple of years ago I saw a brick of shorts at a gun shop. Picked them up for $9.00. The clerk said "those are shorts not long rifles, no refunds". I asked him if he had any more bricks of shorts in the back! Unfortunately that was all they had. My remington semi auto shoots shorts longs and lr


That's funny.

I bought a brick at Sportsmans in Riverdale about 5 years ago and they were relatively cheap compared to long rifles. I don't remember the price. I bought them because I couldn't find shorts in southwest Wyoming.

I think shorts were around 50¢ back before I had a driver's license, in the mid-60s. My dad would give me 50¢ for mowing and I would spend it on a box of .22 shells. 

Growing up I remember .22 rifles everywhere. A Win 1906 pump under the seat of the grain truck, single-shot Rem 6's wired to the inside of the tractor fenders, a model 62 pump, covered with sparrow poop, hanging by nails in the machine shed. A pump .22 stood up by the back door ready to take out any furred or feathered critter that entered the barnyard. And there were .22 shorts in every junk drawer, in shoe boxes of parts, in coffee cans of nuts and bolts, on the dash, on the floorboard, and always rattling around the washer and dryer.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

I've never shot .22 shorts...they're always more expensive in walmart (that is, when walmart used to have ANY .22's in stock on a regular basis). I have shot .22 conical ball subsonics (CCI) and i like them---super quiet and get most of my jobs done.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

.22 shorts are awesome! As a kid thats what we used to shoot squirrels with on the farm. We would sit in the loft of one of the barns that overlooked the feed lot by the grain and silage and pick them off with our little single shots.

Man, those were good times!


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

I bought a box about twenty years ago to help the raccoons off my back deck. Still got the full box. Convinced the neighbors to stop leaving the dog dishes on thier back decks. Problem solved. I'll sell that box of shorts for $20.00.;-)


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Al Hansen said:


> I bought a box about twenty years ago to help the raccoons off my back deck. Still got the full box. Convinced the neighbors to stop leaving the dog dishes on thier back decks. Problem solved. I'll sell that box of shorts for $20.00.;-)


$20.00? Uh...I'll go $4.0000


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

It seems .22 shorts are easier to find than LR's. I have a Rossi pump I may have to find some shorts for.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I think that the popularity of the 22 short and long started around the same time that the auto loading 22 started to get real popular. Everyone wanted a semi auto and it was hard to find a decent bolt action or pump for a .22. I remember years ago when I decided to purchase a .22 rifle for one of my nephews. You wouldn't believe the number of gun shops that I went to to find a bolt action with a tubular magazine. The rifle that I purchased for him did have on the barrel .22 short, 22 long, and .22 long rifle.


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## Wind In His Hair (Dec 31, 2009)

My grandparents would hand me an old Sears bolt action and a box of .22 shorts whenever I visited their farm. I was the official pigeon assassin.


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## Mavis13 (Oct 29, 2007)

I've got two older 22s that will take shorts; and I've seen shorts (not the ones on the fat lady) at walmart a time or two this last year. One's an auto loader the others a pump. I've only purchased them when LR's were out of stock.


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## 90redryder (Oct 10, 2011)

If I could find some .22 shorts I'd gladly buy them to solve my feral cat problem...


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## Mavis13 (Oct 29, 2007)

90redryder said:


> If I could find some .22 shorts I'd gladly buy them to solve my feral cat problem...


That's what blunts and a compound bow were made for. Very effective; I used to practice on pop cans in my back yard.
I've got an air rifle now that would do the job now; but don't have the probem anymore; the owers of the cat factory next door moved out a few years ago. It's nice to walk out in my yard and not have kitty bombs everywhere.


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## 90redryder (Oct 10, 2011)

Mavis13 said:


> That's what blunts and a compound bow were made for. Very effective; I used to practice on pop cans in my back yard.
> I've got an air rifle now that would do the job now; but don't have the probem anymore; the owers of the cat factory next door moved out a few years ago. It's nice to walk out in my yard and not have kitty bombs everywhere.


A buddy of mine told me he nailed a cat with a blunt tip and it tipped right over, then he walked out into the field to check out the damage and the bugger jumped up and ran back to the neighbors porch hahaha


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## Loke (Sep 7, 2007)

Gunnies had three boxes of 22 shorts when I left last night.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

There seems to be some misconceptions about the .22 short.

The .22 short has been around a long time, popular even before 1900. But it really took hold at the end of the Great Depression when money was tight. 

The .22 cartridge was designed for small game and barn yard pests, not little white rocks, road signs, and beer cans. The .22 short was just as, if not more, popular than the .22 long rifle when I was growing up. It was all about the money and a little about the noise. Why use higher priced, and noisier, .22 long rifle ammo on rabbits and squirrels when something cheaper, and quieter, would do? 

By the start of WWII all the gun manufacturers were offering .22 short-only rifles. Winchester, who had .22 short rifles all the way back to their 1890 model, led the pack with gallery guns; .22 short-only pump rifles like the Model 62. Back in the day every little carnival and county fair had a .22 gallery concession stand. 

I think Remington and Browning had the market on .22 short-only semi-autos covered. Fine, but reasonably priced, .22 semi-autos were made that cycled shorts, long, and long rifle ammo. Those great guns had "finished" parts, not stamped parts like the junk semi-auto .22s they make today. One example is the Remington Model 550 semi-auto. It readily handled shorts and long rifles and was one of the most popular .22s out there. I just might know a fellar that has one. ;-)

.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

I'm loving all the reminiscing going on in this thread. Sounds like a lot of you guys had a fun childhood. I've rarely used .22 shorts because they are just aren't very widely available now, they are pricier than .22lr, and I don't really have a need for the minimal sound. I have, on occasion, used them for hunting jack rabbits. They would kill them just fine, but it seemed like a lot of those big jacks required multiple hits with .22 shorts a lot more often than they did with .22lr.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Some gallery rifles had a modified loading window on the tubular magazine made so that anything but a .22 short would be difficult, if not impossible, to load into the magazine.

During my time:
At first gallery rifles were loose; they just laid them on the counter top and the Carny doled out three .22 shorts to you for a quarter (or less ?). Later the rifles were chained to the counter top. At the end of their use in carnivals the .22 rifles were mounted on a post in addition to being chained down.

.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I've got a little revolver that has two cylinders - one for .22 shorts, and one for .22 longs. Fun little gun to plink around. I've also got a 1906 Remington pump that'll take either. Love that little pump gun. Cutest dang gun you'll ever shoot.


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