When I was a kid, I remember .22shorts being pretty popular.
I used to shoot them in the back yard out of a Marlin rifle I had then.
About as much noise as a cap gun, not strong enough to kill a squirrel from 25 yards away.

It would be interesting to see how accurate that round is and how far out you hit reliably with it, but I dont know of many modern rifles that could shoot it.

Any of you shooting these little tiny bullets?
Out of what?

I've got some 22 C-Bees.  I think they may be equivalent to shorts.  I shoot them out of an old Marlin magazine fed bolt action rifle.  About all you can here is the slap of the firing pin.  It would be an urban back yard sniper rifle--if it was powerful enough to take down any animal bigger than a slug.

You can shoot from a rifle with a tubular magazine.

P.S.  If you are sniping against slugs, buy hollowpoints and fill the tip with salt to increase odds for a one-shot stop.

I shoot Shorts and CB longs in my Winchester 67.  They aren't very noisy at all and they will dispatch a squirrel or bird easily.

CB's work great single shot and will kill rabbits and squirrels with good shot placement.

shoot them out of a old remington when being quit is important or when at a friends house that has some close nieghbors.

My son shoots shorts out of his Cricket single shot and I shoot them from my MAS 45 and Ruger Super Single Six.  Have taken squirrels in the past from the front porch from a Savage 24ES combination gun.

CD

My step-father has a wonderful old Winchester pump-action that shoots shorts only. Forget the model # (not a gallery gun). Great rifle, need to take it out the next time I'm home.

Quoted: My step-father has a wonderful old Winchester pump-action that shoots shorts only. Forget the model # (not a gallery gun). Great rifle, need to take it out the next time I'm home.

A friend's dad has one also.  My buddy thought the gun was fuxxored because it would jam every time....until I pointed out that the old Winchester was made for .22 short.  I loaned him a box of .22shorts I had & it worked fine.  He said it was kinda wimpy....heavy barrel all steel rifle but with only a slight "pop" report instead of the standard "crack!" of a .22LR.  It doesn't get shot much, .22shorts cost a bit more & are harder to find.

My grandparents have a RG revolver that's chambered in .22short also.  Grandmother got it back in the late '60s/early '70s for protection (had to commute thru a bad area).  I've shot it before....what a POS.  Staple gun-like DA pull, flimsy construction, cheesy fake ivory plastic grips...a real Saturday Night Special.  That said, I'd still wouldn't mind having it for the sentimental value.  

I used to shoot them all the time when I was a kid because they were cheeper.I guess this lets the cat out of the bag on how I am an old fart.Would have been 1966 or so when I was turned loose with granddads gun in the small gravel pit  that was out in the woods behind our house. Shorts,longs,long rifle were priced 35 ,50,75 cents or thereabouts. Granddads gun was a J.C.Higgins (Sears brand) that was a tube fed semi auto that had a cross bolt.If you pulled out the cross bolt it would fire semi auto with Long Rifle ammo.If you pushed the bolt home it would feed and fire shorts or longs single fire and became a straight pull action.It had a god awfull long barrel and tube,I remember it holding at least 14 long rifles and like 20+ shorts.Surper ulgy brown wood grain plastic stock but I loved that gun even with the crappy buckhorn sights.I still have this gun and need to get some springs and get it up and running just for the heck of it as I haven't shot it for 35 years.This gun was built by savage for sears I think.
I still will shoot the odd box of shorts in my henry golden boy or one of my revolvers,sometimes for the fun of it ,sometimes when going after pests in the backyard.I have an old clip fed rem bolt (511?) but the shorts don't feed real great so it usually ges shot with cb longs. (power of a cb cap with a longer case)
Clark makes a short conversion for the 10/22 which is a bolt and some springs,I have seen it in the midway or brownells catalog but not handeled one in real life.It looks like it could be a hoot but I believe it is like $290  (yow!)
Some of the hot shot rimfire pistol competitions are shot with shorts (rapid fire?)but we are talking about crazy $2000+ European guns

At one time the rumor was that out of a short barrel revolver (4" or less)  a high speed short actually has more energy as the light short bullet (29gr vs 40 for the lr) gets up to speed faster and the long rifle never burns all its powder in a short barrel.Some day I need to get to the range with the chrony and test this out

I cshoot them out of the mossberg M44 I got from the CMP. They are quiet even if the are not up to the same accuracy level as .22lr.

Quoted: My son shoots shorts out of his Cricket single shot and I shoot them from my MAS 45 and Ruger Super Single Six.  Have taken squirrels in the past from the front porch from a Savage 24ES combination gun. CD

yep, i have an old 22 winchester single round bolt action boys rifle. its what i learned to shoot with when i was 4. i used shorts, and i teach my nieces and nefews with shorts also.

My first rifle was an Iver Johnson pump action gallery type gun. I still have it. feeds 22, shorts, longs, and long rifles( mix and match, it will eat them all).  Gun has an exposed hammer. it is still my very favorite firearm.

Wish I had another one, but new .. the pics make the finish look better than it actually is





I still shoot it from time to time.
22 longs are pretty hard to come by these days.shorts and long rifles are everywhere

I have in the past shot shorts out of my Marlin 39D.  I like the fact that they are quiet so I can do a little plinking at 1:00 am when I get home from work.

Any .22 revolver will shoot shorts, as will most bolt actions. One might have to feed them in a bolt single rd at a time if their mag won't hold them correctly. Rossi makes a .22 rifle pump that shoots them, Taurus does too, IIRC?

Most likely any .22 will shoot them ok with the exception of semi's.

I shoot shorts out of my Marlin 39a lever action and Reminton 581 bolt action.

Aguila Colibri (a Short w/ no powder) out of my 4" Daimondback. They probably do ~300f/s or so (can get stuck in a rifle barrel). Believe it or don't, I dispatch chipmunks in the garage with it  -- head shots at 10 feet.  I'm the Carlos Hathcock of my street, taking out Varmint Cong (but for God's sake, don't let my wife see this thread...).

Use "regular" Shorts -- no brand loyalty -- in the same piece on my Father-in-Law's land to plink at insurgent cans and Necco candy wafers. The little Colt is astoundingly accurate, so you can feed the ants with Necco dust at up to 50' with relative ease from a steady Weaver stance or sitting.

The Colibris leave no residue, the Shorts do require some chamber scrubbing.

well...i dunno about squirrels..

but in my younger more impressionable days...
dozens of whitetails were deep sixed with a winchester pump .22 loaded with .22 shorts..

out to about 40 yards. clean kills...no problem.

we shot .22 shorts for everything from turtles in ponds to deer.

lordddddddddd that doesnt count catz...that fell to the wicked winchester..

I shoot them by preference in my Winchester M94/22. At least when I'm plinking in the back yard. It's easier on the neighbors ears, and that is a big consideration.
I think its power is under valued by many. I don't know what kind of armor plated zombie birds and squirrals you are shooting at with them, but all the ones I shoot at seem to...die.
Fun little cartridge. Especially when you load the lever rifle on Sunday, and shoot all week 'til Saturday with them!

(Hmmm...I wonder what I should use my next post on???)

Norinco ATD....modified  w/new feed block & tube....Nothing else necessary,  functions great...Quiet &  w/hp a great small game gun.

What's a good source of .22 shorts?

Dennis Jenkins

I use CB caps when I take my 7yr old girl to the range.
She uses 'em to bust balloons using an ancient Cooey single shot rifle.
She hates balloons.

Don't really shoot them anymore, partly because of the cost.  If fact, I still have a half full box from the last time I used them.....over twenty years ago.

Quoted: Don't really shoot them anymore, partly because of the cost.  If fact, I still have a half full box from the last time I used them.....over twenty years ago.

+1 I shot alot of them when i was younger. I lived in town, but behind my back yard was a large corn field. we would shoot starlings out the back window while my parents were at work. I always shot down to the ground, not up.
They were quiet enough that we never got busted over many years.

I pop squirrrels, chipmunks, and snakes with an Anshutz 1451 bolt action. Doesn't always get a clean kill, sure does run their ass off though.

tk

Marlin 39A + .22 shorts=dead squirrels

I shoot them out of my 10/22 (highly modified) with a VQ carbon barrel.  They're no where near as accurate as the Wolf Match Target I ususally feed it, but will make consistant head shots on rabbits at 50yds, and squirrels around 25.  I couldn't get them to extract with the stock extractor so I have a VQ extractor which pulls them out everytime.  I live in the city/burbs and can't shoot anything LR rounds out of the .22 so I use either CB or CB shorts.  They still pack a bit of power.  I don't know their FPS but one went through and through my shed about 50 yards away.  Plenty enough for a clean kill on a squirrel or rabbit.

Dad uses them to dispatch critters on his winter trapline.  Fires them from a 10 shot, break action, H&R .22 revolver.  Kills raccoons dead from 10 feet when applied to the ear.

I'd love to have a winchester 62 (or 1890 )to pop some out of, man I love those rifles.

I shoot them out of my Marlin 81 (tube fed bolt action,which the dont make any more, now replaced with the 981, same gun w/ different trigger).  They work on pigons and cats with good shot placement.

Win Mod 74. With CBs it is a hollywood quiet semi auto.

Quoted: I shoot them out of my Marlin 81 (tube fed bolt action,which the dont make any more, now replaced with the 981, same gun w/ different trigger).  They work on pigons and cats with good shot placement.

I've got a Marlin 81-DL that's bolt action and tube fed.  I've never tried shorts.  Will yours feed shorts?  The gun was handed down to me and never had a rear sight.  

I shoot them out of a 1960's vintage Beretta 950 Minx pocket pistol.  Watch-Six

I bought a couple of boxes so I could shoot them out of my Henry levergun for backyard squirrel killing.  Haven't had the need to shoot any yet this year though.

An old Marlin 80G bolt action.

Good for squirrels