I am almost totally ignorant on the subject of single shot rifles, but I have enjoyed lurking on the site the last few months.  However, at least one issue continues to bother me, and that is the frequent mention of rifles in 22 short.  When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s there still shooting galleries with real rifles and they were Winchester pumps (06?) that were 22 shorts. And some olympic pistols are 22 shorts, but was there a serious use for rifles in that caliber?

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S&W's first revolver, the 7-shot No. 1 model, which introduced the Short, wasn't sold for any of the purposes mentioned, but rather for self-defense, and carried by some (well-off) soldiers in the Civil War for that purpose.   

A lot of serious target shooters used .22 Short for competition. I knew several shooters in bullseye matches that shot Walther .22 Short because of their lack of recoil for rapidfire stages.
I own a Ballard #6 Schuetzen rebarreled and chambered for .22 Short with a match chamber, done by Zettler Bors. in the late 1800's.

Another plus for .22 Short is how quiet they are in a 30" barrel! My Zettler Ballard sounds like a pellet gun shooting .22 Shorts!

the CCI brand (about the only kind currently to be found) makes a target version, a hi-speed (slightly) copper flashed hollow-point that is used a lot by trappers and also makes an excellent squirrel rifle in an appropriate chambered and barreled rifle. 
Rifles dedicated for use with "shorts" usually have a slower rate of twist along with a shorter chamber to accommodate the shorter lighter bullet.   Shorts can be shot in most other 22 rimfire rifles though they may not actuate a semi-auto's repeating mechanism (unless it is one of the 22-short specific rapid-fire competition pistols). And the faster twist may not yield the accuracy potential of a 22-short specific rifle.

  There are also Cee-Bee version which are even lower powered, basically a very light bullet and the priming charge only for propellant. The potential problem with them is that they are so low powered that they may not exit a long or dirty barrel.   I have not experienced that with my german schuetzen 22 short rifle.  They are very quiet. frequently the "plink" of the bullet hitting the bullet trap i use indoors is much louder the the sound of the gun going off. However they are not toys and have enough power to do damage if handled carelessly.   They are very accurate out to 15 or 20 yards or so for offhand practice.

Sadly 22 short competition has lost completely been replaces with "air-guns" now

waterman wrote on Dec 5^th, 2016 at 12:59am:


Ever heard of Shorts being used in 100 yd matches during this same period?  I haven't, and don't believe they were, but this was alleged by someone on the Winchester Collectors forum.

beltfed wrote on Dec 5^th, 2016 at 11:42am:


Never knew Winchester made them--in my area, it's even hard to find the CCI brand.   

I tried CCI Target Shorts off the bench at 100 yards, shooting a Stevens-Pope.  Best I could do was to keep everything inside the 18-ring.

I also shot two 30-shot offhand Schuetzen 200-yard matches (max 750 points) with Shorts in a Winder.  My first score was 330.  Next time out it was a 404.  I quit while I was ahead.

At 200 yards, from the bench, the Stevens-Pope put weighed CCI Target Shorts in a string 21" high and 5.5" wide.  I used iron sights because my Unertl does not have enough clicks.

Same routine with a Winder gave groups 30" high and 6" wide.