.22 CB Short

[Glen Ring]

If you're a squirrel hunter or a turtle popper, the CCI CB .22 Short may be for you.
My 1885 .22 BPCR rifle will shoot tiny groups at about 25 yards and in with these.
They are quieter than my air rifle and will allow me to have more fun with my single shot.
Beyond 25 yards they REALLY start opening up and at 50 yards it's a hopeless round in my rifle.
More fun while I'm at home.

[mdeland]

Glen, you should be fine with shooting the CB's on occasion in a 22 Long Rifle chamber but it's not a good idea for a steady diet. The reason is it will begin to erode the Long Rifle chamber the short brass is exposing in front of the lead. A ring of carbon fouling will usually develop here that needs to be cleaned regularly or Long Rifle rounds may be difficult if not impossible to chamber. The far end of the long rifle chamber ,before the lead, has become a free bore and the erosive effect of the powder slowly begins to burn the steel and rough it up, which collects fouling and causes the fouling ring.
Most folks think that you can never shoot out a .22LR barrel but that is an illusion for match grade accuracy. The accuracy will often begin to deteriorate at around 30K according to an article I read by Dan Lilja.
The pressure is probably quite low in CB caps but some high speed .22LR ammo has pressure in the 32K range ,I have read.

[Yellowhouse]

I think they still load this on the LR hull.....always preferred it and it seemed to be more accurate than with the short case.

[Glen Ring]

I plan on shooting exactly for one limit of squirrels. yep, I shot about a million 38 specials in 357 wheel guns growing up. I always cleaned well after every range trip...or rabbit hunt. I found my 357 with 38 wad cutters to be the perfect rabbit pistol..especially when they ran into briars.

[mdeland]

CB caps only use the priming to push the bullet with no powder charge but the priming charge may be a problem as well. The .22 short in a long rifle chamber, is the main offender of what I described in the previous post. I have no data on the pressure for CB caps how ever in the article mentioned by Dan Lilja he speculated what wears out the bores in .22 match rifles is the ground glass (silica) in the priming charge. Lilja said the reason he thought this may be the cause from his observations of shot out barrels was because the bore wear was more pronounced in the lower third than the rest of it. He was thinking gravity may play a part in how the silica lays up thicker in the lower third of the bore after each discharge.
I find when hand lapping a barrel I always want to start the freshly charged lap in the breech end rather than the muzzle because the lapping compound grains are the most sharp/aggressive and cut the fastest at the first and as they break down from wear cut less, farther up barrel and with each stroke.
This method produces a bit of taper toward the muzzle in the bore.
The long brass CB caps sounds like it should work fine. I thought Lilja's comments might be of interest to you.

[Glen Ring]

Up side and down side to everything. I'm sure to scrub the bore and chamber after a long short shooting session. I think it's a good trade off...spend the day shooting turtles with my better half, who read this and thought like it sounded like a fun day , or shoot up my expensive match ammo. Now I draw the line at shooting grasshoppers with this rig...although I have slayed many, many hoppers with all manner of projectiles.

[Kurt]

On my 12th birthday times were hard for my Mother so bought me a used .22 single shot rifle and a box of .22 shorts and said bring home some rabbits for supper. Well in time like Mike said the shorts eroded the chamber in front of the short case and a long rifle would not eject from that JC Higgens rifle. That rifle put a lot of meat on the table for us both.
I don't know if they still make a .22 long or not, but the .22 long is a .22 short load in a long rifle case. I would use those if they are still available.
Also there used to be a .22 BB cap that was loaded with a round ball in a primed case that would also take a squirrel out of a tree or lay a rabbit down.

[J.B.]

Yes... CB ( conical bullet ? ) and BB ( ball bearing) caps I think we used to call them. They are still available ...although not as easy to find. I think RWS make them both and sell them in round tins similar to air rifle pellets. No experience with CB's but BB caps are quite effective over short distances on smaller game..ie. pesky birds, rats , etc. Anything that remotely sounds like it could possibly be a firearm ...draws unwanted attention down here unless you're on acreage and/or have some 'old world' neighbours. Winchester marketed 'Z''s ...and 'Scat'. down here...which were a reduced charge in an LR case. Not quiet enough for suburbia though unfortunately.

[mdeland]

Another interesting point I've become aware of as well is that often but not always .22 RF barrel steel is not chrom/moly steel which is more resistant to erosion. The Redman .22 liners are 4140 chrome molly but not all 22 barrels are. I read quite often it is 1117 carbon steel, which is much softer and less tough than 4140 barrel steel.
Your not going to hurt anything most likely with your limited use of the CB caps. Sounds like a good idea for occasional indoor use or pest control.

[Woody]

Had my neighbors only known. When I was stationed in Boston, in the late 80's, I picked up a Winchester 2nd model High Wall Musket, in .22 Short. I used to shoot CB shorts into the Boston phone book inside my apartment. I had a basement apartment, so I had concrete walls instead of drywall and studs. Never missed the book, so it wasn't an issue. I could get about 30 feet down the hallway and into the living room. Wish I still had that rifle. It was a tack driver and so quiet with the CB's. It currently resides in Vernal, Utah.

Woody

[Woody]

Had my neighbors only known. When I was stationed in Boston, in the late 80's, I picked up a Winchester 2nd model High Wall Musket, in .22 Short. I used to shoot CB shorts into the Boston phone book inside my apartment. I had a basement apartment, so I had concrete walls instead of drywall and studs. Never missed the book, so it wasn't an issue. I could get about 30 feet down the hallway and into the living room. Wish I still had that rifle. It was a tack driver and so quiet with the CB's. It currently resides in Vernal, Utah.

Woody

[beltfed]

lAST I looked, CCi still lists CB Longs. I still have a box or so of them
We used to use those in preference to the previously used BB cap or CB shorts
for the above mentioned reasons. Easier to handle, too.
Seems to me the CB longs are more expensive than LR rounds.
beltfed/arnie

[beltfed]

wholesale on CCI CB longs is about $8/100. and listed as available
the CCI CB shorts are also available for the same price as are the CCI 22 longs
beltfed/arnie