.22 rounds too short?

D

divil

New member
I have a weird problem with CCI .22 ammunition in my Buck Mark pistol - the rounds are too short to fit in the magazine!

I already fired 200 rounds of CCIs without problems. The salesman in the store who sold me the pistol picked them out and recommended them to me. Not being very used to firearms and bullets etc., I didn't notice if they were the normal length or not.

Anyway, I bought a couple more boxes. But they kept popping out of the magazine, as soon as I would load more than 4. And if they stayed in there long enough to load it, the first round would miss the chamber and get stuck!

I compared them to some normal Federal .22s I have, and they are a good 1/8" shorter! But the box clearly says ".22 long 29 grain"

Unfortunately all the ones the salesman picked for me are gone and I threw the boxes out so I can't compare them. But the Federal ones I have look "right" to me, and they load perfectly in my magazine (they're just not as accurate)

Anyone have this problem before? Are CCIs shorter than normal? Maybe the ones the salesman picked out for me were slightly different (I fired 200 of them with no problems whatsoever)
 
That's funny :D

I doubt the store has anything for 22 long too but who knows

I would definitely tell the store about this, and have them exchange what you have for the proper ammo. In your case, no harm done except inconvenience. But I think the salesman needs to learn more about his profession, for sure. He's advising you, and he hasn't a good clue. Sounds un-good...today it's 22 long vs 22 Long Rifle, tomorrow it's who knows what
 
Well in fairness the ones the salesman gave me were probably Long Rifle, after all I fired 2 boxes of them without any problems.

The .22 Long ones I got when I went back, well I suppose it was my fault. I pointed at them and asked for 2 boxes, thinking they were the same ones I'd been given before. The guy didn't ask any questions,he just handed them to me, although it might have been a good idea for him to ask if I was really sure, after all, who or what uses these .22 Long rounds?
 
Ah, when you said CCI I thought you meant he picked you out the CCI long

Not sure what uses 22 long these days...I doubt you could buy a new or even relatively new 22 Long pistol for instance. They used to make all sorts of firearms for it though. Sort of a lousy round...some 22 LR rifles will chamber and fire it, no doubt but the real question is...why bother?
 
Find a revolver shooter. I can neither confirm nor deny giving a box (minus two rounds) of .22 long myself to a guy with a revolver. They work in revolvers just fine (but not very accurate).

My ex-wife had an old mossberg rifle that used to have a rod that would screw in to the magazine to change it from .22 LR to .22 Long.

Oh well, at least you didn't get .22 Shorts!
 
In the interest of answering all questions...
...who or what uses these .22 Long rounds?
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There has been almost nothing manufactured in the last 50 years specifically for .22 Long. It is on its way to becoming a historical footnote.

It was once a common chambering for bolt-action and slide-action rifles, especially those intended to be used by young shooters. (Access Google Books and look up some pre-1940 issues of Boy's Life, the Boy Scout magazine, and you'll see ads for such guns in almost every issue.) However, by about 1930, it had become pretty clear that .22LR was a generally superior round and was eclipsing .22 Long in popularity. Since it is generally an easy matter to modify a .22 Long firearm to take .22LR, most gunmakers dropped .22 Long-only firearms from their catalogs prior to World War II.

Some shooters use the lower-powered .22 rimfire rounds for low-recoil practice. This is easiest with firearms that aren't sensitive to cartridge length and don't depend on the recoil of the round to cycle the action, i.e. revolvers, bolt-action rifles, and some slide-action and lever-action rifles. However, .22 Long uses a lighter bullet than .22LR (29gr rather than 36-40gr), so it requires a different rifling twist rate in the barrel for optimum accuracy. Most .22LR firearms won't fire .22 Short and .22 Long with nearly the same degree of accuracy as .22LR.
 
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At 29gr I'm betting those are Long CB's. They are very low powered and very quiet. I shoot alot of them in my backyard, much to the terror of the squirrel population. They usually shoot better than the shorts in a LR chamber since there isn't quite as much jump.

Opps, spoke too soon, I thought CCI had stopped making the Long HV but I was wrong.
 
First was the Short (and the BB & CB caps), then the Long, and then the Long Rifle. There are even now some "hyper velocity" loadings that use an even slightly longer than long rifle case with a short light bullet (I don't recall who's, but I'm sure I've seen some).

Any LR chamber will fire all of them. Where you run into trouble is feeding mechanisms, and semi auto actions. Tube magazines on rifles will usually feed all of them, but box magazines usually don't. And all semi auto pistols use box magazines.

The Buckmark is chambered for the .22 LR (Long Rifle) round. Nothing else will work right.

Salesmen ought to know about what they sell. But, asking every customer, every time "are you sure?" has drawbacks. Some folks don't like it, and get vocal.;) See if the't swap any full boxes for Long Rifle. They may not, but can't hurt to ask. A gunshop might. A chain store won't take back any ammo, usually.
 
Most tube fed rifles will feed them and are designed to use them along with LR and short.
Revolvers will almost all feed them also.
I have two guns that will shoot them.
 
First was the Short (and the BB & CB caps), then the Long, and then the Long Rifle.
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Actually, if you want to be nitpicky, there was also the .22 Extra Long.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Extra_Long

It is a historical footnote. ;)
There are even now some "hyper velocity" loadings that use an even slightly longer than long rifle case with a short light bullet (I don't recall who's, but I'm sure I've seen some).
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The most common hyper-velocity loads are CCI Stingers, CCI Velocitors, Remington Yellow Jackets, Remington Vipers, Aguila Supermaximums, and Aguila Interceptors. Most use lighter-than-standard 30gr-36gr bullets; AFAIK only Stingers and Interceptors use standard-weight 40gr bullets.
IIRC the CCI Stinger uses a little longer case than a 22LR. At least that's why I was told they won't work in match chambers.
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AFAIK this is technically correct for all hyper-velocity loads, but most off-the-shelf sub-$1k .22LR firearms don't have match chambers, including the OP's Buckmark.

The most common problem encountered with hyper-velocity loads is subpar accuracy due to the incorrect rifling twist for the lighter bullet (see my previous post). Another problem is that they sometimes won't feed consistently in semi-automatics, which is sometimes due to the odd-shaped bullets, and other times due to the additional power of the load. The added power can also damage some older semi-automatics that weren't designed to handle them.
 
I've never had any issues with them feeding, but you're right on the accuracy point. Still they're usually close enough for their intended purpose. You just gotta love the 22LR, works for just all kinds of stuff.:D
 
I never paid much attention to 22long or 22short. But I'm glad to know that the hyper-velocity ammo may not work in 22lr guns. I always just thought they were lighter rounds with more propellant. Learned something new.
 
Divil, where are you at? I know a guy who might be willing to swap with you, he loves those CCI 22 Longs for pest control.
 
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