.22 short...what is it good for??

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Famas

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Last month at a gun show (a husband-wife activity/outing), my wife found me in an another aisle to show me her newest purchase: a tiny BUTLER derringer, single shot chambered for .22 short. In nice shape, she also got a box of 100 CCI .22short HP with it, all for $120.

There was definitely the novelty aspect which made me laugh at first sight - I had never seen such a tiny little gun. The barrel swings sideways to remove spent casing and reload. After a little research, I've learned that the barrels are made of pot steel....is it safe?

My question: What on Earth is this gun good for? I suppose under the logic that anything is better than nothing, I still must wonder, really?? What is it good for? Overly aggressive mouse? Cockroach on steroids?

Thank you!
 
.22 short...what is it good for??
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Absolutely nothing...say it again, ya'll.

Seriously, though, I don't know about the gun itself that your wife bought, but a friend of mine bought a High Standard target gun that shoots .22 shorts and the target ammo he bought was pretty darned expensive.
 
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More than a novelty than anything else with a tiny derringer .22 short. The little gun will have enough umph to most likely do serious injury and maybe nick an artery and produce life threatening injury if shot with it.

I can kill squirrels with .22 shorts out of my Henry.

Might make for an interesting variation on darts, a "parlor gun" of sorts. Try to be safe with it if you make the decision that shooting guns indoors is a good idea because it probably isn't.
 
I know the Butler derringer. Bulter made some for Colt in the early 1960's and I have a few of them. Never shot one. Don't want to. I have one encased in lucite as a desk decoration.

The 22 Short has its place. Longs have pretty much dissappeared from the scene. CCI and Remington still make shorts. In fact CCI has come out with some lower powered 22 cartridges for use where primarily noise is an issue. Not everyone has a silencer for their 22.

There are still guns around that were chambered specifically in 22 short beyond the Butler/Colt derringer.

My question: What on Earth is this gun good for? I suppose under the logic that anything is better than nothing, I still must wonder, really?? What is it good for? Overly aggressive mouse? Cockroach on steroids?
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I don't think the gun has a lot of practicial use. But you don't need to insult it. :D
 
My favorite squirrel gun is a Browning auto chambered for .22 short. The report is very mild. Pop a squirrel in the head and the other squirrels are silent for a minute or two. Then they go back to their normal chatter.
 
NAA makes a neat little 22 short 5-shot revolver.
They also make it in 22lr.

I think of them as great back-ups to a regular ccw, or a primary for a 10 minute run to the store.
They fit perfectly in the change pocket of a pair of jeans.
Mine has been useful at extended family gatherings where everyone wants to hug.

Gramps used to use the shorts through a bolt rifle to take out squirrels that tried to eat the fruit off of his trees...in the city limits :rolleyes:
Darn thin sounded like a good pellet gun.
 
I feel like it would be a good final, last ditch, both my primary, and back up gun are disabled or out of reach, get off me gun.
 
Some Butlers had steel liners in the zinc barrels.
Some had rifled zinc barrels. The ones without a liner didn't have rifling for long.
 
Although I wouldn't buy a gun chambered in .22 Short; My daughter and I shoot a lot of .22 short. It works just fine in her single-shot Cricket, and I prefer these low-powered, quieter rounds for plinking and teaching her how to shoot with that rifle.
 
In the 1970s I owned a gun shop and sold those derringers for $7.50 at retail.
The barrels were steel lined.
.22 shorts are great for training. I use them for dispatching trapped animals. Don't use many but they have their uses.
 
I have a box of shorts still around and a box of longs. They are for a old Winchester pump 22 that shoots shorts, long & long rifle. It's a great rifle but always use the LR in it.


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As a youngster we lived in town, and some of the best squirrel hunting woods were owned by an old farmer about a 20 minute bike ride from town.

That old fart loved to call the law on anyone poaching his squirrels. My neer-do-well Uncle schooled us boys in the virtues of the .22 short for those sniper missions. He just expected few to be taken to his Mom (my Grandmother) for proper frying. I will never forget the look of joy and pride on my Grandmas face the first time I brought in a half dozen bushy tails for her.

Seems no one hunts squirrels these days. No big time TV shows selling equipment on the Sportmens channel for them. No interest by the health concious to eat them floured and fried.

I own a woods similar to the old hunting grounds and it full of squirrels. I kill a few each season with .22 short. Sadly, the wife makes me fry them outside on the grill side burner so as not to "smell up" the house.
 
I stopped squirrel and rabbit hunting because nobody wanted to eat them. Rabbits have the disease issue. So, I just pass. Squirrels in my yard are a nuisance and are rats with bushy tails. 22's shorts are the way to go if you aren't using an air rifle.
 
Since SW started with a revolver in 22S, somebody must have thought it was an effective weapon.

Of course, the nuance in those days was that any round that penetrated into you was capable of given you a life threatening infection, and thus to be avoided.
 
I don't know that I would find a use for the derringer, but I use .22 Short for squirrels and 'quiet' plinking.

It doesn't take much power to kill a squirrel. .22 Short, .22 Long, or .22 LR... it doesn't really matter. But....

With .22 LR, I can fit 12 rounds in my Winchester 62 clone. With .22 Short, I can fit 19. One of my brothers has a Browning BL-22 that will hold something like 23 rounds of .22 Short.

Load it on Sunday, and shoot all week...
 
I understand that some time in the distant past 22 short was much less expensive than 22 long rifle, so historically the purpose would have been to shoot a less expensive ammunition.
 
Back when I first moved to Alaska I met a gun who made a dern good living in the Minto Flats area of the Tanana River.

Most of his take was shooting muskrats. During late spring is was daylight all night long and he would paddle around the flats and swamps shooting the 'rats.

He used nothing but 22 shorts. Less damage to the pelts.

They use to use (I think the rules changed now) 22 shorts for International Rapid fire matches. 22 LR had too much recoil.
 
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