Bolt action, mag fed .22 Short/Long/Long Rifle

[stockrex]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Originally Posted By: stockrex
I have a savage mark II, love it. my 8 year old has one and I have mine. bit heavy for her with the laminate stock but she shoots it off bags.


I have a Savage MKII also (the $104 Wal-Mart special without the accu-trigger which is fine with me) and I love it too! But it will not cycle shorts very well (okay it sucks) from the mag. (one of his requirements)

Take care, Bill


Sorry I missed that, thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
They say there are a lot of 44's that were training rifles from WWII, marked U.S. Government Property. Apparently they are of pretty high quality, both the gov't marked and civilian. Finding one of those would be a dream come true.


I just checked and my dad's rifle is a 46M(b).

Just like the top one here:
http://www.box54.com/48-cat-5.jpg

 

[greenaccord02]

That mannlicher stock is sweet. I can only hope...

Looks like about 2 more weeks 'til the next gun show... I'll be stalking the pawn shops.

 

[ammolab]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
Originally Posted By: ammolab
A small adapter would slide down the front of the mag for shorts.


Interesting! I was wondering how they did that. Would you say this was fairly trouble-free or was it a headache when reloading?
\

Trouble free...no problem at all. View this auction..one picture shows the mag and adapter.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=225240621

 

[yaris0128]

Savage Stevens 300. Now thats an amazingly accurate bolt action .22 with everything your looking for for less than $150 NEW! My friend bought one recently for $125 at a sporting goods store. I was able to easly hit pop bottles 200 yards out with a good scope. VERY good .22 and Id love to own one myself. But I am waaaay too into handguns and AK's to put money into a plinker.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: yaris0128
Savage Stevens 300. Now thats an amazingly accurate bolt action .22 with everything your looking for for less than $150 NEW! My friend bought one recently for $125 at a sporting goods store. I was able to easly hit pop bottles 200 yards out with a good scope. VERY good .22 and Id love to own one myself. But I am waaaay too into handguns and AK's to put money into a plinker.


Does not shoot shorts since its a 22LR with a normal mag. Good weapon but does not fit OP requirements.

 

[yaris0128]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Originally Posted By: yaris0128
Savage Stevens 300. Now thats an amazingly accurate bolt action .22 with everything your looking for for less than $150 NEW! My friend bought one recently for $125 at a sporting goods store. I was able to easly hit pop bottles 200 yards out with a good scope. VERY good .22 and Id love to own one myself. But I am waaaay too into handguns and AK's to put money into a plinker.


Does not shoot shorts since its a 22LR with a normal mag. Good weapon but does not fit OP requirements.

If you think about it the OP's request is a little unrealistic. I have never even heard of a .22 thats runs all .22 calibers. On top of that you cant just walk into a walmart and they are going to have .22 short anyway. I have yet to even see another .22 caliber sold at a store thats not .22 magnum. Those are cool. A .22 is a .22 how ever you want to put it. Theres nothing wrong with .22LR so you might just want to stick with it. I guess if you want to special order .22 short online you could but why would you want to pay the extra money?

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: yaris0128
Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Originally Posted By: yaris0128
Savage Stevens 300. Now thats an amazingly accurate bolt action .22 with everything your looking for for less than $150 NEW! My friend bought one recently for $125 at a sporting goods store. I was able to easly hit pop bottles 200 yards out with a good scope. VERY good .22 and Id love to own one myself. But I am waaaay too into handguns and AK's to put money into a plinker.


Does not shoot shorts since its a 22LR with a normal mag. Good weapon but does not fit OP requirements.

If you think about it the OP's request is a little unrealistic. I have never even heard of a .22 thats runs all .22 calibers. On top of that you cant just walk into a walmart and they are going to have .22 short anyway. I have yet to even see another .22 caliber sold at a store thats not .22 magnum. Those are cool. A .22 is a .22 how ever you want to put it. Theres nothing wrong with .22LR so you might just want to stick with it. I guess if you want to special order .22 short online you could but why would you want to pay the extra money?


Well click the link in the FIRST post of this thread and see that there is one gun that fits his requirements. (and plenty more in the used market)

So much for unrealistic. And know you have heard of something that does fit his requirements.

Plenty of uses for 22 shorts. Nice quiet plinking and pest control.

I can walk into at LEAST a dozen stores here (incl Wal-Mart) and find CCI 22 shorts in the 100 round packs. How many would you like? Really they are that popular.

Yeah, a 22 is a 22. I like how the same a .223 is as a .22 Short. Same recoil, same velocity and same results.

 

[yaris0128]

No I didnt look at his link because Im on a company computer that blocks all weapon sites. So I didnt get a chance to check it out. Maybe in your Utah area .22 short is popular but in the northwest its not sold at all. I have never seen it for sale at any sporting goods store or walmart. I figured this caliber was history for a long time since .22LR owns the .22 market. Either way you have a way longer list of options with .22LR like the legendary 10/22 or a great bolt action like the Savage Stevens 300 like your looking for at good prices. I picked up a Mossberg 702 semi-auto for $107 new at walmart a few months back and its been a solid performer. It seems like a waste of effort to find a multi-caliber .22 rifle since its just a .22 and its still a plinker no matter what.

 

[greenaccord02]

All my walmarts carry .22 shorts in at least one variety.

And I just looked at a Mossberg 45 at a pawn shop the other day, so they aren't that rare. Would have bought it, too, if they hadn't wanted $240 for a $150 gun.

 

[UncleS2]

Once upon a time, .22 rifles that handled Short, Long, & Long Rifle cartridges interchangeably were almost as common as dirt. Just about all were tube fed, and covered lever actions, pumps, bolt actions- and even automatics. I owned & hunted with the plain-Jane version of the Remington Speedmaster(2-pc stock, hooded ejection port, bolt handle on the wrong side) for about a year, age ~15. I'd probably still have it- if I hadn't picked up a Browning & fallen in love!

I do still have the Browning- and if its requirement of .22 LR only is too inconvenient, there's my Winchester 9422 on standby.

 

[greenaccord02]

Well, I got one. I went down to a little independent pawn shop not too far from home today and found myself a Mossberg 46B-B. Same as the one Tempest has, but with a different stock. Neat little gun. It's a bit dinged up, missing some non-essential stuff, and the bluing is worn away, but the rifling is bright and the action works like a charm and locks up tight. Best of all, it's tube magazine accepts 20LR, 23L and an amazing 30 rounds of 22 short. Not bad for $100, tax included. Should be a fun project to get all fixed up and refinished. Made from 1946-49. Check it out:



Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas!

 

[George Bynum]

Nobody has mentioned it, but several friends had guns that used all 3. One problem that was common was erosion by the powder between the end of the short case and the normal bullet position. Those guns often wouldn't extract long rifles. We didn't use longs much at all; I don't remember if they gave trouble too. From what I've seen of bullet speeds, I'd guess pressures would be lower than for LR.

I'd minimize the use of shorts for that reason. In my limited experience, they are now more expensive; that wasn't true in 1960 as I recall.

 

[UncleS2]

Looks like a great fun project with no really big probems in store. If you ever come across a factory peep sight at a reasonable price, it'd be a nice addition.

Congrats!

 

[Shannow]

With Long Z style ammo available, I don't see much use for shorts these days, but to each their own.

Grandad told me about the ring in the chamber from the short's short case...Long and LR have the same case length

 

[greenaccord02]

I've heard about the problems with excessive use of shorts as well. It seems like what might be happening is the powder residue from the shorts deposits itself in the chamber, then, when LRs are fired, case expansion causes them to catch against the residue left by the shorts and hang in the chamber. At any rate, this gun seems to have a pretty good looking throat and chamber. While I don't plan on shooting shorts through it regularly, I figure I'll run a box or so of them just to put it through it's paces.

And I'm already scouring the internet for sights, both front and rear. Looks like the front sight may run around $40-50 while the rear ranges from $60-90. While they aren't necessary, they would certainly add to it's look.

 

[Shannow]

You can make a chamber cleaner by removing the base from a case (to make a squared off chamber size insert, and filing "teeth" into it.

Solder it onto a bit of old car radio antenna, an spin it into the chamber to remove deposits up to the rifling.

 

[UncleS2]

Re: .22 Shorts & chamber erosion: Dad said that his dad or grandpa had an old .22 pump that had "the barrel shot out" from using shorts. Dad was born in '27, & they always told him that it was ruined before he was born.

From what I've read, the biggest problems with this came from a very old school practice- discontinued before WWII- of using ground glass in the rimfire priming compound. That, especially when used with corrosive primers(died out in the 1920's, Remington/Peters Kleenbore led the way), *Was* a factor to consider way back then. These days, I suspect you would have to fire thousands of .22 shorts in a rifle with post-WWII metallurgy to show any measureable chamber erosion. Of course, leaving a little gunk behind, that could cause sticky chambering/extraction, is another matter- but in my experience, a little Hoppe's #9 on a snug patch cures that easily.

 

[edhackett]

.22 Short in a LR chamber, 38 Special in a 357 Magnum, 44 special in a 44 Magnum are all the same issue. A good cleaning after firing the shorter cased rounds is all it takes to keep things working well.

Ed