.22 Long?

[Radagast]

Wimchester still load the Long:
http://www.winchester.com/Products/...formance/super-x-rimfire/Pages/X22LRCBMA.aspx

In Australia Winchester manufacture the .22 Long Z or Zimmer. These are also sold in Europe.
https://www.winchesteraustralia.com.au/products/Z22L

There is a decent write up on the Zimmer vs .22 long here:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=298279

In my CZ452 I found the Long Z to be inaccurate, with a lot of vertical stringing, to the point of patterns rather than groups. The CCI Quiet .22 has acceptable accuracy and is as easy (or hard) on the ears as the Long Z, so that's what I shoot when noise is a consideration.
If I had a firearm intended for .22 Long only, such as the S&W Lady Smith with its delicate forcing cone, I would think twice before shooting it with any round. Junkers and clunkers sure, anything collectible? Probably not.

 

[22-rimfire]

Most of the 22 rimfire books will have a write up on the history of the 22 rimfire. Been reading Bill Ward's "Walnut and Steel Vintage .22 Rifles" and he has a reasonable write up on rimfire developments. The timing is most critical to understanding the relative significance of the developments with the rimfire. Luis Flobert developed the BB Cap in 1845 which was essentially a BB over a percussion cap. Smith & Wesson took this round and developed the 22 Short which was for their No. 1 revolver in 1857. It wasn't called a "short" then. The 22 Long came along in 1871 using the same bullet as the Short (29gr) with a longer case and a little more black powder. The Extra Long came out in 1880 (with a 40gr bullet) and it died a quick death in 1887 when the Long Rifle was introduced in by Joshua Stevens and UMC. Rifles and handguns were chambered specifically for the Short and Long in those black powder days. The chambering for the Short. Long, and Long Rifle was typical until the semi-automatic rifles and handguns were introduced using the Browning design. The first rifles by Winchester and Remington used a special 22 cartridge that was expensive (Winchester M1903 and Remington M16), but I believe the Remington M24 was the first 22LR manufactured using the slim Browning design around 1914 and probably concurrently with FN.

Other than firearms specifically chambered for the 22 Long, the 22 Long pretty much started to decline significantly after a bunch of inexpensive semi-automatic 22 rifles were produced mostly beginning in the late 1950's and 1960's chambered exclusively for the 22 Long Rifle. Mossberg started building inexpensive semi-auto 22 rifles begining in the late 1950's if I remember my history. The Marlin M60 came out in 1960, and the Ruger 10/22 in 1964 with its revolutionary magazine.

 

[CornCod]

The Henry lever-action model 001 takes longs as well as LRs and shorts. At the beginning of the ammo shortage I managed to find some shorts. I would have snapped up some longs if I had the opportunity.

 

[mboylan]

The 29 grain short and long rounds are for rifles with a slower twist than modern 22LR. They are still much more accurate in antique or custom slow twist barrels.

 

[Agsalaska]

CCI put out some 22 long very recently. About a year ago a DFW Academy had lots of it. You could only buy one box of LR, but you could buy all of the Long that you wanted. I bought four or five 100 round plastic boxes of it. It was more expensive than I expected, but considering I shoot most of my 22s out of a Fieldmaster it works just fine. That stuff was around DFW for a while. I saw it in Cabelas later.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

They are fun to shoot.

 

[buck460XVR]

Growing up as a kid, we bought longs cause the were a dime a box less than long rifles. That was a buck a brick.....big money back in the sixties. For us of us with pumps, you could get a coupla more rounds in the tube. They were plenty enough for paper, tin cans, rats at the dump and even squirrels. We saved the LRs for hunting fox and raccoon. Seems the squirrels nowadays, like deer, have become armor plated.

 

[22-rimfire]

We saved the LRs for hunting....

Funny when you look back on it now, but I did the same thing as a teen. Those extra pennies were important when you most likely just plinked the ammo away anyway.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I'll agree with previous posters. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a big price difference in .22 short, .22 long and .22 long rifle. It was a big selling point if a gun was marked ".22 S, L or LR" because it made economic sense.

In solid bullet, the short and long used 29 gr bullets and long rifle used 40 gr bullets. The cheaper ammo was used for plinking and smallest game, and the LR used for accuracy or larger small game.

Gradually over the years there has been a drift toward ".22 LR Only" especially for autoloaders. Due to mass production, the price has come down on .22 LR equal or below .22 S and L so the lesser rounds make little economic sense.

Here's some notes I try to keep updated:

.22 Rimfire Timeline

     Heeled 
Year Cartridge   Case  Bullet  Overall   Description
1845 BB          .284"  20 GR   .343"  Flobert Bullet Breech cap round ball
1857 Short       .423"  29 gr   .686"  Smith & Wesson cartridge #1
1871 Long        .595"  29 gr   .798"  ¨Frank Wesson?
1880 Extra Long  .750"  40 gr  1.160"  ¨?
1887 Long Rifle  .595"  40 gr   .985"  J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co
1888 CB          .284"  20 gr   ----   Conical Bullet version of BB*
1975 CCI Stinger .710"  32 gr   .985"  almost extra long case, semi-Short bullet
---- Aguila SSS  .423"  60 gr   .985"  Short case, Long Rifle overall length
In these rimfires, the cartridge case and bullet have the same diameter 
and a reduced diameter heel of the bullet fits inside the case.

     Non heeled
Year Cartridge   Case  Bullet  Overall   Description
1890 WRF         .960"  45 gr  1.170"  Winchester Rimfire, Remington Special
1903 Win Auto    .665"  45 gr   .915"  Winchester Automatic
1916 Rem Auto    .663"  45 gr   .920"  Remington Automatic
1959 WMR        1.052"  40 gr  1.350"  Winchester Magnum Rimfire
In these rimfires, the bullet fits inside the cartridge case 
and case is larger in diameter than the bullet.

 

[Sniper66]

I started shooting .22 longs when I bought a Winchester 67A single shot .22. Bought it for $10 at a pawn shop when I was in college. The place had a bunch of longs for cheap so I bought several boxes and that was my squirrel rifle for several years. They killed many squirrels and rabbits for me during my college years. It was purely serendipity that I ended up with lots of longs. Had shot a few when I was younger, but it became my preferred ammo. Those days are gone, but I have lots of memories and an old .22 that is now worth about $300; not a bad investment, eh?

 

[ColeK]

Back in the 1950's & '60's .22 shorts were .15 cents, .22 longs were .20 cents, and .22 lr's were .25 cents for a box of 50. Used pop bottles were were worth 2 cents each, so I traded a many pop bottle for .22 ammo. Sometime in the 1960's they all went up a nickle a box.

If I remember right my Remington Field Master Take Down pump would hold 22 shorts, 18 longs, and 16 lr's.

I used shorts when running trap lines and frog hunting. Used longs when I was squirrel hunting because while they a little louder than the shorts they were not as loud as the long rifles.

 

[jrdolall]

Left to right. Short Remington High Velocity, Powderless Aguila Colibri, Long Rifle, Stinger.

 

[.455_Hunter]

I use current production, full-power CCI .22 Longs in an old H&R revolver who's cylinder is too short for Long Rifle loads. They shoot great!