.22 short is a variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition. Developed in 1857 for the first Smith & Wesson revolver, the .22 rimfire was the first American metallic cartridge.
Several makes of starter pistols use .22 short blank cartridges. Some powder-actuated nail guns use .22 short blanks as a power source.
Overview
thumb|left|A .22 short cartridge
left|thumb|[[North American Arms model NAA22S mini-revolver, chambered in .22 short]]
Most .22 short bullets are made of lead (usually coated with grease or wax, or copper) in round nose or hollow point styles. Bullets for use at shooting galleries were often made of compressed powdered metal that disintegrated on impact to avoid ricochets and over-penetration of backstops. The standard velocity .22 short launches a bullet at with 70 ft·lbf (95 J) of energy from a 22 in (559 mm) rifle barrel and can penetrate of soft pine.
Although the .22 long rifle has surpassed the .22 short in the marketplace, many ammunition companies still produce .22 shorts, and in a fairly wide variety. Most makers utilize the standard solid round nose bullet and hollow point bullet weights for the .22 short. Several types are made by CCI: a CB Short at , target Shorts at , their standard Short round with plated round nose bullet at , and a high speed hunting load with plated hollow point bullet at . The .22 short high-velocity exceeds the performance of the .22 long (with the exception of CCI's High Velocity 1217fps long loading), and the .22 short has displaced the .22 long as an alternate to the .22 long rifle for many .22 shooters. Fiocchi makes their Exacta Compensated Super Match SM200 with lead round nose at . Remington produces a high velocity plated round nose at . Aguila makes both a match lead round nose at , and a "high speed" round with plated bullet also listed at . Also available is the RWS R25 match ammunition at . Eley also makes their rapid fire match cartridge at .
The Aguila SubSonic Sniper (SSS) round uses a .22 short case length with a bullet (twice the weight of the .22 short bullet and 50% heavier than a .22 long rifle bullet) giving an overall length of a .22 long rifle round, this made categorizing the SubSonic Sniper problematic: while the SSS case length is the same as the .22 short case, the firing chamber of the barrel uses the longer .22 LR dimensions to be able to accept the SubSonic Sniper cartridge.
.22 short-caliber rifles
There have been many rifles chambered for the .22 short over the years, but only several lever action rifles are currently chambered for this round, notably Henry Repeating Arms and Marlin Firearms Co. lever action rifles. The Marlin Golden 39A model represents the oldest and longest continuously produced shoulder firearm in the world. Many rifles in .22 short were made between 1901 and 1940, mostly intended for gallery shooting and small game hunting. Remington and Winchester produced the most rifles in .22 short. Remington has made their Model 24 and Model 241 "Speedmaster" semi-autos as well as their Model 12 and 121 "Fieldmaster" pump actions in .22 short. Remington's Nylon 66 GS Gallery Special (1962 to 1981) was one of the last .22 short-only rifles made especially for shooting gallery use. Winchester produced a variety of different rifles in .22 short, including the 1873 lever action, 1885 single shot (in both low wall and high wall variations), Model 1890, 1906 and 62A pump actions, Model 74 semi-auto, and Model 61 pump action. Many of their bolt-action rifles were available on a special-order basis in .22 short. Browning/FN also produced their takedown semi-auto in .22 short, on the same John Browning design upon which the Remington Model 24 is based.
Many of these rifles are now collector's items, particularly the Winchesters, and demand a premium in price over the same rifle chambered in .22 long rifle. This is due to the excess chamber length needed to allow chambering of .22 LR cartridges. This requires the bullet from a .22 short to travel a short distance before it engages the rifling, which is detrimental to accuracy.