.22 Shorts = Barrel Killers?

[cyclone]

"I heard somewhere" that .22 shorts can wreck the barrel/accuracy of certain .22 S/L/LR firearms. Please (gladly) debunk this one?

 

[KDX]

I know they will make the chamber very dirty.

 

[Ardent]

It's a case of shooting lots of .38's in a .357, you'll eat out the chamber slightly in front of the shorter case. Now, I'd bet you'd have to shoot tens of thousands of shorts to see this effect in earnest, but yes, it's possible. The only real concern is the fouling to the chamber as KDX mentioned. Now, I wouldn't go shooting shorts in your match LR chamber, but in your run of the mill .22LR, who cares. Not going to hurt it, just clean it.

 

[Hitzy]

.22 shorts cause alot of buldged barrels in club guns. It's hard to tell the difference between a squib and one that fires properly.
Other then that, I can't see how it would harm your bore.

 

[skeetgunner]

That's an interesting take I hadn't thought of.

 

[Eagleye]

What actually happens after shooting thousands of shorts in a long rifle chamber is an erosion "ring" is formed right where the mouth of the 22 short case is. Now when one fires a normal Long Rifle round, the longer case wall will flow slightly into that erosion ring and make the spent LR case hard to extract, sometimes so hard that the extractors will slip over the rim of the case and leave the fired case in the chamber. It takes a lot of shorts to do this, so if you are shooting a box here or there, no worries. Good plan to clean up the chamber before shooting Long Rifle ammo again, though. Regards, Eagleye.