My friend and I were doing a little varmint hunting in his backyard the other day with his .22 Winchester rifle. We had it loaded with .22 Shorts to keep the decibel level down for the sake of his neighbors, and it got me thinking. Those .22 Shorts out of his rifle are about as quiet as it gets without attaching a suppressor to the end of the barrel; but how quiet would they be out of a revolver? I know that in revolvers, the bullet needs to jump the gap between the cylinder and barrel, and that most of the gas from the cartridge escapes through this gap... but would that make a difference? My friend has an old .22 revolver, and unfortunately it's broke... otherwise I would load up the cylinder and find this out for myself. :P

And I know it's a little off-topic for this forum, but does anybody know of any automatic pistols that chamber .22 Shorts?

The most quiet 22 ammo is the Aguila Colibri. It's as quiet as firing a pellet gun.

Don't kid yourself just because you shot it from a rifle. I have shot a .22SR from my NAA Mini Revolver even thought it's not recommended to do so and they are a bit loud. As far as a semi auto goes, I never heard of a semi auto handgun made that is chambered in that. However they do got a conversion kit for the 10/22 rifle that allows the use of shorts and will cycle the action.

Originally Posted by ICM856

The most quiet 22 ammo is the Aguila Colibri. It's as quiet as firing a pellet gun.

I think I've heard of those before. They're the ones that fire using only the primer, right? I'll have to check them out. :mrgreen:

Originally Posted by Dethlokk

Originally Posted by ICM856

The most quiet 22 ammo is the Aguila Colibri. It's as quiet as firing a pellet gun.

I think I've heard of those before. They're the ones that fire using only the primer, right? I'll have to check them out. :mrgreen:

That is correct. They are a LR 22 cartridge as well...

I have fired sub sonic .22 rounds from my rifle and they are pretty quiet. However, the same rounds fired in any of my handguns are still loud.

Aguila produces two types of non-powder .22lr cartridges:
The COLIBRI and the SUPER COLIBRI. Both fire a 20 gr conical lead bullet at around 450 fps and 550 fps from a 6" barrel. They are not recommended for use in any rifle - there's a possibility of the bullet not making it all the way down the bore. I've fired both, when fired from a 6", 4" or 3" barreled revolver they are NOT as quiet as my pellet gun. I use them to test fire revolvers to check for function and cylinder timing. They are reasonably accurate out to about 50 feet with considerable hold over, especially with the COLIBRI. All in all, they are fun to shoot, quite a bit of challenge involved in hitting anything over 50 feet or so. I paid $2.50 per box for both at a gunshow. That seems to be the going rate in this part of PA-EAST.

I know they are not "recommended" for use in a rifle. However, I have shot several hundred out of my Ruger 10/22 rifle with no problem.

Actually the Super Colibri cartridge easily makes it out of a rifle barrel. It's the regular Colibris you have to worry about.

Originally Posted by 32 Magnum

Aguila produces two types of non-powder .22lr cartridges:
The COLIBRI and the SUPER COLIBRI. Both fire a 20 gr conical lead bullet at around 450 fps and 550 fps from a 6" barrel. They are not recommended for use in any rifle - there's a possibility of the bullet not making it all the way down the bore. I've fired both, when fired from a 6", 4" or 3" barreled revolver they are NOT as quiet as my pellet gun. I use them to test fire revolvers to check for function and cylinder timing. They are reasonably accurate out to about 50 feet with considerable hold over, especially with the COLIBRI. All in all, they are fun to shoot, quite a bit of challenge involved in hitting anything over 50 feet or so. I paid $2.50 per box for both at a gunshow. That seems to be the going rate in this part of PA-EAST.

Then wouldn't that give them about the muzzle energy of a powerful air gun? Are they even capable of penetrating the skin? I know that with normal rounds, longer barrels generally increase the velocity of the bullet because the propellant has a longer time to burn before escaping the muzzle. But since the only propellant with these rounds is the primer, would a longer barrel increase or decrease the muzzle velocity?