Tiny Plinker: the 22CB
Odds are you have fired a cap gun once or twice in your life. Most likely, if you are reading this, you have
fired a 22 once or twice in your life. But the thing is, have you ever fired a 22 that sounds like a cap gun? Well if not, the 22CB may be something to look into.
The 22 CB Cap (short for “conical ball cap”) is a series of very small 22-caliber rimfire cartridges that have been around since 1888. On average, full-powered rounds for the caliber are typically 29-grains of bullet that travel at 700-feet per second. They are smaller than 22LR (40gr, 1100-fps), smaller than 22-Long (29gr, 1000fps), and smaller than even 22-Shorts (29gr, 800fps). They are however larger and more powerful then 22BB (18gr, 750fps), the Mexican-made Aquila Colibris (20 gr, 375fps) and Super Colibris (20gr, 450 fps) rounds.
They have been kept around for almost 150-years for their versatility. They allow clean and efficient hunting and pest control (better than the Colibris and 22BB) but without the loud cracking sound and extreme range of the larger 22L/LR round.
Read more in my column at Firearms Talk
