I got board, no pun...

I had this little Colt Derringer in .22 Short that my daughter thinks is cute. I have never shot it. Well it would not fire, barely dings the far edge of the rim. It has powder residue so it must have shot sometime. SO I switched to Leonard's gun. It's a family heirloom of an old goofy fellow Leonard. My step-father's friend who shot a hole square through his index finger with it, clean through the center of the bone. On the way to the hospital they began to discuss the necessitated police involvement and decided to simply use peroxide and bandages, some Tylenol. Well that didn't kill Leonard, cancer did a few year's later. So it's Leonard's gun forever. I had loaned it to them for a while, not a smart thing to EVER do.

It's an old 1960's Rohm (RG M105) from Germany. Back in the day they cost $4! What some would call a Saturday Night Special. However it fires every time and is remarkably accurate! So it was my .22 Short performance mule.

The first .22 Short 27 gr. HP went 667 fps and penetrated 0.209" into the treated pine 2X4. Next was the 29 gr. RNL and it garnered 736 fps but only 0.194" into the variable test medium. Grain and density being what it is. For control I got out my Taurus TX22 and fired a .22 LR Hi-Velocity HP at 986 fps. That 36 gr. round penetrated the full 1.5" board and dinged the second board marking it. So figure more than 3X the penetration for the LR than the .22 Short from these short barrels.

In reality the .22 Short pocket gun is arguably slightly more powerful than my .22 cal Air-rifle. Testing it in the same medium I fired two shots. They went 703/707 fps respectively. In the medium one pellet spun a little on impact and just fully penetrated the wood at 0.007". The other fared well straight on and penetrated 0.124". Not that anyone would want some of that, it can certainly inflict a killing blow. It's just not that impressive. The velocities of the .22 Short were more than I anticipated. I have recorded some factory old spec ammo in centerfires that only ran 500-550 fps! But they had much heavier bullets, apples and oranges.

It proves nothing but is interesting to search for useful
lessons.