Federal Shorty Shotshell

From Shorty Shotshells to 10mm HST to extra clean .22 LR, Federal and CCI have a lot of new products for 2019. In fact, Federal in particular has a lot of new options this year. Check ’em out:

HST in 10mm has my attention. 200 grains at 1,135 fps? Sure thing. Plus Federal is rolling out new calibers of Hydra-Shok Deep and new rifle calibers with Barnes TSX, Berger Hybrid, Edge TLR, and Trophy Copper projectiles.

Also, Shorty Shotshells. These 1.75-inch-long shells pack a lot of #8 shot, #4 buck, and slug power into a small, soft-shooting package.

Over to CCI and there are three loads of Clean-22, featuring poly-coated projectiles to prevent leading inside of barrels and suppressors. And on thumbs. Sub- and supersonic loads are available with 40 grain projectiles.

CCI has also launched an especially quiet .22 LR load that’s still supposed to cycle a typical semi-auto. It’s called “Quiet-22 Semi-Auto” and it sends a 45 grain projectile at 735 fps.

For more info, check out the Federal Premium and CCI websites.

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42 COMMENTS

  2. i’m curious as to how quiet the quiet is.
    a calibri from a charger is pretty quiet and still goes through a tin can. even from an naa mini it’s below hearing damage levels outdoors.
    are they primer only?

    • As I understand it, yes, the Colibri .22 shorts are a primer-only load.

      If I’m wrong, someone please correct me.

      Hearing-safe from an NAA-mini you say?

      I wonder if a black-powder NAA-mini would be hearing-safe with just the cap, then.

      Anybody have a black-powder NAA-mini they can test with?

      • Yes Primer only..

        I don’t shoot them in rifles as I have had 5 or 6 stick in the barrel.

        I have killed armadillos with them but CBees are more powerful and still pretty quiet.

        I do shoot voles and rats with colibri..work pretty well.

    • I single-load .22 colibri in my Ruger Mk1 and used it one night years ago to shoot a rat behind my refrigerator at 2 AM.
      The report didn’t so much as make the wife break her snoring rhythm. If I hadn’t told her about it in the morning a few hours later, she never would have known.
      Colibris are VERY quiet.

    • I have a box of Colibris, but haven’t shot them, so I can’t compare. I have killed a fox and a ground hog with quiets. Well, I think the fox died. He ran off obviously wounded and didn’t bother my chickens after that. The ground hog the first likely would have done it in, but I put 3 in to it before it stopped moving entirely. I use segmented quiets.

      I’d liken the volume to dropping a text book on to the a flat table. It sure isn’t silent and I doubt you’d hear it at 100yds unless it is pretty quiet. Dropping the bolt on my AR-15 is probably half as loud.

      I am very intrigued by these if they will actually cycle my 10/22. Regular quiets are 710fps and 40gr, so these semi-auto quiets have about 20% more muzzle energy. So far I’ve put maybe 60 quiets down the barrel of my 10/22 between regular LRN and the segmented. So far one time it actually cycled it fully. I went to rack the slide to load the next round at the range and a loaded cartridge popped out of the chamber rather than an empty. Normally it part cycles the bolt, not far enough back to eject or strip a round.

      No idea if 20% more energy is going to be enough, or if the powder burn profile is different (faster) giving the bolt a better push. If it can cycle my 10/22 they are going to be silly fun (and more useful for varmints where I don’t want to bother my neighbors). If these do well, please give us segmented versions also (that ground hog was hit 3 times and had 8 holes in it, so many of the segments had sufficient energy to exit the whistle pig. That’s pretty devastating).

    • I’ve killed quite a few groundhogs with Quiet-22 ammo and it makes less noise than many pellet guns. Combine the new semi-auto version with a suppressor and you truly have a ‘silenced’ gun.

  3. “Over to CCI and there are three loads of Clean-22, featuring poly-coated projectiles to prevent leading inside of barrels and suppressors. And on thumbs.”

    If you’re sticking your fingers into your mouth while shooting guns, you deserve to get lead poisoning…

    • This is really exciting for parents though. I’ll still make my kids wear gloves, though. Over the years I’ve learned that no matter how mature your kid is and how responsibly they handle firearms with some kids there is absolutely no way to get them to stop touching their damn faces.

  4. I was almost excited seeing a new 10mm loading from Federal. As the HST is my go to loading in all calibers. Till I saw the speed. A 200 grainer at 1135fps………………………….blahhhhhhhhh. Not impressed.
    I need to see some test results before canning my Double Taps.
    Since when or in whos book is a 40gr 22LR at 1135fps. High velocity?? Not mine.
    CCIs Segmented 32gr at 1640fps. Now that is a high velocity 22.

      • I don’t know when or why people compare a hot 10mm to a 41 mag. It’s not really close.
        But a HST at 1100 fps and 400flbs ain’t hot in my book. That’s 40s&w territory. If it was a 700# plus load. Then that to me is a hot 10mm and that’s where my Double Taps are at.

  6. I just went to Federal website (thanks for the link). A box of 10 is $5.95 and $11.95 for a little faster velocity. Not much detail for the newbie. Can you put more of these in a pump shotgun that normally holds 5 shells? Will they get stuck coming out of a semi shotgun? I like the idea of putting more into a home defense shotgun.

    • “Can you put more of these in a pump shotgun that normally holds 5 shells?”

      YES.

      There may be feeding issues. Some pumps need a ‘clip’ added to cycle them reliably.

      “Will they get stuck coming out of a semi shotgun?”

      Hopefully, those with experience can chime in…

        • I tried the shortys in a Tac-14. They sorta work. They will eject, but i had some flip around backwards on the lifter when they came out of the magazine, so i would not use them for self defense. I saw a video where they used them in a Shockwave with an adapter. I hear they work in a KSG.

      • I installed the Opsol mini-clip on the shell lifter of my Mossberg 12-ga Shockwave to cycle Aguilla 1-3/4″ buckshot and slug ammo – works fine and the price ($17) is right.

  7. According to Ballistics 101 energy calculator, 200gr at 1135 FPS is only 572 ftlbs of energy.
    That’s less than impressive compared to any proper 10mm load.

    • It’s a balance of power and recoil. If I’m facing bears I want a hotter hardcast load like Buffalo in my G20. If I’m facing human targets, maybe wearing soft armor, an HST expander with 200 weight over 1100 FPS, beats pretty much any other handgun based ballistic solution for personal defense.

  8. Those short shells may be illegal in places that limit shotgun capacity. For the children of course.

    • “Those short shells may be illegal in places that limit shotgun capacity. For the children of course.”

      Nonsense. They will just outlaw the guns that can hold more than 5 shorty shells.

  11. To the folks complaining about the 200 grn. 1135 fps 10 mm HST load, you all do realize that it’s a personal defense load, right? The name of the game is tuning the velocity and bullet weight to balance effective depth of penetration, bullet integrity during terminal ballistics, bullet expansion diameter, recoil, cost, and manufacturing repeatability for a mass produced product. I am sure I am missing a few factors of cobsideration, however you all get the idea.

    This round is meant for killing people, not animals. Of course the 10 mm has plenty of room to go faster and hit harder, but that’s not the point of what Federal released in this HST load. In my opinion this is what makes 10 mm so awesome! The round has excess performance overhead to load it to just about any application you require!

    • In my own defense. Everything you say is true more or less. Since I’m the one complaining here about the 10mm. What federal has put out in the 10mm is in 40s&w territory. I would and still do prefer a hotter 10mm load for my defense. Most folks who have a 10mm gun. Probably own a 40s&w or 2. Also.

      • Well, a quick look at Underwood Ammo, a company who I would take as a good point of reference for, “hot ammo,” is listing their 200 grn. 40S&W at 1,000 fps, and their 180 grn. 40S&W at 1,100 fps. In other words Federal’s 10 mm HST is comfortably well beyond the performance envelope of what a boutique manufacturer is cranking out for 40 S&W. As long as Federal doesn’t price that 10 mm HST to the moon, then I do not think anybody who buys it is getting cheated.

    • The Federal HST offerings in 40 SW look to run in the low to mid 400s ftlbs and this 10mm/200 offering is reportedly 572ish ftlbs.

      We can call it a heavy for caliber 40 +p+ 🙂

      • Funny thing is that 10mm has a lower max pressure than 9mm +P

        35,000 9mm, 357, 40 S&W, and 50 AE
        37,500 10mm
        38,500 9mm +P

  12. I bought a few bricks of Colibri and Super Colibri back during the .22 shortage when it was one of the few types of ammo available. I love the stuff. I was hitting dime-size targets at 5 yards with my Black Widow.

  13. Nice. The 10mm HST, TSXs, and poly 22lrs have me interested. The 22lr seems to be a poly coated SV from CCI. That and the 10mm were exactly what I have been asking from Federal/CCI!

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