Designed to be a cross between the .22 BB and .22 Short, and first catalogued in around 1888 (though probably first made before that), it "managed to combine about all the disadvantages...[of both] into one generally useless cartridge",[2] being no more accurate than either while being noisier than the .22 BB Cap, and penetrating much deeper, requiring a backstop as strong as for the .22 Short, thereby negating the CB Cap's advantages for shooting indoors.

Although RWS in Germany, Eley-Kynoch in Britain, and Alcan stopped making the 6mm Flobert in the 1970s,[2] it is still manufactured and sold in some European countries.

The .22 CB Cap has a very small propellant charge (usually no gunpowder, just the primer), resulting in a low muzzle velocities of between 350 and 853 feet per second (107 and 260 m/s).

In longer rifle barrels the CB has a very quiet, seemingly non-existent report due to the lack of residual pressure at the muzzle (see Internal ballistics).

The CB loses velocity fast in longer barrels, due to the lack of anything other than the primer as a propellant.