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Are people REALLY that desperate for 22?

4K views 52 replies 26 participants last post by  carver 
#1 ·
George mentioned a Georgia classifieds site, called The Outdoor Trader. So I'm just idly glancing down it, thinking things like, "Damn, that's a good price", or "WHAT?!?! He wants 30 bucks a box for WWB 45? That's insane".

And I notice that the ads specify. They don't just say, "I've got 357s", they say, "I've got Remington Golden Saber 125 grain 357s".

And then I see this one ad. Guy wants to trade. Will trade 500 rounds of 22 LR for 250 rounds of 17HMR.

I'm thinking, "Well, sporty, I might be interested (assuming I had the 17, which I don't) if it was Mini Mags you were swapping, but not if it's Winchester Wildcats or Remington anything. What KIND of 22 you got?"

Apparently all that anyone needs to know is that it is 22, because 22 is IMPOSSIBLE to find.

Is it really that bad?

When I went to visit my daughter, over Halloween, I took a thousand rounds with me. I mean, hell, I been supplying her ammo since I taught her to shoot. It's gotten to be a habit. Just how good a present did I leave her? :confused: :p
 
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#32 ·
I used to keep 2 bricks of 22lr. One to shoot and one as backup. When I shot one I would buy another brick. Today I may go 3 or 4 months before I see any in the store. If I see it I buy it. I think having 10,000 rounds is no longer hoarding. Its what you should have in reserve
 
#33 ·
I used to buy .22 when it went on sale, and still have bricks that I bought 10 or 12 years ago just to save a couple of bucks. Remembering the Clinton years, I did stock up on the 3 p's (powder projectiles and primers) before the 2008 election, and I bought a few cases of 5.56 as well. My shop well stocked, but I keep my eyes open for pistol powder...
 
#34 ·
I've managed to get back up to over 11k rounds on hand. Actually passed on CCI standard velocity a couple weeks ago at $44 a brick, and today the same place got the Federal "blue box" in and was selling for $36. It's not the bulk stuff, 1280FPS but I don't "need" it so I passed, although it'll probably just go to someone who will list it for sale elsewhere for a hefty increase.
 
#35 ·
I used to buy powder and primers from PV on the Internet and they were the biggest volume retailer. I have not have seen much of anything on their site for about 3 years. So yeah, the shortage continues and 22LR is still hard to find....

I stopped shooting 22LR in my target rifles (Win 52) because it is nearly impossible to find quality ammo for acceptable prices or in most cases at any price.

Thank you obama and holder....
 
#36 ·
I got heavily into reloading/handloading on the run-up to the 2008 Immaculate Deception. Set up turrets for every caliber I own, and brass, bullets, powder, primers for same. Still buy it when I see it available.
But I neglected to stock on rimfire, and lately have literally been 'paying the price'. I find it online at odd times, and order it, paying more than I ever thought I would. But it is 'the new normal'. Prices at LGS here is higher, shipping included. Wally's...... faggitabouttit! NO rimfire at any of our local big box stores. So in the last year I have increased my stash of all rimfire from a couple partial bulk boxes, to nearly 10K of all types of rimfire, mostly .22LR. Not always the brand/type prefer, but I can still avoid that which I know to generally be bad.
And, getting more into pellet rifle shooting helps. I can get my shooting jollies here at home on the cheap, and in bad weather...... helps to conserve the rimfire stuff. The days of spending a weekend shooting an entire bulk pack or brick, are GONE........ :oops:
These days, I can just about reload my 7.62X38R Nagant and .22Hornet as cheap or cheaper than buying rimfire......
 
#37 ·
I have boxes of .22 ammo that are 15 years old. I won't be running out any time soon. But still I try to buy more than I shoot. Here's the part that surprises me, some folks claim that it's hoarders that are causing the shortage of .22 ammo. I could understand shortages of .22LR being attributed to some hoarding, but who shoots .22 shorts in high quantities? Or who shoots .22 longs? Right now you can find CCI Quite ammo, and you can find Aguila Colibri 350 fps ammo. You even find a little .22LR every now and then, but no shorts, or longs. Who's hoarding them? They won't work in most .22 semi auto rifles.
 
#38 ·
People that know next to nothing about firearms are hoarding them...they look at it as just an other product to make money off of...Like the beanie baby craze and all that.Gun shows are full of their tables.
 
#39 ·
I personally have no shortage of .22LR's.. While I cannot say I stocked up years back, I did so knowing how hard it was to procure in bulk..
I've also stocked up on certain calibers, and yes, reloading supplies. The market is too fragile nowadays; 1st, you have the democrats & three letter agencies that are willing to break the laws to implement gun control and backdoors gun control, and then you have the panicky nature of people nowadays when they finally sense a threat to their future supplies of guns and ammunition. To even keep control nowadays requires a stash of anything that you regularly shoot. It also means that for the most part, I will shoot less; and depend more upon reloading. By and far, I think democratic politicians are the worst of our enemies; the uninformed masses are our next biggest threats.
 
#42 ·
This week Gander put Remingtons on sale for $30/525. They sold out in 12 minutes. I don't get it but evidently people with inside info are buying it up and doubling the price and selling it online. Is it not being produced in large enough quantities? It has been going on a long time now, you would think eventually everyone would have enough. I don't get it. If everyone just stopped buying it the price would drop off.
 
#45 ·
Well, the rimfire shortage has gotten me back into shooting BP, air guns and reloading for my .22 Hornet. Sad when reloading a couple of centerfire calibers can be cheaper than buying .22LR! :oops:
 
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#46 ·
Supply, and demand! Think about this, how many plants in America make .22 ammo? Is it 4, or 5? Not many, and they have not built any new plants in over 50 years! So the ones that have been around for many years are all there are! Yes, they have all added extra shifts, but that won't meet demand. In the last 30 years there have been millions of new shooters added to the shooting world. But no new factories. We have gone form bolt action rifles that hold 10 rounds are so to semi-auto that held 10-20 rounds to semi-autos that hold 30-100 rounds. You can shoot up a lot of ammo shooting the new AR style .22 rifles. 50 years ago most folks shot revolvers in hand guns, and a bolt action rifle was the ticket for hunting game of any kind. Semi-auto pistols have really grown in popularity too! The demand for cheep to shoot .22 ammo has gone thru the roof! But what about supply? Supply has gone up, a little, but not to the extent that it meets demand. And it doesn't stop with .22 ammo either. I am constantly on the look out for good SD ammo in most all caliber of hand guns, it's just not out there any more. You might find a box, or two of this, or that, but you just can't walk into a store, at least not here, and buy a box of premium self defense ammo. Supply, and demand. Then there is the profit margin. No company will manufacture a product to any great extent if there is no large profit margin. Meaning there will be no new plants built anytime in the near future. I see a little Aquila around here, but I haven't seen any Fiocchi, Norma, Eley, Germany’s RW, or SK, Armscorp. These companies manufacture .22 LR ammo too. Have you seen any? So is supply, and demand the only problems that we have?
 
#47 ·
The .22 shortage is beyond ridiculous; I just had a 1-1/2 year long backorder of Winchester standard vel target rounds cancelled (5,000 rds). If you do see any ammo (and I can count how many times I've seen .22 for sale on one hand in the last couple years), it's cheap bulk crap like thunderbolts or some other equally terrible ammo. What am I supposed to shoot in my target rifle? Even if I did want to shoot cheap crappy .22 (which I do on occasion), there's none to be had. A little Eley ammo but it's 50 cents + per round which is fine for matches but ya gotta practice with something cheaper unless you make more money than me.

The hoarders certainly add to the problem but this is beyond hoarding, there's not enough to hoard! Most places are 100 round limits per day and usually they're out anyway. Something smells really bad and I think we've seen the last of cheap .22 LR. $80/brick of crap is acceptable nowadays, I can't bring myself to pay 10 cents for plinkers. And even if I did want to pay that, I still can't find much. Something's gotta give...

Think I'll buy an air rifle in the meantime, I'm sure .22 will come back but the light at the end of the tunnel is not in sight on this one for a while yet. Ridonkulous.

Our rights our under attack from every conceivable angle, make sure you write/call/email your elected officials and be sure to vote! If you don't have ammo to teach your kids, how will they learn to shoot? Bad television? I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist but this one is leaving me scratching my head.
 
#49 ·
I got to hoard some tonight. Went to Cabela's and they had Winchester 333 packs for $18.99. Limit of one. I would have bought it all if they would let me.
 
#50 ·
Along with no new factories making it, they won't increase their plant size or go to a new larger building with more space for more machinery. They are afraid of the demand ceasing and then they are stuck with all that new equipment and space going unused. What we are seeing instead is more offshore ammo coming in, some OK quality, some less so. But still not meeting demand.
I recently bought 1,000 rounds of SK brand and 1,000 rounds of Armscor Precision brand (which did not impress me a few years back). Gotta get what's available.
 
#51 ·
There's a little bit more to it than just what we've mentioned so far. Do any of you remember the loans that banks wouldn't make to gun manufactures, and ammo companies? That stuff is still out there. With this hanging over their heads what ammo, or gun, company wants to invest millions of dollars in new manufacturing facilities, and machinery, for a product that could be outlawed next year? Guns manufacturing hasn't hit the crunch that ammo manufacturing has. Buy one gun, shoot hundreds of thousands of bullets! Making enough bullets to meet the current demand will take a lot more machinery than we have now! And what about future demand?
 
#53 ·
Y'all ain't seen nothing yet! I've been posting this for about 5 years here.
 
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