Stayclean,
Good to know you're consistent, but as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
At the beginning of the big panic, over a year ago, people WERE buying 10 or 50 or 100 times as much .22 rimfire ammo as they usually did. That's why stores had to put a limit on how much each customer bought; otherwise the first person or two would buy the entire stock. (This is gotten around these days by entire families showing up when delivery trucks arrive, and each family member buying their limit, then--in big stores--getting in line and doing it again.)
This also why it's not in stock at stores: When rimfire ammo does show up it sells out quickly. And only smaller shipments are showing up at stores because places that never used to order more than a few boxes of rimfire ammo are now ordering cases, because that's the only way they can get in line for back-orders.
And back-orders are the way rimfire ammo is being sold, whether to stores or individuals. Yes, individual are now competing with stores, both the bootleggers and hoarders who meet the delivery trucks at Wal-Mart and people who are back-ordering bricks and cases from places like Midway. Manufacturers are months behind in their back-orders, just a tire manufacturers would be in the same situation.
Yes, prices for rimfire will be higher when it's found in stores again, because when demand rises, prices for the basic materials (brass, lead, powder) also rise. But it won't rise all that much. I do see rimfire ammo in local stores now and then, even right now when according to you it's non-existent, and it's at pretty much normal prices. Don't buy much because I have plenty, but do buy some when it fits a specific need. Bought two 50-round boxes of the .22 Magnum ammo my Winchester 9422M likes a month or so ago, and it was $12.95 a box, maybe a little more than normal, but not much. I'm also buying primers at the same store for $30 to $35 per 1000. Is that more than primers cost 10 or 15 years ago? Yeah, but everything else costs more than it did 10-15 years ago.
The fact is that MOST stores are charging pretty much normal prices for rimfire ammo when they have any. That's why families of gougers can buy it up and make a profit by selling it for 2-4 times the price at gun shows and on the Internet.
Oh, sorry. All of that is fiction. You're right. It's a national conspiracy by all the ammo manufacturers, who shut down factories to drive up the price.
And now you're going on "ignore."
