The .22LR situation is still dismal here in northeastern Oklahoma and, from what I can see, equally pathetic in northwestern Arkansas.
I live in a smallish college town of 16,000 population that is the county seat of a county with 44,000 residents. We have a 24 hour Walmart with an ammo display that constantly looks as though it's been raped, and two gun shops inside the city limits, with a third outside of city limits. None of the three LGS's have any .22LR in stock. We have Atwoods Home and Ranch in town and they sell ammo, but I haven't been in to see if they have any .22LR or not.
Cabela's in Rogers, AR was wiped out of .22LR when I was there last -about two weeks ago, now. Academy in Rogers didn't have any. Academy in Tulsa didn't have any. I don't want ANYTHING bad enough to set foot in Dick's so I didn't bother looking. Bass Pro in Broken Arrow ain't my favorite place, either.
But one of my LGS's did have a schnitzit load of IMR 4350 and 4064, so I bought several canisters of each....
The reason?
I can use that in my little Ruger M-77 Ultralight in .250 Savage -which for the last three years has been to me what my old 10/22 Deluxe was.
They also had .457" round balls and some 777 and I bought a bunch....
The reason?
My Ruger Old Army is now doing what my 22/45 bought right around Sandy Hook never got much of a chance to do.
Cabela's was loaded with .223. So was Academy. Both had plenty of 9mm.....
One LGS had a smokin' deal on a CZ 75 clone that looked decent, so I bought it just to take advantage of recent decent 9mm supply. I'll probably buy an AR so I can plink with a rifle a bit cheaper than I can with my .250 Savage.
In my area, there's a gun show virtually every weekend, within an hour's drive of my home.
And that, right there, is why I think I'm not finding .22LR on the shelves in retail stores. No real proof, mostly idle speculation, but I suspect that my local Walmart doesn't have any because a small group of people who are able to are getting there when the shipment first comes in and buying it all up, only to re-sell it later at highly inflated prices at one of the many gun shows in the area.
Someday, I hope it returns to normal. I'm still shooting, though... I have 9 boxes of WW Wildcats I'm keeping in reserve until I can find a brick to replace it, but until then, it's cap n' ball, my .20 Beeman R-9, and .250 Savage to the rescue !!
