Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Gunshow Good Deals & 22 L.R. H/P Availability

I keep hoping for better times coming on the American made 22 L.R. H/P front but sadly its not getting any better and its now been 42 months (3 1/2 years) and counting!
Some, burps up now and then, but selection, prices and availability is just the pits!
My gunshow friends and I traveled to a gunshow this past Friday in Montana and on the way stopped at seven shops/stores that sell 22 ammunition - none was found to our liking and none purchased.
We sadly did witness a Federal 525 bulk pack of 22 L.R. H/P ammunition sell at said gunshow for $60.00 cash.
I stood right there and watched the 20's being counted out for that box of ammunition that not so long ago sold at Wal-Mart for less than 1/4 of that!
By the way the local Wal-Mart also had none of the desired ammo and hadn't had it for some time.
At the various shops we stopped at some round nose and some "standard velocity" and some foreign made over-priced junk was seen but again NONE of it was purchased.
One gunshop (Bug's & Bullets in Butte, Montana) had 2 boxes of round nose Winchester L.R. for sale at 13 cents per round (12.99 per 100).
Screw that.
We did come home with three rimfire Rifles though - and we purchasers were very happy with the guns/prices:

#1: I bought a mint as new older Ruger 10/22 Deluxe model with excellent figured wood for $255.00 included was a nice gun case.
#2: A Browning BuckMark "Rifle" heavy barrel laminated stock model that was ANIB with two 100 packs of ammo for $525.00
#3: A very nice condition (90%+) Winchester Model 62A (pump action - 1950 vintage) bought from a pawn shop along the way for $600.00 cash.

I am beginning to wonder if the long term "shortage" of 22 ammunition is "softening" the 22 rimfire guns market?
I see lots of them for sale (including on the private market) these days and some are at bargain prices?
No 17 Mach2 rimfire ammo was seen for sale ANYWHERE, including at the gunshow.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

A lot of 22rimfire ammo yesterday at the Shilen Swap Meet from cheapo to the best Eley and Lapua.

Around here, availability is better only in that there are some brands and packaged quantities to be had. Prices still range from outlandish to extortionary. As far as the price of used rifles, there is no such thing as a reduction in price.

Just picked up two bricks of the popular CCI SV for under $.10 per each...


...without budging my fat a** out of my chair, except to answer the door.

Bought 800 rounds of round nose hi-velocity CCI yesterday locally for $9.99 per 100 count box.

Could have bought another 2-3k but I'm not a pig.
(that and they had 50 count boxes of Winchester loaded FMJ 9mm Luger 115 FMJ at $12.99!)


Did just order (another)1k of +P Win and CCI hollow points.


Including shipping and $2 to the NRA it was $106 total.

When I was a kid in the mid 60's, gas was $.32/gal, gold was $35.00/ounce and 22 Ammo was $.50/box of 50. Today everyone bitches that gold isn't high enough and that gas and 22 Ammo is too expensive.

Minimum wage was around $1.25 and a box of 22 ammo cost the equivalent of about 22 minutes of work. I wasn't making minimum wage then, I had a paper route, and didn't make anywhere near minimum wage but I saved my money all winter and bought all the 22 Ammo I could so I could shoot gophers all summer.

Gas cost the ridiculous amount of nearly 15 minutes of that same minimum wage. Today at $2.20/gallon, gas is about the same minutes against minimum wage. I am not making minimum wage anymore, maybe someone else is, but at $65.00/brick (which people just won't pay) it is still less minutes to earn than when I was a kid.

I was either lucky or smart, but I kept buying 22 ammo when it was under $10.00/brick and continued that practice for several decades as I knew it wouldn't stay that way forever. I still have cases of it and will probably never shoot it all up. If I didn't have any, I would go buy some if I wanted and forget about the old days when candy bars were a nickel and cigarettes were 25 cents a pack...

Kind of like Shrap. I bought a bunch of bullets, powder, primers and .22 ammo before I retired almost 20 years ago. I am still shooting some of that .22 ammo. Still have enough for my my use. Along the way at different times I pick up ammo as I found good buys. Stingers, Yellowjackets, and various brands of LR hollow point ammo has fund its way in to my stash.. Couple years ago I got a good buy on Remington hollow point ammo. Lots of guys bitch about it, but it has killed thousands of gophers for me.. The only awful ammo I bought was WW in 333 packs.. Horrible , finally dumped it down a prairie dog hole.
With in the last couple months I managed decent buys on CCI LR hollow points, .22 mag. Hollow points. Not at old prices, but not bad.. Yesterday we were in Shedhorn Sports in Ennis. The had some ..22 ammo I picked up 5 boxes at $9./ box.. Glad I made my big buys when I did, but adding some has I go along helps keep my supplies up!

Shrap, I've done that arithmetic myself and come to the same conclusion. It's not the price that's a problem for me, just the hoops I have to jump through to find it at times. Even at that, I've been able to keep ahead of my needs by a little persistence. I find what I need online and lower my shipping costs by ordering other stuff I want at the same time.

The Cabela's in LaVisita, NE, has 22LR on the shelf from CCI, Eley, Federal, Norma, Remington, and SK.

Pappy,

Unless I'm in a gun store for some other reason and they happen to have .22 rimfire at a decent price, I buy all of mine on the Internet. But I don't drive around checking gun shops for .22's.

Will pay 10 cents a round for good target-practice ammo, such as Aguila Match or Norma TAC-22, but for typical hollow-point ammo won't go that high, because I haven't had to. I had a decent supply of HP's before the stupidity of the Obama panic, but right now have a lifetime supply and add to it whenever a decent deal shows up. Just bought another couple bricks of TAC-22 on sale from an Internet store, during a "free shipping special."

However, I don't have any prejudices against non-American ammo, having discovered a lot of it is very good--and some American ammo isn't. Of course, a lot of foreign ammo was good before, especially Eley, but when ordering on the Internet, I often pick up a little of some other brand to try. Which is why I now have a case of Armscor (Phillipine) high-velocity hollow-points: They proved more accurate than the typical American bulk hollow-points in most of the dozen-plus firearms we own chambered for the .22 Long Rifle.

During the last 3-1/2 years least 95% of my rimfire purchases were made on the Internet. Just got in 1300 rounds of Long Rifle last week, a mix of CCI Mini-Mags and Federal AutoMatch, for less than 9 cents a round. Could pick up a bunch of the same right now, but won't unless it's on sale.

Unless I'm out in the field somewhere, I'm on the Internet anyway every day to answer e-mail and check the Campfire Classifieds. So I just spend maybe 2-3 minutes checking my favorite websites for rimfire ammo too. Which is what I'm going to do right now, and it will take less time than typing this post.

Pappy,

Unless I'm in a gun store for some other reason and they happen to have .22 rimfire at a decent price, I buy all of mine on the Internet. But I don't drive around checking gun shops for .22's.




Ditto for me. I'm retired and have lots of free time, but I ain't got that much time!

I try to keep some MiniMag HPs on hand because they shoot pretty well in almost anything, are good reliable killers on small game, and always go bang, but RWS SSHPs have been the most accurate in my last two sporters and are noticeably quieter in the woods- well worth the $.16 per I usually pay. I don't need a million of them, just a brick or two, and I have a pretty reliable source. Several SS rounds work as practice loads in my rifle with the same sighting, with the newish Quiet 22s a current favorite.

I plan to pick up one of Gary Reeder's flat-point tools in the near future in hopes of turning most any accurate round into good SG killers. His test photos using laundry soap bars are impressive.

There is plenty of good stuff available online at Midway and Cabelas and even in my local stores. I have been picking up Mini-Mags off the shelf and even saw some Velocitors on the shelf last week. I actually have started backing off the buying binge after replenishing my stock.

I can buy CCI SV for $.08/rd any time for the last couple months locally. Mini Mags are getting harder to find at that price.