Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires 22 Short prices (or are they even available in your area?)

Yesterday I was visiting a nearby gunshop for an FFL transfer and I decided I might as well peruse the shelves. Lo and behold, several boxes of CCI .22 shorts! I was thinking they would be very pleasant out of my soon-to-arrive 3 screw Ruger Single Six. The only catch, a box of 50 is $10 - slightly more expensive than 50 Remington Golden Bullet. I'm still thinking a single box would be fun, but would it be worth getting several? How available do Shorts tend to be? Should I look for any brands other than CCI if they even exist? How do these prices compare to those around y'all?

Some guys say the shorter casing allows for carbon build up in the chamber. So if I use them. I brass brush. They are quiet and plenty accurate for indoor practice. I was going to use them for indoors, but I already have match airguns, and they don't smell. Match pellets are 15/500, and I have a compressor, so it is super cheap compared to shorts.

Local Walmart has managed to keep some .22 shorts, usually CCI, in stock most of the time even when they weren't getting much or any .22lr. Can't recall the exact price now but my best ballpark guess is around $6.00(+/-) per 50 round box.

I haven't shot or bought any shorts myself for many years but I probably ought to.

Back in the old days shorts were the cheapest ammo you could buy and the only .22 rim fire cartridge I recall any of my uncles who hunted regularly ever using. No telling the number of squirrels, rabbits and 'coons they put on the dinner table, not counting pork at hog killing time, with .22 shorts.

I don't remember last time I seen shorts

Last purchased Shorts about three years ago. $8/100,CCI purchased at LGS. Didn't group well in my Speedmaster so I gave the remainder away.

Locally, they're $10.95/100, they ain't cheap. I've got a couple hundred for an old gallery gun I have (Remington M24), but I don't shoot a lot of them. The iron sights ain't helpful.

Fun little gun.

Shorts are available here in Central Oregon and not too rare. $8-10/box of 50 usually CCI. Don't think other US companies make then anymore. They are great cartridges. I use them in my Browning auto (made specifically for them.) Just plain sweet. Be careful....they are habit forming.

Shorts used to be cheap, but since production volume is a big factor in price, they cost more than one would think they should. About the only reason to buy them at the current price is if you have a gun that is so chambered. There are other quiet options available for guns that accept Long Rifles, like the CCI Quiet .22s that are very accurate and less than $10 a box.

I used to shoot a lot of shorts in my old Marlin when they were $.59 a box as opposed to nearly a buck for LRs. The starlings didn't care one way or the other.

I consider 22 shorts waste of money, unless. That would be for a derringer that was chambered for shorts only. Then $10, would not matter. Just for a box to play with.

There are some low power loads in the long case. For instance, CCI Quiet and Segmented Quiet. That is easy to find and priced same as other 22lr.

When the Obama threats began, people began hoarding 22 ammo. The tooling is expensive and everyone knew the hoarding purchases would not last forever.

So no new tooling, just run 3 shifts on the tooling they have.

Demand has increased dramatically yet no large American ammunition maker has added a new rimfire ammunition plant. Remington has one in Arkansas, Winchester has one in Mississippi, Federal has one in Minnesota and CCI has one in Idaho. They have been running full-out since 2008 and have been expanding plants as possible—and they are as efficient as they possibly can be.




If an old crazy multi millionaire normally uses 20 rounds of 22 ammo per year at 4 cents a shot, and along comes Obama, the old nut could buy 100,000 rounds at 10 cents per round and put them in his garage.



The way conservatives interpret this is more supply, higher prices.
Then they get called "supply side" by liberals.
That makes the liberal econ proffesors angry and they don't want to listen to it.
Liberals are worried about people's needs and think the government should intervene to control the market.

Is there a pie chart for that?

Interesting stuff there Clarkm. Thanks for the detailed description of the whole "ammo craze" and its implications. I'll also be curious to see how the ammo market in particular and firearm market in general will behave over the next 4 years. What are your thoughts on how it might trend and what that trend might indicate?

That's what the hogs keep sayin'.

LGS has a pretty good amount of them but they're in a display case with no price on 'em. I'm not in the market for any right now so I didn't ask because I got about 400 rounds already and I don't shoot them very often. Saw some at Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago; first time in a very long time since they've had any, (can't recall price). Last week I noticed that those same shelves were now bare but at least I'm seeing it around now even if it's only sporadic.

Pappy - I can remember prices like that. Back in the day, a boy could get for $1 a box 22 shorts, soda, gum and change.
I loved the 22 short, great round. However, now the 22 short is still hard to find and cost too much when you do find it.

I bought 2000 Quiet .22s when they came out at about $3.50 a box, but now they've gone up a bunch. SVs can be had for about $4.50 and shoot very well in my main rifle.

Bought a Browning SA in 22 short about 2 years ago. Thought I bargained for a good price and then he said he had 1600 rounds of ammo he'd throw in. CCI hollow points in the 100 round boxes. Local Bi-Mart here in the Northwest has had the CCI short hollow points in stock for $7.99 per box of 100 for over a year now. I have a lifetime supply even though I shoot the snot out of the starlings with it all Summer. Loads of fun.

1958 top and 1979 bottom

I have been buying 22s for 53 years, but Browning 22SA rifles for only 4 months.


I should have started sooner. My father told me about them 53 years ago... but I didn't take his advise.

I bought them all the time for a bit because that's all that was available. I have a few guns that will shoot them. They were the same as any other .22lr that were for sale.