Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires So, want to hear from someone in the ammo business about 22's?

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2014/04/why-cant-i-find-22-lr-ammunition-sierra-vp-speaks-out/

One guys opinion, think I can get behind it.

IMO, the demand is driven more by "hoarders" than new shooters.

A year and a half, or two, ago the shelves were full of 22. Now the factory's are going at it 24/7 and we are just starting to see it getting caught back up?

I don't think that many new shooters flooded the market. Most gun owners likely don't shoot much at all. A couple bricks would likely last 80% of 22 owners a lifetime. Obviously pulling #'s outta my ass, but I bet its not far off.

The fact is 22lr is incredibly cheap. It is affordable for nearly everyone to buy cases and cases of the stuff, and its small enough to fit in a closet. Lots of these people are morons who simple cant afford 50k rounds of 223 or 308.

We are just in a stampede. Soon the dust will settle and the ammo makers are gonna be competing with Billy Joe and the rest of the prepped gang for 22 market share. That's why you don't see new manufacturing being set up.

I'd agree MM..I don't believe it's caused by "new shooters"..the numbers say gun ownership is up, but not enough to cause this situation. For what it's worth, there is nothing to be found here at all.. Guy will say they had a few boxes couple days ago but gone in a minute etc...same old story..same guys lining up in the AM...

Think it's just part human nature too in that people who aren't hoarders by any stretch will buy whatever they happen to come across just because they figure, this may be my last chance to score any for 6 months...

I'm pretty decent on .22 but if I walked into Walmart and saw a brick or three on the shelf I would buy it for sure.. Simply to replace what I've shot up. But I haven't seen any on the shelf for who knows how long now.

the demand does not correlate to actual shooting, thats fer dang sure. in fact, I've seen a whole lot LESS .22 shooting since the panic started, since everybody is scared to use their "stash". its a humorous situation from a distance, like watching a train wreck, or a bunch of lemmings running off a cliff

I shoot more rimfire now than I ever did. It all started with the centerfire shortage and price hikes starting in 2008, which made me transition to shooting rimfires more. I have since learned that rimfire bulk pack ammo is not as reliable as the 50 and 100 round box good stuff, and I hope to have my remaining bulk pack ammo all gone downrange by the time supply stabilizes. I am not sitting an a "stash". I bought it to shoot it.

This whole thing is more of an "inconvenience" and PITA for me. I have not bought any .22 ammo since the "incident" except for friends who didn't have any stocked away (not hoarded!)

I am more frustrated by the lack of a simple, obvious explanation. I have listened to all of the hypotheses and speculation... things just don't seem to add up to me. I don't see more .22 shooters at the range, hunting rabbits, etc. I see less. I don't see that many people standing in line at Wal Mart at 7AM!!! (I even tried it 3 or 4 days myself and showed up to find no one and guess what... no ammo shipments any of those day). I do see some at scalper's prices on the local internet sites and some occasionally at the $50 (pseudo-scalper) prices in a few gun stores... they don't last long.

If it truly is just "hoarding", I don't want to be around when something truly essential like food or water ends up in real short supply for whatever reason. I thought about this a lot on a recent (thankfully short )trip to S. Calif. recently. No supply of .22 ammo would help you through that one I'm afraid.

All I can add is that I have some 22 ammo on back order from one of my ammo suppliers for over a year. I called them in March to wish my order a happy anniversary.

Since I have a job and can't show up on ammo refresh day at WalMart or Dicks, I have not seen a single round of 22 ammo on the shelf of any of my local suppliers since late 2012.

A few years ago I moved away from center fire to rimfire to save money. Now when I search on line I can find 223 ammo for about the same price as 22 ammo - at least the 22 ammo that is in stock. It's very frustrating/discouraging.

Check with Shrapnel.

I believe I'll call a lot of BS in this thread.

Come on Butch......BS on what?

Don't get shy!

how so?

Certifiable,
It is just the same as 100 such threads all over the net. Just a bunch of bored people posting with little facts.

more than that

"It is just the same as 100 such threads all over the net. Just a bunch of bored people posting with little facts."

Butch,

Taken in light of this not being just a .22 rimfire shortage but also a powder and to a lesser extent a primer shortage... the comments by those in the industry is relevant. But your right in that they seem to be doing some guessing!

If you read the last(?) comment in the above thread you will see a response by Powder valley. He may be bored as he is not selling much powder these day's, but i would probably call him a concerned business man who according to his post (and within the scope of his business) is in contact with the U.S. powder distributors (Hogdon, Win., etc).

Same with sierra bullets... this has to have an impact on them, if you can not buy any powder or (to a lesser extent) primers there is a going to be a limit to your bullet sales.

Not in the same league, but a couple of months ago I stopped at my local dealer who of course had zero .22 ammo. He had called CCI to try and order a pallet of rimfire. They refused, told him of the incredible amount of rimfire ammo that they were manufacturing and gave him the number of some of their wholesalers, whom he called with no luck (I don't recall if they had no rimfire or he was last on the list).

Jerry

Butch-
You're right, lots of speculation.
In lieu of hard facts all we can do is apply reason and speculate. That's all I attempt to do.

FWIW- just stopped by the store and they had 22 on the shelf. No lines, no crazy people.

A short while ago I ordered some .22 WMR Short Barrel Gold Dots from Midway to replace some I gave to a friend plus some extra. I ordered a brick of Blazer .22 LR from Cabela's Monday and received it yesterday. (That won't replace what I gave away last week.) Both Cabela's and Midway had bricks of Norma TAC-22 available earlier today, but I didn't order any. So, there is stuff out there. Cabela's in particular keeps getting supplies, but the one container per order limit makes me not want to order anything unless the container is a brick or the ammo is something I really need.

I don't have time to camp out at stores.

Why no statement from a manufacturer?
You'd think after all this time one of them would at least put forth an official statement.

They have.

ATK, Olin's, Freedom Group....

They all say the same thing. The civilian demand is driving the shortage. They are cranking out all they can but there has been a huge run in the civilian market.

It's simply a stampede.

Butch, no boredom here, and no great conspiracy theories.. I just gave my opinion based on what I see in my area. I even admitted I'd like the opportunity to contribute to the problem a smidge
I'm truly envious of people that can walk into their locals and find it in stock at normal prices, but it just ain't happening here.