Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires So how's the rimfire ammo supply in your local stores?

Stopped at a Dick's north of here on the way home from the cabin earlier this week.

All they had fer 22s, were some Mini Mags. Buck a pack more than at Wally's. Only other rimfires on the shelf, were some 17HMRs.

Went by a Dicks tonight and they had plenty of 22 lr Remington 500 packs - $30 and CCI 300 packs - $20.

No 22 mag, that's what I've been looking for since I picked up a new(old) rifle about 3 months ago. I have found 50 rounds in the 3 months I've been looking. It's pitiful.

I haven't been following the entire thread, but in response to Mule Deer's title question:

It sucked yesterday.

It sucks today.

It will likely suck tomorrow.

I have heard and considered all the usual explanations, most of which make at least some sense by themselves, but in toto, the scope and duration of the shortage defy reason.

Hoarding is part of it, but when major outlets can't get more than a trickle, that doesn't explain much. You can't hoard what you can't buy.

Paul

Interesting.

I just stopped in a local store yesterday and found their 5-foot rimfire shelf stacked high with various kinds of ammo, including .22 Magnum and plenty of .22 Long Rifle hollow-points. That's the way it's been at that store this year, though the stack varies a little in size, of course. Prices were pretty reasonable too.

And that's another head scratcher - it seems to vary among regions.

It's scarce to non-existent here in SW Utah. The bigger stores around here, Sportsmans Warehouse and CalRanch, get a regular trickle. The two Walmarts might also get a trickle, but I've never seen any on a shelf. The big local Ace Hardware gets a bit once in a rare while, but usually has some overpriced Eley (overpriced even by typical Eley standards) on the shelf. No surprise, it doesn't move.

It's also common to see some Aguila here and there.

What I want/need is CCI Mini-Mag or Blazer 40 gr. solid, and it is seldom seen around here.

Paul

That has been my experience, as well. A shortage that has gone on this long defies explanation, in my opinion - UNLESS it is that it is contrived. In any case, it does not appear that the outlets get much 22 in, so that kinda blows the hoarder premise away, at least locally.

FWIW, the local Walmart here had Rem Golden Bullet 525ct bulk packs on their shelves a few days ago. I picked up three of the bulk packs for $21.97 each. That works out to approximately $2.09 per 50 rounds which isn't too bad nowadays. There were dozens of bulk packs in the locked glass ammo case but all were gone before noon that day.

The other local stores have also had rimfire ammo in stock fairly regularly for the last few months, and not all of it's been match ammo.

Mt, that is the best price I have seen on the 525 packs.. I bought one for 24.95 for HP's.. Seems like in some areas it is cropping up, and others are barren..

"A regular trickle" is a good way to put it.

I recently checked the local Sportsman's Warehouse west of Boise at opening time on four different Saturday mornings when they put out the rimfire ammo and once saw a half dozen 325 packs of Federal AutoMatch plus a smattering of 100 packs of CCI stuff. One day they had a dozen bulk packs of Remington Thunderbolt but that's it. The other two days they didn't have any new .22 LR ammo. However, the prices on ammo they had were very reasonable, maybe a couple bucks higher than they were 2-3 years ago but nothing inflation wouldn't account for anyway.

In contrast, I went to a gunshow two weeks ago and several dealers were still trying to get $75 for 500 round bricks of the cheaper blasting ammo. The "deals" to be had were in the $50-$60 range, this for the smaller quantity bulk packed stuff. No thanks.


Powder, bullets and primers (except Federal) have been coming back in decent amounts. Not pre-shortage quantities and not all brands and types but at least enough to keep me going.

John, your LGS or area is by far the exception to the rule! I've given up looking locally, I can usually find what I need online and don't shoot a lotta bulk pack anymore .... I have a few 3-4k of Fed bulk, Fed auto-match, and CCI Blazer. I have another 3-5k of CCI SV & MM, Wolf, SSK, Eley, Norma and Lapua. Most of what I have is still pre-12/2012. I sneak some SSK and Eley thru the mail now and then. But to find CCI SV, MM, or Blazer locally would be less likely than finding a pancake shaped like Elvis .... Then I'd be in the Moola!!!

Sounds like Montana is the place to find .22 ammo.

Paul

As Jim mentions, .22 ammo around the Boise area is scarce to non existent. Must be a bunch of ammo in people's closets or something.

Our area is better right now than it has been for quite a while. I could maybe get a brick or two a week if I wanted to but I am good on ammo so I pass unless it is something I need for this fall. I leave it for some body who may not have any. Last week I did buy 2 bricks of Rem. sub sonic hp. I have a couple CZ 452's and a 541-S that shoot this stuff great. I know no one cares for Rem. ammo but this stuff is as accurate as a lot of the better quality ammo I have. It is still price gouging at most gun shows I go to but if friends need 22 ammo I pick it up for them and sell it to them for what I pay for it. Hate to see friends not have any to shoot in their rifles if they want to. Federal auto match has been easy to get local from $19-21 for 325 box.

Paul 39,

I saw far more rimfire ammo, mostly .22 LR, in ONE store in Kentucky a month ago than I've seen all the local stores in Montana.

Of course, probably not many Kentucky shooters are "gopher hunters." Any sort of hollow-point LR ammo goes quickly here, especially from March through the summer, because a lot of people shoot a lot of it.

On a more general note, I always laugh when somebody claims this extended "shortage" has to be due to a conspiracy, because of its duration. And yet how many posters on this thread used to pick up a few 100-round boxes of .22 LR when they wanted to go shoot, instead of picking up the maximum number of bricks allowed every time they find any?

John, that was an exceptional supply, most stores in Kentucky are bereft of any rimfire ammo beyond the .17WSM, which is a victim of the B-Mag debacle.

Finding any rimfire ammo elsewhere in Kentucky (particularly if it's your favorite load) is worthy of taking the wife out to dinner in celebration.

Whittaker's has some competition in Kentucky, KYgunco.com is one of those, and those are the only two shops I've been in that had any "good" rimfire this year, to speak of. Some of the chain stores have gotten ammo in, (Cabela's, Dick's, Academy), but not in the quantity that Whittaker's had that Saturday we were there.

Whittaker's, while a wonderful place, simply isn't a good example of the typical Kentucky gunshop, it's exceptional, not typical.

Not me.

As noted previously, most of my adult life I've tended to have several thousand rounds of 22 ammo on hand. Just a habit I got into many years ago.

Mostly bulk plinking stuff like Dynapoints and bricks of Wildcats, especially when my son was younger, but also some "better quality" ammo.

Years ago I got in the habit of stocking up on Fed. bulk packs. Still have a fair stash, despite having given about a quarter of it away since the most recent craziness began.

We had an event at our club a few weeks ago and the person doing the 22 steel plate two gun gig, got to fussing about ammo - because he wasn't gonna give any of his up.

So I coughed up a partial and one full Walmart Fed. 550 pack. Got some back for the next time someone gets to fussin' about needing 22 ammo.

ratsmacker,

Yeah, I know Whittaker's has an exceptional supply of rimfire ammo. So does the local store here in Helena--but the supply of the store here equals one of the shelves at Whittaker's.

In fact I probably have as much as the store here, which is why I didn't buy any when I was in there the other day. And the only rimfire ammo I bought at Whittaker's was a brick of Remington Golden hollow-points, and that wasn't because I needed them. Instead, I keep hearing about how terrible Remington rimfire ammo it, so bought some to test in my rimfire rifles to see what's up.

I stopped at SW right after they opened this morning, and took one of the four cartons of Automatch they had out. Another guy grabbed the remaining three, but they would only let him buy one.

Seems fair to me.

Paul

Bought that 225 pack of Rem. Golden Bullet HPs at WM, primarily to give 'em a whirl and see if they are any better than before.

Can't remember the last time I shot any of that stuff, but it made my chit list decades ago.

It sez "new and improved" on the box. Gotta be better, right? ;O)

I bought a little over a case of the Rem. HP 525 packs a couple years ago.. I suppose, I have shot maybe 1500 to 2000 rds. of it at gophers, etc.. No miss fires, accuracy was good out of my CZ and 1022 medium heavy barrel.. I really never had any trouble with any of it, except one lot would not feed well in a Marlin 39a.. Thought it was the rifle, but everything else fed fine.. never figured that one out..