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Assuming you have contacts/ insight inside the ammo mfg business, do you have any idea when they will get the rimfire ammo situation addressed? I hate to sound like a Oliver Stone conspiracy nut but this has been going on for 8-10 months and I still just don't see any rimfire ammo around. I would think it should be showing up since the hoarders should be running out of room to store the stuff and that the manufactures would have had time to ramp up production. I am beginning to wonder if there actually is some hold back by the manufacturers as I don't see actual 22 shooting volume increasing enough to create the shortage. if anything its the opposite as people are shooting 22 's sparingly not wanting to shoot up their cache of ammo. Any ideas?

The companies are cranking out rimfire ammo as quickly as they can, and have been for months. I was over in Lewiston, Idaho a month ago, where the CCI plant not only makes CCI rimfire stuff but Federal, Hornady and Remington .17 and .22 Magnum ammo as well. They were going all-out with 24/7 production. I've talked to other companies and they're doing the same thing.

The big problem is still the same as it's been for months now. Every time a store gets any rimfire ammo, people buy it all up before the day is over.

In 2008 the ammo and component shortages, caused by the same sort of Obama panic, started to ease the summer and fall after the election. But all the companies I've talked to say this panic is far worse than the last one. Evidently most serious shooters are trying to stock up a life supply of ammo.

No, there's no conspiracy to keep rimfire out of the hands of shooters. But as long as people are buying up all the rimfire ammo as soon (or before) it hits store shelves, your not gonna see much in stores.

Let me ask you this: What would you do if you found a stack of of bricks of .22 ammo at a store, with no limit on the number, how many you could buy?

If I found bricks avaliable at reasonable prices I might buy one or two mostly for family and friends but no I would not buy 10-20. As it is I still have probably 5-6 bricks from over the years and with work I don't get to shoot that much right now. Plus my idea of a nice day shooting is to take a hike in the national forest with my little kit gun and maybe stop along the way and shoot a couple of cylindars full at walnuts or hickory nuts lined up on a log.
It's sort of funny most of my stash came from xmas gifts as sometimes I would get 5-6 bricks a year. Like I say I just accumulated several and it has proven handy as I have been able to share with my family and the kid across the street during this shortage. It kills them as I pulled out a brick of wildcats the other day that had a price tag of $8.99 on it but again my stash was built up over the past 20 years. I use to kid that one night I'd be the guy on the news story of a alleged terrorist cell raided and 5,000 round of ammo was found. Finally like you I have expected the hoarders to finally run out of room to store the damn things and have been expecting store levels to begin increasing but that is just not happening so I was begining to wonder if the companies had allocated capacity to other products or something.

I doubt CCI is allocating production capacity to anything else, as they're probably the biggest rimfire manufacturer in the U.S. and are making a pile of money right now.

I'm at the lowest level of rimfire in two years I only have 8 bricks enough to hold me until this is over. Then I'll stock up again. Probably an additional 20 bricks this isn't happening again. I will do as I do with my other caliber I will replace what I shoot.

There ya go...

I know this topic has been beaten to death... conspiracy, hoarding etc but I find it interesting that according to a friend of mine in Canada (Ontario) there is no rimfire shortage there. Canadian tire has lots in stock and prices are stable and this is US manufactued ammo (Federal).

Can anyone comment as to this being true across Canada?

I don't believe the problem in the us was lack of supply but rather increased demand causing people to buy every box as soon as it hit the shelvesdue to hoarding over Pending gun legislation and Obama in office neither of which Canada has so I would be surprised if they were having as increased demand as we are

You nailed it.

Then there's a secondary factor that may also be relevant: Canada has fewer people than California.

Crapola rca, cut 17ackb some slack. I keep that much in my entryway of the back door of my house for casual shooting. Now the main stash is Boy Scout stuff like " Be prepared" before they got "gay". No such thing as too much ammo for shooters, but for scalpers yeah and that is the rub. Locally around where I live there is getting to be more rimfire all the time and the stores that handle it are limiting the quanity they will sell you so everyone can get some. They are even getting wise to the fact that the same rich retired turds waiting for it every morning after a truck comes in are not in their best interest and are not putting out the same quanities at the same time of the day for sale. I basically don't believe anyone should have the right to tell you how much ammo you can own. In these times though it's nice to see venders that are trying to see what they sell gets an equitable distribution. Magnum Man

The ammo is being made as fast as possible, people are just buying it up as fast as it is delvered. The local gunstore where I do business got in 1,700 bulk boxes (525 rounds) of Federal 22 LR about 2 weeks ago. They told me that was normally a years supply for them. They sold out in 6 days. That is close to 1 million rounds sold in 6 days from 1 small town gunshop.

This shortage of .22 rimfire ammo is about to become a problem for my Hunter Education Team. We have enough ammo on hand for just one more class. After that we'll be hoping our state game & fish office will have adfitional ammo to restock our supply cabinet.

I have been diligently attempting to purchase rimfire ammo but I haven't had any luck beating the hoarders or the scalpers in my area to the stock that arrives at the local retailers. It's frustrating for sure!

Prices should be coming down in the not too far future. At pretty much every gun show I've been to since January there have been guys with tables full of .22rf priced at $70 a brick. I've seen very few buying at that price. The time is gonna come that they're either going to have to sell that stuff or eat it. Lead and brass are pretty hard to chew not to mention what lead does to your system.

Same problem here. I've got enough ammo for one more class

Just an idea but have you talked to the owners or managers of the departments, not the sales clerk who will forget or don't care when you leave. Tell them what you want the ammo for, how often you have classes and how much ammo you need for a class. Some aren't going to care as long as they are selling. But others may be willing to help. For example the local Bass Pro Shop keeps back ammo for new gun purchases. Hard to sell a gun when they don't have ammo for that gun. It may work it may not but if you haven't give it a try.