Home Forums Gear Free Classifieds 22 LR shortage

I've heard so much BS from gun shop clerks about the lack of available 22 LR shells I mostly want to puke. They usually don't know a damn thing about guns so they attempt to change the topic to politics.

Now, "I heard that ... blah blag blah" is no longer reason enough, and the military has little use, except for training, for 22 shells it has me baffled.

Any members out there have a reason beside Obama or Hillary
or other forms of s-head plots by the govt for the shortage?

I think I could bake a bundle just by tooling up for making quality 22 LR HP out of available stuff and selling at a decent price to cover the law suits and etc.

comments? No govt plot BS please. I've heard it all.

Wayne

flippers & hoarders

I too would like to know what the truth is. I cannot believe that demand has outpaced supply for three years running. Probably more likely a shortage contrived by the manufacturers to drive up the expected price. I bet they cut back production. But then, I don't know that to be true either. Just no motivation for them to increase production when they can sell all they produce at such inflated prices. Screw them, and the scalpers too...I won't play.
Jerry/AK

At the small shop where I occasionally help out we have noticed a great change in how people are buying. In the past a guy would come in pick up a couple of boxes for a weekend of plinking. Now that same guy is buying a brick or two and more when we have them available. We have never restricted quantities.
We are also seeing more and more people buying 22 rifles as a way to practice for game hunting. Many more women buying on their own.
Perhaps this combination is adding to the shortage of components and chemicals needed to keep production flowing.
Frank

When I call or e-mail those who are supposed to be aware of such events, all I get is "supply and demand, I guess."

Yet, I can buy all the 223 and 7.82 x 39 I want, so there is way more to this crap over 22 LR than the govt cares about.

Wayne

The rimfire manufacturers aren�t jacking up prices, though they have increased them a little due to high demand�which increases their costs for brass, powder, etc.�plus the overtime they have to pay to keep cranking it out.

This can be easily proven by the prices for ammo other than .22 Long Rifle. When .17 Mach 2, .17 HMR and .22 Magnum can be found on store shelves or the Internet, prices tend to be more-or-less normal. I�ve purchased around 3000 rounds of all three this year, never paying more than $8 a 50-round box for Mach 2, or $12 for .17 HMR or .22 Magnum. Just last week I bought three 50-round boxes of .22 Magnum (Winchester 40-grain hollow-points) for $10.67 apiece at the local Wal-Mart. If the rimfire makers were gouging us, it would only make sense for them to gouge us for the rest of it, not just .22 Long Rifles. But they aren�t.

Have also bought several bricks of non-target.22 Long Rifle off the Internet and, occasionally, at local stores, never paying more than $35 a brick. That may seem like a lot compared to the pre-panic prices, but it isn�t much compared to the prices re-sellers are charging�which compare to the .17�s and .22 Magnum.

Another piece of evidence is .223 ammo. It�s everywhere and often the prices are downright cheap. If there was a .gov or manufacturer conspiracy it would be a LOT more.

Another factor is new shooters who don�t �know� .22 Long Rifle should cost 1/10th of .17 HMR and .22 Magnum. They�ll willingly pay $100 a brick, because they never paid $10 or $20 a brick�or even heard of such a thing.

SOME stores and a lot of re-sellers are charging a lot for .22 rimfire, but it�s only because SOME people pay the price. It's not because the manufacturers have jacked up their price.

Panic buying started it. Now there are three basic kinds of people.

Those who buy every box they see because they couldn't the last couple years.

Those who buy every box they see to sell for profit.

Those who buy what need to shoot.


But all three types are buying. It's getting better. There is a lot unsold at gunshows and gunbroker. Tells me demand is starting to dry up.

This past winter even gun manufacturers told me they were having hard time buying enough .22 rimfire ammo to test-fire their new guns, and sometimes other kinds of ammo. But demand is now starting to drop for new firearms, which means that it should start dropping for ammo as well--and new shooters also tend to buy more .22 ammo, partly because old shooters keep saying a .22 handgun or rifle is the best way to learn to shoot.

I just bought a brick of Remington Thunderbolt - 10 boxes, 500 rounds, an old fashioned brick for $22.90.

Yes, the stupid hoarders are still out there, they were gone in a half hour and the store limited you to 1.

I won't play the game. Let the J. O.'s eat their ammo.

HM

22 manufactures are going to be hurting soon as the market will be so saturated their sales will be off so much they will be facing layoffs and plant shutdowns.
It's happening with some ar15 manufactures and ar parts suppliers.

Its cheap and makes preppers and dumb hicks feel invincible.......

It's a government conspiracy. They are melting down the 22 ammo to make implants which will be placed into every newborn baby in order to track them for the rest of their lives. Also to make brass baseball bats to beat noncompliant citizens into submission when .gov rounds everybody up for the Dept. of Homeland Security's internment camps.

I'm seeing some starting to come back in stock in some stores where none was available for several months previous.
It is still awfully spotty, but seems to be slowly improving.

Myron

22 is the cornerstone to all shooting we all have atleast a couple of them. There are alot of the new semi auto (tactical) looking things out on the market also all semi auto's not that it has much to do with it but there are more semi autos sold today then bolt actions of the past. Give jr a brick and it wont be long till it is gone. People only have to go without 1 time and they become hoarders it is human nature. remember the primer scare a few years ago? well we all stocked up on primers and powder well most of us did. same with 22 i have a small hoard of it not for resale but stuff you aquire over the years. I think it is just our nature to do such things We all have 1 thing in common the target shooter the hunter the mall ninja hoarders or preppers resale gougers well all use the mighty 22.

It it seems to be lasting longer on shelves in the central valley.

I think prairie_goat might be on to something , ha ha

I think that sums it up well. I've randomly gone to a store a couple of times when I am up that way and have found 22 LR each time. I asked one of the times about it and his reply was that they have always had the same amount of supply just can't keep it once it hits the shelves.

Since the Newtown school shooting the shooting community has gone into a Y2K type frenzy especially when it comes to .22 ammo. This has manifested itself in increased purchases of .22 rifles and therefor an increased demand for ammo. This combined with the hoarders and scalpers has led to the current situation. This will only improve when the hoarders and scalpers tire of their game. The days of the $10.00 brick have gone the way of the 5 cent cigar, though the new normal price of a brick needn't be $65.00+. The ammo manufacturers are producing round the clock and are not the ones responsible for high prices. Perhaps the best way is to shoot our pellet guns, centerfires and shotguns and boycott the scalpers.

One of the big expenses of this ammo challenge is shipping. When you bought at the LGS it was a non-issue. Freight on a few hundred rounds of ammo is a significant part of the final cost. Just think of how much shooters are spending on all this ammo selling via the internet.

That's what I heard too!