whats going on with 22lr

In central texas, we have good supplies of Winchester, Remington and CCI- quite loads and mini mags. Even some .22 magnum Kerrville still has very little in the way of rimfire. Local dealers expect hoarding to bury the ammo supplies again in July when the Democrat convention goes into perpetration.

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.22LR is more available now in my area than it has been in over 5 years.

If you're not seeing any, it might be due to inequities in the supply chain. Why? More than likely the continued climb in numbers of new shooters every year and the kneejerk reactions from distribution logistics people (for lack of a better way of putting it).

There was the point made a few years ago when .22LR seemingly disappeared that manufacturers were unwilling or unable (during the bigger ammo-buying frenzy) to invest in any expansion of their rimfire manufacturing capability... I think nothing has changed in this regard but we continue to see the ranks of new shooters and new gun owners grow. That we're seeing more .22LR now than we have recently because might be due to any ebb in the general tide of stockpiling.

.22lr is more readily available in person at gun/sporting goods stores where I am than online. The most desired .22 ammo seems to go very quickly online still. It hangs around stores better now.

But it's still a far cry from .59 for 50.

Google search shows Remington has a recall on certain Thunderbolts due to poor bullet crimp.

22LR is not obsolete, it's just that the market has changed drastically.

I can find .22 all day, of course it is at $4.99 for a box of 50, standard velocity CCI. I got a brick of Federal Copper Plated for $39.99 last week because it was the most cost effective purchase at that time. I still have a brick from years and years ago that still has the price sticker on it and it was $4.99. I have found it easier in person but of course the cost has risen tremendously over the past few years.

Thank those hoarders. You get people in stores that have a one bulk pack limit,and the hoarders will grab several boxes,and stash them in different parts of the store then come back and get them later. It has gotten a little better lately here in Wisconsin , I can find .22 about 30 to 40 % of the time.

Is 22lr becoming obsolete

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There was just a thread on this and it was met with a resounding "no"

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=800959

There's plenty of .22 ammo. The shortages are in the low-end bulk ammo. Go with even moderate-quality match rounds, and you can buy by the case.

BTW, go to a dedicated target shooting supply house like Champion's Choice to do this. Their prices are a lot lower.

ohihunter2014 said:

now that's ridiculous. I think they were $120 a bucket. no way I would pay that for 22 ammo.

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That's about 8.5 cents each. Cheapest I've seen it since Sandy Hook has been about 6 cents each. If you're not willing to pay that price, you're not going to shoot much .22 ammo.

How much are you willing to pay for centerfire ammo before it becomes "ridiculous"? Cheapest stuff you can find will be over twice as much as the .22 rimfire.

Winchester moved their ammunition production from East Alton Illinois to Oxford Mississippi.
Originally .22 rimfire was to be the main focus of this plant but the manufacturing has been fraught with problems and issues and Winchester/Olin simply cannot produce any real numbers to make them a contender on the market.

I've got quite a bit of .22lr. I just need to find a reasonably priced revolver.

It's possible that this .22lr shortage started with panic. But at this point it may be that we just have that many new shooters. Today's shortage might just be a matter of supply and demand, and not hoarders. If that's the case then the manufactures are missing an opportunity to expand production lines and future profits.

Meh, just my ponderings. They're worth what you paid for'em.

ohihunter2014 said:

I was in a local shop and seen a guy carrying golden bullet buckets. he and his buddy had 1 a piece.

He had it on the floor next to him with 2 bricks, and other ammo and I said hey bud where did you get that bucket at. I was trying to be sneaky about it cause I didn't want others to hear.

This guy turns and looks at me and screams at me saying get away from my bullets. I said whoooohhh relax pal I was just wondering where you got them at. he said me and him got the last 2 buckets! along with 2 bricks a piece.

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ohihunter2014 said:

the reason they are $120 a bucket is because guys like this will buy 2 buckets at $240-260 and could care less if it will cycle, shoot, accurate, etc. they just buy it like that to say they have it.

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If properly applied, your understanding of economics combined with your ability as a psychic should provide you with the income to afford all the .22 you desire. To be able to perceive that much information about some random guy carrying a bucket of bullets from your limited interaction with him is amazing!

It's showing up on shelves more frequently now but people are still packing it away because they learned their lesson from last time. There's people out there sitting on astronomical piles of it. Enough to stock a Cabelas store for a weekend.

imo golden bullets are the worst 22lr ammo available. the reason they are $120 a bucket is because guys like this will buy 2 buckets at $240-260 and could care less if it will cycle, shoot, accurate, etc. they just buy it like that to say they have it.

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I've seen those buckets for $90ish this spring. It's not even close to being the best ammo out there but if you're looking to plink cans and such it works fine. Especially if you aren't trying to cycle a semiauto. Not everyone is looking for precision accuracy from their 22's all the time.

ohihunter2014 said:

imo golden bullets are the worst 22lr ammo available.

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All the Golden Bullets I ever had were pure and utter junk. Crap. Terrible. In every gun, every time. I sold over 6k of them off at a profit during the height of the panic and won't touch the damn things again.

And no I don't care if Remington claims to have made them not-horrible since then, I won't buy them to hell with that, fool me once, shame on you...

Locally, .22LR seems to be fairly plentiful, if not exactly cheap. However, compared to shooting other common calibers like 9mm or .223, it's still a bargain. Online availability hasn't caught up to anywhere near what I see around town, so I can appreciate that folks in some areas might have the impression that .22LR is still nowhere to be found.

I have the same experience as Inazone. I can buy all the .22 I can afford, which isn't as much as I used to. It's on the shelf in respectable quantities, but prices are still significantly higher than what we were used to. Less than the recent panic buy, though.

Selection is better than a few months ago, too. Just six months ago, it was Blazer .22 or nothing. I've recently gotten some Federal and cheap(ish) Remington.

Throughout this whole .22LR "crisis" there has never been a time when I absolutely couldn't get .22LR ammo for a reasonable price, in retail stores.

I couldn't get all I wanted. Every store didn't have it. But, as I made my rounds I would look for .22LR and someplace always had it. Over the last year, it has been plentiful. I will say that it was usually just one or two brands, but if you wanted those brands, there has been plenty available. In my case, I have a more than adequate supply of bulk pack .22. I have been buying 4 bulk packs every payday for over a decade (I shoot a LOT of .22). However, for rifle shooting, my tastes are much more refined and bulk pack doesn't give me the accuracy I want: so I buy the higher end stuff and that never went away because most people won't spend that kind of money on .22 ammo. They favor price over quality. I still buy the bulk packed stuff for handgun shooting and plinking.

A few weeks ago, I was in a retail sporting goods store and they not only had plenty of .22LR of various kinds, but they also had no limit on how much you could buy for the first time in several years. But more surprising is that they had sealed CASES of .22LR sitting there on the shelf. I didn't want to spend the money that day on buying a case of ammo but yesterday, I returned to the same store and it looked like the display hadn't been touched. There was still just as much ammo there as there was weeks ago, so I went ahead and bought a case of it. I should point out that this was a case of 10, 325 round bulk packs. Historically a case of .22LR is 5000 rounds. Obviously this is a "case" of 3250 rounds. But it was 10 bulk packs in a sealed cardboard box, so I am calling it a case.

To a lot of people shooting centerfire is somehow better than shooting rimfire. That's not the case with me. I enjoy shooting a .22 just as much, if not more than anything else. So I am often more than willing to pay up for premium ammo because cutting my group size in half is worth it to me. This is all relative. The only reason premium .22LR ammo is considered expensive is because most people are willing to buy the cheap stuff and compare the two prices instead of comparing .22LR to the price of centerfire ammo. I have seen .22LR being sold for $80 a brick. Compared to centerfire ammo, that isn't a high price. Compared to Walmart bulk pack .22LR it is.

31.99 to 39.99.