Finally broke down today and purchased some .22 LR.

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exbrit49

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Haven’t purchased any .22LR since the shortages after Sandy Hook. It was difficult to find and rarely saw any on the shelves in the LGS or Walmart, the hoarders were hogging it all up. Plus the prices were stupid

I was kept well supplied with reloading components by my LGS and was able to shoot all my other calibers during the scarce period. In fact I was shooting 9mm for less than many people were shooting .22s. In reality my 9mm became my plinking guns.

Today I was out on the motorcycle and happened to stop in at Big R store in Warsaw, Indiana. I was stunned to find that they had many brands of 22 in stock at very reasonable prices. They had a two box limit on the Remington 525 packs and 2 boxes on the standard 50 round boxes.

Grabbed a 525 box of the Remington’s, Didn’t need too many as I had kept my inventory pretty much intact., (In fact I only shot my 22s a couple times when taking a couple of potential new shooters to the range).

Anyway, very pleased to report there is plenty of 22 around Norther Indiana now and I will be heading to the range Monday and shoot all my 22 rifles and pistols.
Looks like I will start plinking with the 22s again. It will make a nice break from the centerfires.

Should be fun

I’m smiling at the hoarders who are now left holding a bunch of overpriced ammo.

Keep em in the Black!
 
Here the local WM has started getting loads of .22LR. More like they are finally getting in all that they ordered over the last eight years or so. Prices are down and the shelves are full. Still only the containers per person/purchase though.
 
I'm happy for you. One more place where things are returning to "normal". It still hasn't returned around here. I have been able to pick up a few boxes here and there while traveling. Enjoy your .22s.
 
I saw my first bulk .22 in 8 years the other day. Remington Golden Bullet. Other than that it's been only rare 50 packs or weird things like Colibri or snake shot.

They said that they didn't have a limit, there were 8-10 boxes but I bought just 2. Maybe I should've cleaned it out but I hope whoever got the rest was also in a drought. I might be more greedy for Federal.
 
Still hit & miss in my area of TN. The more expensive big box stores like Bass Pro or Cablea's tend to have it in stock. Academy was probably the least expensive overall. I check Walmart on occasion because that is where I purchased the majority of my promotional grade 22LR prior to Sandy Hook and the shortage in general. I experienced prior shortages and I was not caught without this time with my preferred plinking and non-competitive target shooting 22 ammo. But the shortage still affected my willingness to burn up the ammo even when I had lots.
 
I bought the 2x50 limit at Gander Mountain this week, the last two Blazers.
Good stock of more expensive "target" .22 LR.
I bought a bulk 325 of AutoComp at Dicks, plenty on hand.
Likewise more "target" less plinking grade.
 
Yep. I passed over a pile of bricks of .22 today when I hit the gun store. Federal AutoMatch, CCI, and some other stuff can't remember was readily available, and is most of the times I go in there. The AutoMatch runs very well in what I've tried it in, but I have a lot already on hand. Perhaps I'm a hoarder, but I really didn't overpay for more than maybe a box or two of what I have on hand.
 
The local stores even out here in BFE have it on the shelf now, with the notable exception of Walmart - the clerk said they removed the tag and computer shifted the space to ammo they actually could get while it was scarce. Maybe they'll try again now. As it was, I got some of the Remington Golden Bullet stuff for my son's STG44; we'll see how it runs.
 
Gun shops out here have plenty of .22, but it's still $40-50 for a brick of cheap stuff.
 
Haven't been looking for .22s as I was pretty well stocked long before the shortage began and really haven't had the time to make it to the range all that often. But like some others here I did have a tendency to shoot cheap 9mm. ammo that was readily available rather than burn through .22s that weren't.

I'm off tomorrow so maybe I will make the rounds of the big box stores just to see what's out there and what the prices are now.
 
When the 22 ammo shortage hit, I was sitting on approximately 30,000 rounds of 22 ammo. Now you may think that that is a lot of 22 ammo for one person,but I own over 60 different 22 firearms.
I saw many people selling off their ammo stash for big money,but I refused to play that game. When 550 bulk packs of Federal were selling for $100, I sold them to friends for $30.
I never saw myself as an ammo hoarder, I just picked up 22 ammo every week for years because I love to shoot. I even gave 2,000 rounds of ammo to a local Boy Scout troop.
Now that 22 ammo is back in stock around here, I am back to my old habits of picking up ammo.
About two weeks ago I picked up a few more rounds. IMG_0016.JPG
 
Plenty of .22 around here. Going for around $25-$30 a brick of 500. Good to see the drought is over, but not holding my breath for the prices ever to return to what they were.
 
A local store had a sale going on yesterday. Bricks of 500 for $30. That's .06 a round. Not bad. It's getting easier and easier to find in my area. I haven't shot much of it recently, and I'm starting to miss it!
 
A local store had a sale going on yesterday. Bricks of 500 for $30. That's .06 a round. Not bad. It's getting easier and easier to find in my area. I haven't shot much of it recently, and I'm starting to miss it!


What's a good price for .22 plinker ammo?
 
When the 22 ammo shortage hit, I was sitting on approximately 30,000 rounds of 22 ammo. Now you may think that that is a lot of 22 ammo for one person,but I own over 60 different 22 firearms.
I saw many people selling off their ammo stash for big money,but I refused to play that game. When 550 bulk packs of Federal were selling for $100, I sold them to friends for $30.
I never saw myself as an ammo hoarder, I just picked up 22 ammo every week for years because I love to shoot. I even gave 2,000 rounds of ammo to a local Boy Scout troop.
Now that 22 ammo is back in stock around here, I am back to my old habits of picking up ammo.
About two weeks ago I picked up a few more rounds.View attachment 233389
you ever have issues with the automatch either 1) one box being super accurate and the other not. 2) some rounds sounding like there isn't enough powder? I purchased 4 packs of those a year ago for my savage mk2 and the first box was a tack driver and the 2nd box about every 10th round sounded like it was a CB and all over the paper.
 
What's a good price for .22 plinker ammo?
My "rule of thumb" has pretty much always been bulk pack .22lr ammo is priced right when it is about 1/4th the price per round of the cheapest 9mm FMJ. Back in the good old days circa 2005 9mm aluminum Blazer was $3.86/50 (~8 cents per round) and 500 round bricks of the "cheap" .22lr was about $10. So today with the cheapest 9mm ammo running about $160/1000 I figure about 5 cents a round is my "buy" price, when supply finally catches up with demand, I expect it to settle around 4 cents per round in the absence of other panics inducing factors. Although it will take a while, as folks who've been paying ~8-10 cents per round will likely start shooting more since is becoming a "bargain", and people who refused to pay more for .22lr than they could reload 9mm for (like me) start shooting .22lr again. I'll enjoy watching the hoarders who sit on it instead of shooting it see their "investments" deteriorate, same as I will for the people who've speculated in ARs and AKs expecting big profits from sales after Hillary won.

By dumb luck I had about 70000 rounds of .22lr on hand at Sandy Hook (received an order of ~25K, ~$225 per 5500 rounds about week before). We pretty much went from shooting 2-3K rounds per month to maybe 500 -- mostly I stopped shooting it and reserved the supply for my wife as my 9mm reloads were cheaper than the panic .22lr prices. Lately I've bought a few thousand rounds when I've found them under 6 cents per round so I can feel comfortable shooting .22lr again, without worrying about not having ammo for my wife to shoot. I have enjoyed shooting .22lr again, although we may never get back to our 2+K rounds per month ways. The best factor for me is that mostly the quantity limits are gone, as its never going to be worth a trip to the store for a measly box or two.
 
you ever have issues with the automatch either 1) one box being super accurate and the other not. 2) some rounds sounding like there isn't enough powder? I purchased 4 packs of those a year ago for my savage mk2 and the first box was a tack driver and the 2nd box about every 10th round sounded like it was a CB and all over the paper.
It's really not a match great ammo. Just made to function good in similar autos. I've had good luck with it.
The only 22 ammo that I have had trouble with is Remington's golden bullet. I avoid it no matter how good the price.
 
...By dumb luck I had about 70000 rounds of .22lr on hand at Sandy Hook (received an order of ~25K, ~$225 per 5500 rounds about week before). We pretty much went from shooting 2-3K rounds per month to maybe 500 -- mostly I stopped shooting it and reserved the supply for my wife as my 9mm reloads were cheaper than the panic .22lr prices. Lately I've bought a few thousand rounds when I've found them under 6 cents per round so I can feel comfortable shooting .22lr again, without worrying about not having ammo for my wife to shoot. I have enjoyed shooting .22lr again, although we may never get back to our 2+K rounds per month ways. The best factor for me is that mostly the quantity limits are gone, as its never going to be worth a trip to the store for a measly box or two.

So you used up about 25K rounds during the shortage. I think 5 cents a round is pretty good pricing for the plinking stuff these days. Since I had a pretty good stash, I made no special trips to the store during the shortage to buy 22 ammo as a couple boxes doesn't fill my tank unless they are bulk packs. But I don't care much for bulk packs.

I simply got out of the habit of shooting 22's during this period and I doubt I will return to my old ways. I still view shooting 500 rounds in a single day to be a lot of shooting unless you are shooting with others.
 
Haven’t purchased any .22LR since the shortages after Sandy Hook. It was difficult to find and rarely saw any on the shelves in the LGS or Walmart, the hoarders were hogging it all up. Plus the prices were stupid

I was kept well supplied with reloading components by my LGS and was able to shoot all my other calibers during the scarce period. In fact I was shooting 9mm for less than many people were shooting .22s. In reality my 9mm became my plinking guns.

Today I was out on the motorcycle and happened to stop in at Big R store in Warsaw, Indiana. I was stunned to find that they had many brands of 22 in stock at very reasonable prices. They had a two box limit on the Remington 525 packs and 2 boxes on the standard 50 round boxes.

Grabbed a 525 box of the Remington’s, Didn’t need too many as I had kept my inventory pretty much intact., (In fact I only shot my 22s a couple times when taking a couple of potential new shooters to the range).

Anyway, very pleased to report there is plenty of 22 around Norther Indiana now and I will be heading to the range Monday and shoot all my 22 rifles and pistols.
Looks like I will start plinking with the 22s again. It will make a nice break from the centerfires.

Should be fun

I’m smiling at the hoarders who are now left holding a bunch of overpriced ammo.

Keep em in the Black!

Around here the shelves are full. It's nice they held that psychological stimulus of two box limit otherwise they would sell less.
 
If anybody is hard up for .22's, sign up at PSA. They've been running specials of $19.99/325 for Federal Auto Match Free shipping on 4 or more boxes, no limit
 
I had quite a stash just before the scarcity hit, however even afterwards, I managed to buy some much older Federal Bulk pack for right at $10.00 a brick of 550 (10 bricks) from a widowed older lady that came into the store, trying to sell her deceased husbands firearms (note took the firearms in on consignment) and we could not take the ammo in due to regulations. So shortly after I left the store, I asked her how much she wanted for the ammo and she stated $50.00 for all of it, so I noted there was 10 boxes of ammo with a Walmart sticker price on several of the boxes, at $9.95, so I gave her a crisp $100.00 bill. So far the entire cache has shot really well so we both went away happy. Note at the time a box of Winchester 100rnds was selling at the store for $14.95.
 
My local Wal-Mart has taken the price stickers for .22 rimfire off their ammo shelves. The girl behind the sporting goods counter says they hardly ever get any, so there's no point in saving shelf space. Oddly, the Gander Mountain right next door seems to have plenty of rimfire ammo.
 
I've managed to stock up on mid-priced ammo through the internet. I'm really digging the Norma stuff for suppressor use. Also picked up some Federal Automatch from Cabela's but prefer Remington GB's. Still waiting to see bulk ammo at Walmart. Maybe I don't check enough, because I hate Walmart but I haven't seen any .22LR at our local stores in years. Checked yesterday and not a drop.
 
Oddly, the Gander Mountain right next door seems to have plenty of rimfire ammo.
Not really odd at all.

Walmart and Sams set a price they'll pay for all items, if a vendor won't sell it at that price, they don't buy it. With the law of Supply and Demand in play, the vendors just sell it to the retailers who will pay the price they are asking.

By keeping the prices a bit higher, the manufacturers/distributors can avoid the shortages they experienced when they couldn't meet demand
 
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