I’m Scared (.22 Price)

I have plenty, realistically. Think I’m sitting on about 8k rounds? And my average range outing is about 100 shots. Once a month if I’m lucky. But, there’s nothing like the mental pressure of an implied great restriction to make us all want to stock up, so we can enjoy the same carefree shooting lifestyle we did in some long ago time when 22 was cheap and never, ever unavailable.

Not me I got plenty. I shoot about 200 rounds per year. It's just for fun & sometimes squirrel hunting.

Jeff olson said:

.22 is still relatively cheap here in ND at about .10 a rnd. However, .22 mag has gone through the roof.

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There is no 22 LR, 22 WRM, or 17 HMR in any of the stores around here. The LGS has had a few boxes of 22 short on the shelf for a few weeks now just sitting there and I saw some of the same in another. The local farm and ranch supply had a few boxes of 22 WMR shot shelsl that had set there for weeks and nohting else in stock. I walked by the ammo shelf late last week and someone had bought the shot shells and there was not one round of any caliber of ammo on the shelves. This area isn't know for joining in panics but has lots of shooters. I think everyone is just buying what they can find to insure they can continue shooting.

Poper said:

Not funny. If Slow Joe has his way, not only will he come and get the AR's, he will reinstate the regulations the Trump Administration rolled back that allowed America to be energy independent again. No telling what that will do to the price of fuels.

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Fuel prices WILL go up. Don’t need a crystal ball to see that.

I learned my lesson long ago before the Obama/Biden scare and resulting shortage. I'll never be able to shoot what I have squirreled away. Some people can't see the forest through the trees and got caught with their pants down.

DustyGMT: I'm sure that some of the "literati" in the Biden Gang would like to ban online ammo sales.

But if this talk is echoed much by our retail gun shops (I have no idea), the true motive for mo$t of this repeated talk will be Cry$tal Clear.

shootbrownelk: A few of us might have gone overboard when storing ammo, when All of our centerfire rifles are in 7.62x39. Your likely logical conclusion or deduction is correct.
And this ammo was saved mostly for retirement, also being well-aware of the result of giving kids too many "anti-depressants" (let's be frank) and the typical tragic results.

I haven't shot the cheaapest .22 LR ammo through my rimfires in a very long time. The cheapies have an overabundance of duds and shoot awful groups.
I discovered Aguila almost 15 years ago for very little more money than the cheapies (Rem. Golden Bullet, Win. Wildcat, etc.). And I began to compete in Smallbore Metallic Silhouette. Plinking ammo is Aguila; SMS practice ammo is SK Rifle Match and Competition ammo is Lapua Midas. Why? Well, Aguila always goes bang - I have yet to have a dud; SK Rifle Match shoots dime sized 10 round groups at 50 yards; Lapua Midas shoots a bit better than SKRM to the same point of impact. In 2018 I bought 3 bricks of Lapua Midas, a case of Aguila Rifle match and a case of SK Rifle Match. All of that ammo in addition to the miscelaneous 12 partial bricks of other ammos that were used for accuracy testing, and I believe I have enough to see me through the current Panic Drought.

AK Hunter said:

Not me I got plenty. I shoot about 200 rounds per year. It's just for fun & sometimes squirrel hunting.
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If that is all I had I would be in total panic . Shooting a brick every range trip is nothing between semi-auto pistols and rifles. And I usually pull out a couple of pistols and revolvers and a few rifles. Those four bricks would barely make four trips to the range for me. I start getting nervous when my .22 supply gets under 100,000 rounds. I try to buy mostly good ammo, CCI MiniMags, Velociters and Standard Velocity but I have some decent bulk stuff too.

Thing is, no amount of ammo is good forever. I did not get caught last time but when the last drought was over I resupplied for this drought. What scares me is this drought might be the FOREVER drought. Freedom is under attack and all people care about is fooseball games and panDEMics.

I just became a gun owner last summer. I stocked up over the summer and fall so I’ll be good for a while. Even since then, in just 6 months, prices have skyrocketed.

Just watching ammoseek over the past couple weeks I’ve seen .22 go from the low of .08-.12 up to a low of .25-.30 snd in some cases higher.

I think some local shops still have it reasonably priced, but most of the bigger stores near me are always out.

Sometimes you can catch ammo on CCI website snd buy direct from them. I recently picked up a lot of stingers for .18 a round which wasn’t too bad.

Midway USA will get some shipments in now and then and price it normally. It’s usually gone within a few hours though, have to be fast.

If I had gotten into the gun world years ago I would have stocked up more and had more time. 2020 was a real eye opener for me though.

This time is different: We are seeing a fundamental shift to the left in terms of national political control. The 2d Am. is squarely in their crosshairs. The Heller case out of the Supreme Court a few years ago confirmed the 2d Am applied to private ownership of firearms. It was a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Scalia, now deceased. It was that close - then.

Now, the left speaks of packing the court. If that happens, Heller will be overturned, and that is the goal of the left. The 2d Am will be gutted from the inside out.

This is a common understanding. I predict absolutely no end to this shortage. I actually predict much worse...

3Crows said:

If that is all I had I would be in total panic . Shooting a brick every range trip is nothing between semi-auto pistols and rifles. And I usually pull out a couple of pistols and revolvers and a few rifles. Those four bricks would barely make four trips to the range for me. I start getting nervous when my .22 supply gets under 100,000 rounds. I try to buy mostly good ammo, CCI MiniMags, Velociters and Standard Velocity but I have some decent bulk stuff too.

Thing is, no amount of ammo is good forever. I did not get caught last time but when the last drought was over I resupplied for this drought. What scares me is this drought might be the FOREVER drought. Freedom is under attack and all people care about is fooseball games and panDEMics.

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I didn't mean that's all I shoot, I reload & have stocked up on my reloading supplys. In fact the one caliber I don't reload I stocked up on quite a few years ago at lower cost that you can buy .22lr for today. I bought this stack of 5.45x39 for about 9 cents per round when a local place was going out of business.
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This is just one of the many calibers I have to play with. My kids will probably be shooting the ammo long after I'm gone.

One of my LGS that has a range that I frequent has been way on the highside for .22LR. $60 for 250rds of Aguila Super Extra, $20 for a 50rd box of Wolf, $30 for 100 rds of CCI Select. I don't pay any .22LR from them. Another smaller shop has it for regular pricing when he does have it. Got excited because he had a Bucket O Bullets for $85. He had for awhile 250 rd boxes of Aguila for $16, id buy a box a week.

I have a decent stash of probably 15k rounds of various .22, but it's what I mainly shoot. 200-300 rds a session once a week for the past few months. Id rather buy and replace and leave my stash alone til needed

Mars5l said:

One of my LGS that has a range that I frequent has been way on the highside for .22LR. $60 for 250rds of Aguila Super Extra, $20 for a 50rd box of Wolf, $30 for 100 rds of CCI Select. I don't pay any .22LR from them. Another smaller shop has it for regular pricing when he does have it. Got excited because he had a Bucket O Bullets for $85. He had for awhile 250 rd boxes of Aguila for $16, id buy a box a week.

I have a decent stash of probably 15k rounds of various .22, but it's what I mainly shoot. 200-300 rds a session once a week for the past few months. Id rather buy and replace and leave my stash alone til needed

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Yeah, I'm starting to get concerned because one of my LGS that has "always" been very consistent in price with small fluctuations for the last 6-7 years and even through 2020, blew my hat off today. Saw a shipment of 9mm posted on his FB and was expecting the normal rate, wound up being $35 per box of 50 9mm. That is the first time I've seen anything like that in there. Granted I'm sure he had to pay a crazy price and don't hold it against him. He's gotta have ammo to sell guns and keep the lights on, I think this must be the first time he got really beat up on the price because I always got good deals from him on guns and ammo. He didn't sound happy to say the price out loud but I bought two boxes anyway because I know my FIL will buy them. Some troll on his page commented that they were $12, that's why I raced up there and it was actually believable because I've recently picked up 50rd boxes for $15 in the area.

I haven't gotten beat up too bad on recent purchases. Earlier this week $24 for 500rd brick of rem .22lr and like @Mars5l said, I have been picking up the Aguila .22lr 250rd packs for $16. I'm told it's good stuff, I haven't shot any yet because I'm waiting til I clean my .22's and testing accuracy with it.

Years ago when .22 LR was around $10 per 500, my father said to me- "Son, for $10 a carton, why would you NOT buy it every time you went to the Walmart???" He was right and I still have plenty.

35W

35 Whelen said:

Years ago when .22 LR was around $10 per 500, my father said to me- "Son, for $10 a carton, why would you NOT buy it every time you went to the Walmart???" He was right and I still have plenty.

35W

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Wise man. I think some of us really missed an opportunity. (Insert $$$ amount here) would have been a very wise, low risk investment. Worst case scenario of investing $10,000 last year would have been to break even, best case would have been around $20,000-$30,000 profit. I'm thinking taking what I've learned about ammo in years past, I feel like kind of a dunce for not investing further than my own shooting/personal needs. Ammo is better than gold.

In before this gets locked

MosinT53Hunter said:

That's a pretty penny for Wolf 22. lr. $525 for 1500 rounds.

Last week my local Bi-Mart and 800 round packs of Federal 22. lr for $25 a pack. Glad I bought mine when I did. Whew!!

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Some wolf is considered 2nd only to Eley and is truthfully match grade ammo. I haven’t looked and I’m not going to, but I certainly hope that ammo is what you saw.

doubleh said:

Eventually the demand will decrease as people refuse to pay those prices and the supply will increase and the price will drop. It's the law of supply and demand. I don't have a clue about the timeline for this to come about. I have lived long enough to find that a large percent of the population has chicken little syndrome and rational thought is completely beyond them.

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I think Jesus will return before that happens! Then it won't matter anyway!

Poper said:

I discovered Aguila almost 15 years ago for very little more money than the cheapies

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I found aguila during the Obama scare. Before that it was CCI and bulk fodder. I dare say that 1/2 or more of my stash is Aguila. The thing I haven’t found at all recently is 22 mag. I don’t shoot much and just want a couple boxes for the single six.

There’s a Mexican company that I always have to look up that made a lot of 22 back in the day. Seems like it’s an acronym. (Looked it up, it’s MPB) High quality stuff from my experience. It’s getting old now, but if you can find Quikshok ammo in the red box, it’s been 100% good to go. It’s not well known so the price isnt as bad. I still have a brick and change of the red box quickshoks.

BigBL87 said:

I'm finding it hard to predict how THIS shortage is going to go. I don't expect it to get back to normal for over a year, but hope I'm wrong.

The odd dynamic with this time around is that there are two significant causes: lots of new gun owners buying ammo AND "established" gun owners stocking up due to the political and social climate. The first of those really hasn't been a variable the last couple shortages so its hard to gauge how it'll affect it.

I'm nowhere near as stocked as I'd LIKE to be, but with how rarely I get out to the range what I have should last me awhile in my most used calibers. I'm woefully thin in 243, 308, and 38/357. I don't shoot those very often which is why I didn't have much but now I really CAN'T shoot them which is a bummer.

One big worry for me is the idea of banning online ammo sales that has been floated by some in the incoming Biden administration. I don't have great sources locally (Rural King is my best option) so I'd say 80% of my ammo purchases are done online.

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One more thought is George Soros buying out companies producing ammo and weapons. He will shut it all down if he can..

Reloading components have gone wild in price as well. Primers are truly off the charts ($200+ for 500 SPP, really?), powder has dried up, and now even basic rifle bullets are gone.

I'm not personally interested in .22LR prices, for myself at least. I don't really shoot .22 LR very much and I have at least five thousand rounds. It will probably pass to my heirs after I die. But as others have said I feel bad for those that were unable to stock up when prices were good, or that came of age during the FUD.

Back in the late 1980s when I was a teen we used to buy the milk carton of Remington lr with 500 rounds for $5.00 and go shooting all day. Its a shame that in todays political environment kids doing what we used to will likely be answering an officers questions because some idiot sees them with a gun and gets scared.

doubleh said:

Eventually the demand will decrease as people refuse to pay those prices and the supply will increase and the price will drop. It's the law of supply and demand. I don't have a clue about the timeline for this to come about. I have lived long enough to find that a large percent of the population has chicken little syndrome and rational thought is completely beyond them.

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What he said..

but I feel extremely sad the young men coming up will never be able to experience the joy of plinking away the afternoon for pocket change.

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Never?? Pretty big word there, 'never'....OBTW-just bought a 333 pack of 22lr at WW for $20.....3 days ago.