out of the basements

9 years since i saw 22 at a walmart.
I finally sold all but two of the 22lr guns
If i cant reload for it.
I dont want it.
Six cents sounds fair to me.

6 is a fair price, agreed.

I am buying .22 at my local Walmart for .05-.06 a round...and that's for new ammo. I'm not paying that for stuff that's been sitting in someone's basement for a few years.

Billyzz said:

If i cant reload for it.
I dont want it.

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Agreed. I can reload 38spl with lead for about that same cost, certainly less than 8 cents. I can have more fun with them than 22LR.

All other things aside, I'm of the opinion that Remington are the worst brand of .22's. Far away more failure to fire than any other manufacturer.

I wouldn't disturb his "collection".

I agree with Jeff H. Unless it goes below what it costs me to make my 38 SPL ammo I will not be buying any .22 ammo. That price point is presently at 5.5 cents a round for me.

3-4 cents is what I was buying in bulk before the Sandy Hook .22 drought. That's about where it should return.

It seems every store has piles of .22 rimfire. The local Outfitter's Supply has .22 rimfire and AR-15 rifles that are not selling. Before the election everything was on backorder. The manager told me he would start taking offers on long guns very soon.

I went to Cabelas in Kansas City last month for the first time since April or May. Back in Spring it was common to see a few shelves full of the "premium" .22lr ammo but there was a limit on how many boxes. Rarely saw any bulk boxes and they didn't last long after hitting the shelves. Well last month they had the usual premium stuff but they also had a fairly large display of Winchester bulk packs out. 325 rounds for $17.99. There wasn't a limit from what I could tell. I saw 2 people pick up boxes and put them back down in the 15min I was browsing the racks of used rifles.

I think the demand and willingness to pay inflated prices has died down, at least around here. I quit looking for .22 ammo last year. .38spl costs me about 6 cents per round to load and .45acp 8 cents. I have about 1500 rounds of .22lr. I'm good on "squirrel" ammo for a long time until my kids are old enough to shoot a lot more. And I find .22 to be fun to plink with, but not more fun than light recoiling .38 or .45.

Have seen a fair amount of .22 ammo on dealer's shelves but haven't checked on prices as I have been pretty well set for a number of years.

As far as Remington .22 ammo goes; no thanks.

I paid no more than 10 cents per round at the height of the shortage for MiniMags, and no more than eight for anything else. Now, it's down a little lower. I'll pay 7 tops for AutoMatch, and about 9 tops for MiniMags. It's usually lower, though. I accept that these prices are now normal. For Remington, I'd stay below six cents per round. Honestly, I have maybe 2,000 rounds of it, but have never shot any of it. Some are T-bolts; the others are GBs.

splattergun said:

Now that some of the .22LR hoard is beginning to find it's way out of the basements and into the Craigslist-type ads, how much are you willing to spend on it? Example, Remington bucket, $.08 per round. I offered .06/rd, he said no, it's worth holding onto. A couple weeks ago I paid .06/rd for a 325 count box of Federal Auto Match at Walmart.
What says the gang?

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$0.06/round is right around retail for a Remington bucket of bullets. If you need .22 and can't find it, I'd go up to $0.07/round, but thats it. I imagine .22 will become increasingly available, assuming nothing odd happens with the presidential succession, nor another Sandy Hook style massacre (God forbid). I imagine that the people holding lots of .22 with the intent of reselling it are going to be out of luck. Others holding more .22 than they can feasibly shoot in their lifetime will end up having their hoard sold in an estate sale for pennies on the dollar.

I look forward to shopping garage sales and estate sales 10+ years from now and picking up boxes of old .22. Hope it still works.

I can see in my minds eye some old geezer sitting on furniture made of stacks of .22 while scraping out the last of his supper from a dog food can.

The entire hoarding debacle over .22 has pretty much soured any future interest I may have in it.

I just found a shelf full of Winchester 555 for .05 a round. Bought my three boxes and might check back in the morning. The last I've seen for that price or less was summer of 2015 in Texas.
Ammo back on the shelves, America's great again

you just have to watch for online deals.
i get automatch for 6 cents, delivered n cci sv for 8 cents.
not buying this next year tho, unless the prices drop further.
i picked up several cases this past year. now, i'm set for a year at least.

Nah, if you can't get it for 5-6 cents a round, let the neckbeard sit on it until he loses even more $$$.....

What says the gang?

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Just wait.

I'm seeing new run-of-the-mill ammunition in the stores for $0.06 per round so there's no reason to pay more for ammunition of uncertain provenance.

I suspect that as people find they need to start spending money on washing machines, shoes for the kids, car repairs and the like, they will cut back on buying ammunition so the supply will increase. At the same time, people who bought during the panic will realize they can't use what they bought and will need to liquidate some of it. Initially, they will, like your Craigslist guy, resist "losing money" on their "investment", but after a while with no takers, they will adjust their prices in order to find a buyer.

Personally, I had expected equilibrium to be reached at 6 cents a round for new ammunition, but I was wrong as locally it is already passing that point. I'm now guessing it may settle around 4.5 to 5 cents per round in the near future. Someone selling stuff out of their basement should expect less because nobody knows how it was stored or cared for, but since .22LR is pretty rugged and doesn't exactly have an expiration date, I wouldn't expect it to sell at a large discount.

For my money, it can stay in the basement along with the slugs who stood in line for hours every night at Walmart to buy it all up and scalp it.

At any price. I'm not buying basement 22LR of unknown duration and storage.

During the worst of it I've never been willing to pay more than $0.06 per round for basic .22lr ammo (before sales tax and/or shipping).

As I've said in most every thread about this, based on the "good old days" pre Sandy Hook panic, bulk pack .22lr cost per round ran about 1/4 the price per round of the cheapest 9mm ammo. I'm seeing Wolf/Tula at $0.16-0.17 per round so it "should" settle at about $0.04 per round. Could go a bit lower if demand drops because folks quit buying "one to shoot and one to stash".

Of course all ammo (and everything) could go up when the inflation Obama has front loaded into the economy kicks in. Hopefully Trump's policies can make this happen over a reasonably long time scale so its not a total shock, but I see it as inevitable given our $20T debt.

At any price. I'm not buying basement 22LR of unknown duration and storage

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This is generally good advice for all ammo other than sealed milsurp cans.

Tirod said:

I can see in my minds eye some old geezer sitting on furniture made of stacks of .22 while scraping out the last of his supper from a dog food can.

The entire hoarding debacle over .22 has pretty much soured any future interest I may have in it.

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LOL good post. I shot airguns during the hoarding disaster. have 2 FWB 300s one with a scope the other match sites. and at 40 yds shoot into tiny groups with the scope and the match sites. I cant outshoot the irons with the scope and I get cheap practice for both

I am still reloading and shooting powders ,primers ,and bullets from two presidents ago.
No more 22lrs for me.
Those hoarders can choke on it

Just to put things in perspective, it isn't better everywhere yet. I still have a hard time finding .22lr on store shelves here, and the best price I have seen yet was 7.5 cents per round. Of course, that is on a store shelf, not online.