What's The Big Deal With .22LR?

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jrdolall said:
About the past 6 months. .223 was a dollar a round in March and now it's $.35. Virtually every ammo has gone down in price since earlier this year.

I expect .22LR to follow. Back to pre-stupid prices? Probably not but darned close.
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I was talking about before the panic. Obviously when people are being raped, being less raped seems great. In my opinion there is no way in hell the price of .22s are going down. If people are still lining up at 7am to buy it for twice what it was a year ago, why would they ever drop it? I wouldn't. I hope it does but I don't expect it to, and even if it does I can never enjoy it like I used to. I'll always be worried that something like this will happen again and I won't shoot that much of it.
 
If I went to my local WM for ten days straight just looking for ammo then I'd go broke just in fuel costs... nearly a thirty mile round trip.
 
WalMart is less then a 5 minute drive for me. I may have to start checking with them again, they got rimfire in the last two nights. I didn't bother to go check, didn't want to scrape ice and fight the slick roads.:banghead: Someone did though, they were sold out by 7:45AM both mornings.
 
There was no one at the local Wal Mart ammo counter this morning at 0720, besides a guy doing inventory books. He wasn't even unloading the ammo carts. I looked them over, and for some reason, they got a case of .50 BMG, loose pack cases of 7.62 NATO, more 7.62 NATO, 5.56 cases, a little hunting ammo, a bunch of flats of shotshells, and one (1) case of Federal 550 count bulk boxes.

$23.00/ea. Our Wal Mart rations ammo - one bulk box or three regular boxes per customer, so I got one box of .22lr and walked away happy. That's more than it used to be, true, but what isn't?
 
Sixgunner455, The wal-mart near me has a similar limit, but it is 3 boxes no matter what size they are, so if they are 550 rds boxes (3 per customer) or 100 CCI mini mags (3 per customer). Firday at 7:05am they put out 3 cases, thats 30 boxes of 325 rd Federal Auto-match (I got 3 of them as did 2 other customers whom were there) I did not stick around but heard they were gone before 8:00am. LM
 
They were all gone when I went back later. I don't go there every morning, or even very often in the morning, but I was up today and had nothing better to do, so I went and checked it out.

For some reason, all that .50 BMG is still sitting on the shelf. They don't even have a tag printed for it yet! :D
 
There is no shortage of 22lr. I know a website where you can buy whatever kind you want and however much of it you want.
 
Warp said:
It's affordable.

EVERYBODY (that shoots) has firearms chambered in it.

It's affordable.

It's great for youth and for new shooters.

It's affordable.

It's a great training and practice aid for even the most experienced shooters.

Did I mention that it's affordable?
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And recently, it has been touted and written up as the number 1 survival caliber out there. There must be more preppers out there than I thought.
 
Like others here, I was raised on .22 LR. We took a rifle and or pistol everywhere: fishing, fixing fence, checking windmills, riding for strays, picnics. Killed hundreds of tin cans, jack rabbits, ground squirrels, the occasional coyote. I have a dozen .22 rifles and about that many pistols. Oh yeah, I stockpiled .22 ammunition when it was available and cheap. Is my .17 HMR with a 3.5x10 Leupold better for varmints? Yeah. Is my AR better for some things? Sure. Is my Winchester Model 70 in .30-06 better for big game? Absolutely. Do I carry my PMR-30 about everywhere I go? Yes, I do. But for the fun factor and teaching grand kids, it's .22 LR all the way. So for me, that's the "Big Deal" with the .22.
 
Yes, with my 25+ 22lr firearms, they are definitely the best for accurate target practice and teaching the kids to to shoot without scaring them with the bigger calibers. From CZ rimfires to old S&W revolvers 22lr is my favorite caliber. Yes my 9mm's or 357's, 12ga's, plus hunting calibers are fun...nothing compares. Not to mention ammo is still cheap in Texas. :neener:
 
saenzrich said:
Yes, with my 25+ 22lr firearms, they are definitely the best for accurate target practice and teaching the kids to to shoot without scaring them with the bigger calibers. From CZ rimfires to old S&W revolvers 22lr is my favorite caliber. Yes my 9mm's or 357's, 12ga's, plus hunting calibers are fun...nothing compares. Not to mention ammo is still cheap in Texas. :neener:
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Yeah I miss Texas. I used to live near San Antonio.
 
Before the shortages I shot a lot of 22LR in hand guns for the simple reason that it extended my range sessions while cutting down on the bullet casting/lube sizing reloading chores .( I shoot hand guns only) With the 300 to 400 rounds a week of 22 now harder to find I fill in the range time with cap and ball. No shortages, well not as much, and a lot of fun. When 22 once again becomes plentiful I'll go back to it.
 
Golden Saber, lots of us have been around to remember the prior episodes when these kinds of high demand occurred. I remember the one Clinton caused. Something tells me you might have been a toddler back then.


Prices on ARs came back down. Prices on primers came back down. And .22 ammo will come back down, too.


Look, you don't like .22 rimfire firearms. That's OK. Sell yours and go buy something you really want. You don't need to justify it to us.

But stop being so obtuse about it. Your behavior in this thread is beginning to turn trollish.
 
BullfrogKen said:
Golden Saber, lots of us have been around to remember the prior episodes when these kinds of high demand occurred. I remember the one Clinton caused. Something tells me you might have been a toddler back then.


Prices on ARs came back down. Prices on primers came back down. And .22 ammo will come back down, too.


Look, you don't like .22 rimfire firearms. That's OK. Sell yours and go buy something you really want. You don't need to justify it to us.

But stop being so obtuse about it. Your behavior in this thread is beginning to turn trollish.
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How so? I'm just saying my honest opinions. I have strong opinions and people don't seem to like that, but I'm not trying to troll in any way. Like I said in another thread, I say it how it is.
 
Planning Ahead

October 2012, I received a case from my lgs. January 2013, I ordered another case and arrived September.
January 2014, I will order another case and if it arrives around August/September, that will be good.

I have been known to sell to other competitors in my discipline that can only afford a brick or 2 at a time. I sell at my cost. When we go indoor winter paper practice for 4 months, I expect some might ask if I have any extra and I will say yes. Most of our club members share when they can, which is real nice.

.22LR is still on shortage in our area. I check one of the Distributors, Zanders Sporting Goods, every once in a while, just to see if they have any stock. They can't even tell you when it is coming in from the factory. I have even e-mailed Aquila sales and there is no manufacturing schedule. So they can't tell you when shipping to their distributors. Sounds to me this will continue through 2014 with Aquila.
 
I'm the designated-by-default sponsor for weekend shooting trips for the coworkers in my office. Most of my collection is C&R and many in harder-to-get calibers (.30 Mauser, ugh).

I do keep half a dozen .22LR rifles/handguns, however, for when the need to shoot some paper or fruit arises at the office. I'd much rather spend a few bucks for 2000 rounds of .22LR for my coworkers and let them all have a great time than spend a mint to have the same fun with firearms from my personal collection.

Also, I'd much rather teach some newbies to clean a 10/22 or Marlin 60 than teach them how to put back together the Broomhandle Mauser they just disassembled.
 
My personal guess is that this will go on until the summer. A lot of people seem to be getting 10/22s for Christmas so people will probably keep trying to stock up on it for a while. Then people will get their tax return back and then hopefully after that they'll be out of money and patience.
 
I got in a brick of .22LR today from Cabela's. I have now received over 5,000 rounds of 22 in the past three weeks by purchasing online and waiting until it arrived. The brick I got today was $23.99 for 525 rounds so $.045 per round. Some of the rounds I have gotten recently have been as high as $.06 per round and there is no other round you can get for even close to that price. Now if you reload and are using components that you got for free (as so many reloaders seem to do) then that may not be true but there isn't another factory centerfire or rimfire ammo that is close.

If you are relying on Walmart or your LGS to keep you in 22 ammo then you are well screwed. I go to these guys all the time and haven't seen a single round of 22 in Walmart since last December.

If you want to get rid of your 22s then that's a personal decision and apparently no amount of input on THR is going to change your mind.
 
Amen. If you reload and shoot 38 start reloading.
 
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.22 will be available again. If for the simple expedient that the ammo makers see the empty shelves too. Empty shelves mean demand, demand means that they can up supply and still make a profit. And profit is what drives industry. There won't be a slug of 22 suddenly arriving overnight, that would ruin the market. But you can bet the bean counters are taking stock of the cost of additional square footage, equipment and manpower and looking at the long term payoff. 12 months of constant demand is not an overnight trend.

I say let the hoarders continue to hoard, they won't live forever. and their constant buying the shelves empty will result in increased supply. These cycles have happened before in almost every industry.

Now the real question is how much is the EPA and other govt regulations limiting the amount of expansion and increasing the cost and timetables of the industry...
 
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Finally found some

Been looking for a couple months at the local walmart with no luck till this past sunday. Was in the store to get some bird food for the feeders and wandered by the ammo case and low and behold there were about 10 boxes of 325 Federal. Found the clerk and bought 2 boxes. He was shocked I only bought 2. He said the same 4 or 5 people swoop in every morning and buy it out. Guess I should go to Walmart instead of work in the morning. Hopefully the hoarders get stuck with all they bought....
 
He said the same 4 or 5 people swoop in every morning and buy it out.
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This happens x how many percent of Walmarts in the USA? I have no idea, but I would guess quite a few. How many bricks are they buying at each store? I could see 15K bricks a day going this way perhaps......

But maybe, just maybe these guys are figuring out they will not get rich doing this.
 
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