Anyone else soured on .22lr?

Today, at the local Cabela's, they had Nosler Match Grade .22 ammo, 500 round brick, $85.99 each, one per person. Guy behind the counter said they had put out 30 bricks yesterday, 2 left today, somebodies got the cash, or idiocy.

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What is this? Can't even find Nosler Match Grade .22 on their web site.

Im turned off of 22. Havent found any in 2 years. And work too much and sit and wait around for it. I rebuilt 2 22's can cant even test fire them.

I reload almost all the centerfire that I shoot. But I doubt that any of them are cheaper than even 12 cent 22LR. I have picked up some 525 count Remington Golden bullets for about $28 at Gander Mt. in this last year and a few other decent purchases. Have enough now that I can stop looking. Or should stop looking anyway. It's the thrill of the hunt.

I reload 30/30 using my on cast bullets for $ .05 cents a round.

I can and do reload for 30 cal. carbine for 1/2 that.

Handgun rounds are even less.

Honestly I do not shoot that much of it and because of its poor availability on the ammo side I do not purchase new guns in that caliber.

I have a few plinkers and that is enough. Still keep about 1500+ 22lr rounds on hand at all times. It allows me to shoot it when I want to.

"Soured"? How so? In the last year I have managed to increase my stock from a couple hundred up to some 7,000+ rounds now. Not always my favorite brands/types, but plenty enough to keep me shooting. Prices are higher than I would prefer, but it IS out there. I have "Notify Me" on a few vendors, and occasionally it comes up, and I order it.
Locally, faggitabouttit! It's Unobtanium.
But I also switch off my .22 shooting with air guns - just as fun, much cheaper and more available ammo, and as accurate as the powder burners within their range limits. And that helps save my hoard of rimfire ammo.

Robbins290 said:

Im turned off of 22. Havent found any in 2 years. And work too much and sit and wait around for it. I rebuilt 2 22's can cant even test fire them.

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There is plenty available on gunbot.net. Order some and take those guns to the range.

JSH1 said:

There is plenty available on gunbot.net. Order some and take those guns to the range.

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Yes, at over $0.10 per round plus an average $15 shipping charge. I've been looking. I get as far as the shipping portion of the order then give up. No thanks. I might pick up a quality air rifle though.

Yes, it is usually about $0.10 per round + shipping, but it is available and still cheaper than any other factory ammo. The person I was replying to said he couldn't find any to test fire some guns. There is a bit difference between not being able to find ammo and not being willing to pay the going rate.

Air rifles are a lot of fun. I shoot mine more than any of my other guns.

I think I've got around 3500 rounds of .22LR at the moment. I do shoot it as I desire though its not a primary practice round for me (I shoot 9mm much more). I do shoot Steel Challenge matches with it every now and then.

I don't go out of my way to buy it (ie, no standing in lines or anything), but I live in a small town. When I go to Walmart - I ALWAYS check the ammo counter. 95% of the time there's no .22LR. Occasionally its there. When it is, I buy what I can. Often times its the little boxes of 50. Sometimes its larger bricks.

At the rate I find it I'm spending no more than $5-10 per month on .22 ammo, and I'm still managing to squirrel it away.

Jsh1, thanks for the tip. I orded a box of 500. Shipping was higher then i wanted to pay. But at least i got one box. It beats the gas money i would spend driving to different gun shops

I just don't see why everyone keeps saying 22 LR is unavailable! You can go to multiple online sites and buy 500 rounds delivered to your door for $.09 per round. Is that as cheap as it was 5 years ago? No! Is it sitting at Walmart and Bass Pro and just waiting for you to come buy it at your convenience? No! Even at $30 a brick and $15 shipping you are still at less than $.10 per round. If you happen to get lucky and find a brick at Walmart while you are there buying underwear or lettuce you will be able to buy it for $.06 per round but you will pay tax on that purchase. If you spend an afternoon driving to 25 different stores looking for it then you may find a box for $.07 per round but you will spend $20 in gas.
The fact is that it is readily available if you have a computer and a credit card. UPS will drop it at your house in a couple of days. No driving around and no sales tax added. I have been able to keep up with our shooting and still keep a years supply on hand and I haven't bought a brick locally in well over two years. I have picked ups some powderless locally but two boxes of that will last me a year.
I cannot reload any caliber for less than $.10 per round. I know people that cast bullets, have brass from 100 years ago, bought primers and powder when they were readily available and cheap can load 38 spl for less than that but most of us can't. I think my 38 costs me around $.15 to reload and 9mm is about the same.

Definitely not soured here. Have even purchased four firearms for 22 LR in the past year plus a couple suppressors. While availability in the local outlets may be somewhat irregular, I typically purchase bulk online, usually from a source barely a hundred miles distant as the crow flies making shipping costs very reasonable. Not available? Not true. I've been shooting more 22 LR than ever!

I've shot a lot of large and loud rounds. I thank Uncle Sam for most of it. But by far one of my favorite is the .22LR. That said my wife does not. She says "it doesn't sound real".
Oh well what can I do? Oddly enough he favorite in her M1 Carbine. Don't give up on the .22.

Havent found any in 2 years

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I won't go out of my way to find more

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I typically purchase bulk online

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The fact is that it is readily available if you have a computer and a credit card

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I get my mail just about every day, and I have yet to find any .22 in the box.
Then again I have not ordered any.

My point is that those that are serious and put maybe just a tiny bit of effort into it are all stocked up. Those that check the Fred and Flossie mini-mart when they gas up keep finding nothing.

Not at all! As much as I love big bores and blackpowder, I will once again relish in the unabated guilty pleasure of playing with my first love.....the .22LR!

My point is that those that are serious and put maybe just a tiny bit of effort into it are all stocked up.

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I guess I'm lazy and not serious. I haven't seen a sanely priced box of .22LR in a year and a half. Before the shortage, I was buying it by the case and going through 2000-3000rds a month. If refusing to pay speculator prices makes me less serious, then I guess I'm not serious.

I reload 30/30 using my on cast bullets for $ .05 cents a round.

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Now that is funny. How many hours of casting and loading for that box of 550rds that I blast up in 2hrs???

I picked up 3k rounds yesterday. Natchez and Midway. Remington Thunderbolts for sure but okay for plinking at cans and pine cones.

The Dicks in Portsmouth, VA (Churchland area) had CCI mini-mags thia am. I picked up my limit of 3 boxes.

As someone said, if you need, buy target/match grade or mid priced ammo per todays prices. Manufactures have so many back orders, heaven knows when they will ever catch up for those wanting to buy SEVERAL bricks of plinking ammo at a time. The mfg B/O's are so huge that they have to Allocate to their customers and can charge them higher prices at the same time. Buying on the internet is the only option in our neighborhood for volume buy.

Our Club Chief Range Officer is also the gun dept manager at our local Gander Mountain. One of our competitors has purchased CCI SV bricks from him when he gets it in. Today, it still continues in our area, its who you know. That is how it is and is pretty sad. :banghead:

I reload 30/30 using my on cast bullets for $ .05 cents a round.

I can and do reload for 30 cal. carbine for 1/2 that.

Handgun rounds are even less.

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So you get free primers?

So you get free primers?

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Jim, I believe that's a negative. Probably using an old stash of primers and a powderless subsonic round...at least the story adds up that way.

I don't know guys, I've spent the past two years buying a few off beat (for me) brands but I've also acquired a dozen or so bricks of Aguila SE standard velocity and CCI SV at a hair under $40/brick (and I shoot it). I didn't have to spend hours online to find those prices and often they were available for a week or more. Both brands do very well in most of my .22s and I have no more years to waste on being soured, angry, or disenfranchised; leave that to teenagers, they're good at it.

I've tried to pass along 400 rds of Eley Sport 40gr LRN plinking ammo. The stuff will not run in my Buckmark. Tried to get $4/box of 50rds and got nowhere. That's about what I paid for it, but seems most are holding out for a return to $.05/rd pricing.

I reload, and shoot a lot more center fire these days because I won't pay the high prices of .22LR commonly seen. The hoarders can have it.

Yeah, availability and pricing are ridiculous. A friend of mine bought an M&P 15-22 last weekend and asked me to help him find ammo. After searching for five days all I was able to buy was three 100 round boxes of CCI Mini Mag at $6.50 per box and two one thousand round boxes of Winchester M22 Tactical for $55 each (including tax). The M22 Tactical comes packaged as two 500 round boxes inside one larger outer box, it more resembles a cinder block to me rather than a brick, I digress. One whole week and all I could find was 2,300 rounds. Something's gotta give soon!

This time last year, I had about 2000 rounds, less than half of which were "auto-grade" stuff, like MiniMags.

Now, without serious effort on my part (just a few trips to wikiarms.com and a few lucky breaks at the local Bass Pro Shops store), I have probably 6500 rounds. Maybe 2300 are MiniMags, and another 2500-ish are other reportedly "auto-grade" stuff, such as Federal AutoMatch and Champion. Admittedly, I haven't tried those latter two in my auto pistols yet.

On top of that, in the last year, I have acquired four firearms in the caliber (three rifles, two of which are autoloaders, and one handgun.)

So, no, I'm not "soured" on the round. Not by a (wait for it!) long shot...