Midway's "Deal"on 22 and .223

I remember paying three bucks a box for WW .233 FMJ with the NRA Roundup from Midway. I remember mentally debating whether I wanted to round up to $4, or buy a case and only pay $3.75 the box.

That latter was a ways back, like 2002 or '03, so a bit more than a decade. Back then, I also had an LGS that was selling similar ammo at similar prices.

Using Usinflationcalculator, that 2002 $4 box would only be $5.25--imagine our world if that were the case instead of $12/box.

I remember paying three bucks a box for WW .233 FMJ

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Once again, the ammo in the link isn't cheap fmj ammo. It's a JHP Varmint round. It currently sells for $30 box/40 rounds. I shot a bunch of it back in the late 90's when I had a Handi Rifle. It sold for about $17 back then.

Using Usinflationcalculator, that 2002 $4 box would only be $5.25--imagine our world if that were the case instead of $12/box.

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$12 a box?!?!?! I can find m193 or its equivalent for half that, or 6.00/20 when buying case volumes. ANyone paying 12 bucks a box for .223 fmj needs to shop around more, as it can certainly be had MUCH cheaper.

50 years ago.

We burned a lot of ammo when we were teenagers. My buddy's dad would order us a case of 22LR in the spring and then again in the fall. So we shot around 5000 rounds each per year. If memory serves, we paid $45 for a case of 5000. I also remember buying 22 Shorts for 27 cents a box. Bargains, even back then. Even when our pay was 85 cents an hour.

I just ordered 2 bricks of Norma at $54@. Thunderbolts are running in the same price range so I sprung for a little better product.

Davek1977 said:

I wasn't buying .223 ten years ago, but I was buying .22 certainly...............and never at a penny a pop for HP's, even in bulk.

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10 years ago (2005) I could buy .223 Federal 50 gr. HP varmint rounds in a 200 round bulk box for around $45 (about 22.5 cents a round).
Here are some pictures of one purchased in 2005 and shows how they came packaged.




The bulk pack .22 LR hollow point from the same time frame (2005) was $7.95 for a 550 round package (about 1.4 cents a round).
Here is a picture of the bulk pack.


The Federal 22 LR ammo in the same packaging went up to $8.97 the following year and by early 2008 the same type package was $11.97 (walmart prices). During the same time frame - Remington golden bullets in a bulk pack (525 rounds?) was $1 to $2 more a box.

I'm not disagreeing that .22 could be had cheap back in the day, as I have several of those very bulk packs tucked away. What I am saying, and no one can contest, is that .22 hasn't been available at LESS than a penny a round in a LONG, LONG time. Cheap, yes, but not THAT cheap

that works out, by my math, to TWO cents a round, 2x the claim made in the OP

30 years ago:
.22LR HV was $0.03ea but machineguns could be bought for $500

Hindsight is 20/20

It was 1958 I got my very first rifle, a Remington Model 510P. Those little 50 round boxes of 22 LR were about 50 cents so about a penny a bang in small quantity. So what's the point? I still have the rifle but any 22 LR I bought at a penny a round is long, long gone down range. Along with the penny a round there was also:

House: $30,000
Average income: $4,650
Ford car: $1967-$3929
Milk: $1.01
Gas: $.24
Bread $.19
Postage stamp: $.04
Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti, 15 1/2 .oz can.: $ .19
Corned Beef: $.59 lb.
Swiss Steak: $.75 lb.
Libby Tomato Juice, 5 (46 .oz) cans: $1.00
Kraft Carmels, 1 lb pkg: $.37
Milk: $.42 half gal.
Uncle Ben’s Rice, 14 oz box - $.19
Sunkist Oranges, 5 lbs.: $.49
Cantaloupe: $.05 lb.
Celery: $.04 lb.
Tuition at Harvard: $1,250 yr.
Nathan's Hot Dog: $.25
Roundtrip airfare London to New York: $453

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40 or 50 years from now my grand kids will be talking about how when they were kids 22 LR could be had for a nickel a round or less and what a great deal that was. Life goes on.

Ron

Gas, milk, houses and movies all tripled in price in the last 20 years too... your wages probably did too. So what's the point?

quote: "Gas, milk, houses and movies all tripled in price in the last 20 years too... your wages probably did too. So what's the point?"

" your wages probably did too"

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Doubtful most peoples wages have tripled , if anything wages have been stagnant or even decreased for most especially in the last 10 to 15 years.

But as far as ammo skyrocketing , that has more to do with panic buying then inflation or the economy or the value of the dollar. If it hadn't been for panic buying especially after the sandy hook massacre a box of 50 9mm would still be close to $9.00 and brick of 500 .22lr would still probably be $15.00 and available everywhere.

I just browsed gunbroker for .22 ammo, 23 pages of listings. There isn't a shortage of .22 just a oligopoly on it. A lot of sellers selling it don't take credit cards which tells they aren't even a business but are flippers. $50 for a brick of .22 is not a good deal that is still more than double what it should be. Other posters in other countries like Canada report that .22lr is available everywhere for them at half the price of $50 for 500 so it is American gun people who are acting like heroin addicts needing a fix for their ammo and American sellers are taking advantage of it. Stop buying .22lr and being so worried that you gotta have it now or never will or might miss a couple range outings and prices will fall back to pre sandy hook prices. Then e will finally be rid of the flippers buying up Walmart .22 and flipping it for twice as much.