.22lr ammo, the good old days are back :)

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wally

wally

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Restocking now that .22lr is easy to find for a tad under $0.04/round (<$20/500) Not as good as when I first invested in "retirement ammo" circa 2003, but pretty much what it was before the great Sandy Hook panic and shortage. I never imaged .22lr not being buy it when you need more, I only had enough of a supply to get through the panic by dumb luck buying a large quantity "on-sale" just before it hit.

Been getting Federal 550 bulk packs at Walmart for $19.97 each time we've been there the past few months. On-line I've been seeing CCI MiniMags for $300/5000 ($0.06/round) but I prefer the cheaper stuff for shooting steel plates, YMMV.
 
Around here the .22 lr ammo is about $2 more for a 555 bulk box than it was pre panic at the nearest WM. Still they, and the several LGS in the area have a goodly amount in stock. .22 MAG is still hit or miss now locally though. A box of 50 of those costs more than a box of 50 9MM or 50 38 SPL SWC though. Never did get that! Guess this is the new normal. Can't wait for those estate sales to get that 22lr those guys bought to try and gouge us.:p
 
I reached my planned levels just before I retired and I haven't looked at local prices since.

Since most of the sellers around here a big box stores, I expect prices to be higher than at specialty merchants and to adjust downward more slowly as most stores are selling to the Lexus and Mercedes crowd and so are less sensitive to price.
 
I really need to shoot a brick I have been holding on to. It still has the price tag showing $4.99 (for a brick of 500) on it from when I bought it at Big 5 Sporting Goods, a store that has never had the best pricing.

I know prices will never get that low again, but because of it coming back in stock, I have managed to pick up a few cases for a little less than $0.04 a round.
 
Fortunately, I've never missed a day of shooting or hunting because I couldn't find ammo. If I didn't have it, my brother did. I'm now helping him sell his excess ammo....at age 82, he figures his supply will outlive him. Hopefully it will be the reverse. Interesting to see some of the old prices on his ammo like Federal Hi-Power 22 shorts for $1.69 and an even older box of Remington KleanBore .22 shorts for under a dollar. These are collectible at this point, but don't know the value.
 
Dicks is selling Remington 9mm ammo for $9.98 a box of 50. Meanwhile, .22 WMR is going for around $17 a box. What's with that?
 
Picher said:
Dicks is selling Remington 9mm ammo for $9.98 a box of 50. Meanwhile, .22 WMR is going for around $17 a box. What's with that?
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It is called "value pricing". A wise supplier of specialty goods charges what goods are worth to the customer, not just a little more than it cost to make them. That worth has to do with supply and demand, quality, incentive to own the goods, perceived worth, and on and on. Basically $17 for the WMR is what the market will bear so that is the price. Ammo makers know that competition is too strong in 9mm. It is a true commodity and as such, has commodity pricing. But WMR is still a specialty.
 
Let's just say that I have a "Comfortable" supply of .22 lr. If another panic buy up of ammo happens sometime in the future, I'm well stocked with all calibers I enjoy.

Now's the time to stock up. Don't get caught with your pants down.
 
You mean you can buy Federal Lightning for .80-.88 cents per 50?? Winchester Wildcat for .99 cents per 50??:p
 
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Stock up when you have the loose funds. Buy more than you shoot. It pays off in the long run as you don't have to worry about shortages as much. I hate to worry....
 
Picher said:
Dicks is selling Remington 9mm ammo for $9.98 a box of 50. Meanwhile, .22 WMR is going for around $17 a box. What's with that?
Click to expand...

Who shops for at Dick's? No gun owner should support that place.....until they have a "going out of business" sale.

Wishoot said:
Let's just say that I have a "Comfortable" supply of .22 lr. If another panic buy up of ammo happens sometime in the future, I'm well stocked with all calibers I enjoy.

Now's the time to stock up. Don't get caught with your pants down.
Click to expand...

I still buy a couple of boxes every time I see it. My wife thinks I'm crazy. I've got somewhere between 40-50k.
 
On product shortages and price,
Rimfire uses different machinery than does centerfire. An ammo mfg.like federal can switch between centerfire round production to some extent like from 6.8 SPC to the new .224 Valkyrie but not between rimfire and centerfire.

Since .22 LR is at the bottom of the price pile normally with probably the least margin, ammo makers were reluctant to invest in more machinery versus greater profits elsewhere. Instead, some ran their plants with 2 shifts etc.
 
Picher said:
Dicks is selling Remington 9mm ammo for $9.98 a box of 50. Meanwhile, .22 WMR is going for around $17 a box. What's with that?
Click to expand...
Dick's would have to drop their price a lot further than that before I would consider buying anything from them. I refuse to support any business that employs lobbyists to attempt to weaken our rights under the second amendment. And with upper management that stupid, their prices might actually get that low. At their "going out of business sale"!
 
Texas10mm said:
Who shops for at Dick's? No gun owner should support that place.....until they have a "going out of business" sale. . . . .
Click to expand...

2ndtimer said:
. . . . At their "going out of business sale"!
Click to expand...
I'd even be reluctant to buy at Dick's "going out of business sale." We had a furniture store around here that "went out of business" every year for about 25 years. My theory is that they just sold all of the corporate assets to a new corporation every year. I'd hate to inadvertently help Dick's stay in business.
 
Yeah dicks sucks. Really sucks they did what they did.. i used to buy blazer 22s there for $25 a brick. I can get win and fed bulk at wallyworld a little cheaper but they are unreliable in my autos.. old 88 wont feed those at all. Blazer cycles in everything i have.
 
I encourage all of you to flush Dick's and attend local gun shows. I've had great luck finding really good prices (CCI SV $30 per brick, Blazer $20). Yep, good times. Also on-line...17Mach2 and 17HMR...best prices in years. Stock up, the roller coaster will start back uphill.
 
"The good old days are back...."

Not my good old days. When I was a kid in Queens, I belonged to a gun club that had a range in the basement of a small office building, the range being right under a bank. The little mom and pop sporting goods store across the street sold .22 ammo, 50 cents a box for Remington standard velocity.

They'd ask you where you were going to shoot, if you said the range across the street, they sell it to you regardless of age.
 
Prices have indeed come down from the insane high point they reached a while ago. But the "good old days" were shortly before that when .22 LR was selling for two cents a round. We'll never see that again, simply because of the nature of manufacturing and economics.
 
Yes, when I was a kid I would wait until 22lr went on sale for 50 cents a box. I worked longer for that 50 cents than I work for $10 now. While those were the good old days in many ways, ammo now is better (at least in the case of centerfire) and less costly in real terms.
Now is the time to remember who your friends are and stock up with good domestically produced ammo. And leave the lowest cost/poor performing stuff on the shelf, so the manufacturers realize that emphasis has shifted back to quality over quantity.
 
The last .22LR I bought was a 5-brick case of individual Aguila 50-round boxes for about $125 delivered. $0.05/round boxed. Same as bulk. Now that is the trick, to get boxed for the price of bulk. I'm trying to remember where I bought it, Brownell's I think.
 
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