Folks, there ARE insiders at work at Walmart!
Those of you that claim to have found 22LR are lucky enough to live near a Walmart that does not have insiders at work.
In my area, the same fellow is alerted when 22LR arrives, and drags his wife and all his buddies in to clean them out whenever it goes on the shelf.
How he is accomplishing this is beyond me - I don't know if these folks are voluntarily giving him a "heads up", or if there is some money involved.
He sucks up all the 22LR, then hits the local gun shows / flea markets and sells at highly inflated prices, often putting 50 rds. in a snack bag at ridiculous prices.
Remember when Winchester had the M*22 ammo recall a while back?
After seeing the notice at Walmart, I heard him tell one of his buddies he had already mixed it in with the rest of his ammo (I guess you take your chances buying stuff in snack bags at gun shows & flea markets)!
I learned a few tricks over a year ago, and beat him at his own game until I got all the 22LR both my and my buddies needed. I also tried to saturate the local market in order to deny this fellow inflated profits, and provide ammo to shooters that were being denied ammo by his tactics.
He does have a mouth on him - he's told me more than he should, and I've overheard conversations with his buddies while waiting for the ammo to roll out. A local gun shop owner said he came in his shop the other day and told him how he had a lock on 'bout all the 22LR ammo coming in a number of area Walmarts.
Fortunately, 22LR ammo has been arriving at our local gun dealer for quite some time now. It's a hodgepodge of brands / loads, but he is getting it in on a regular basis - not at Walmart prices, but he's definitely not gouging.
Fer example - a brick of something going for $25 at Walmart he's probably selling for $35, etc.
As for where all the ammo is going, there are a LOT of folks like myself that never shot 22LR until the glut of AR style rifles (and 1911's, etc) flooded the market over the last few years.
I and friends all have 22 AR's, and regularly shoot quite a number of rounds (we ain't your father's single shot squirrel hunters)!