Am I the only one?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Spats McGee

Spats McGee

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
7,504
Location
Arkansas
The Great .22 Drought of 2008 to about 2016 meant I spent a lot of time hunting for .22LR, finding very little, and shooting even less. I certainly don't want to jinx things, but both Wal-Mart and Academy Sports around here have had plentiful supplies, at least by Great .22 Drought standards. I know that a bunch of folks just quit shooting .22s, because they couldn't find ammo. When they did, it was at ridiculous prices. I horse-traded into a couple of new .22s back in December and have dug out my trusty 10/22. I've said on several different forums that I've rediscovered the .22.

Am I the only one who had almost forgotten how much fun .22s are? Anybody else dragging out .22s that you haven't shot in years?
 
You're not the only one. There for a while, most of my .22 ammo was delegated for use by the grandkids. I just shot centerfire reloads. Even at the worst of the component shortage, I could still find something to stuff cases with. Nowadays it nice to shoot .22 alongside the grandkids again. I too dug out an old 10/22 that I hadn't used for years. Damn if I could find all those mags I used to have for it tho. Only could find 1 ten rounder.
 
I've been shooting up some cheap Federal that I bought back in the 90's. Lately the 22 has been getting more use as it's handy and there is ammo.
Heck, any shooting/practice is good but it's kinda fun to grab one of the 22's, reach into the bulk box for a handful of shells and go out back to plink. :)
 
Not alone at all. Good cheap fun. And a great way to spend an afternoon with friends and family. But I do need to stock up on more .22.
 
Not at all. There are a few recently-started threads going on about .22LR, at least one of which was actually about shooting it (the others included contributions about shooting it.)

I love .22LR shooting. An all-day activity after which you barely feel anything except pleasure and relaxation, and you didn't spend much. What I get bored with, though, is paper-target shooting, and that's all I can do around here.

And, yes, I'll be continuing to stock up. I'm already far ahead of where I was going into 2013 (post-Sandy Hook and its resulting fallout.) What I did enjoy during that period was the selection of .22LR-chambered firearms that was turning up in the gun stores and pawn shops, deals on which were to be had because of the perceived lack of available ammunition for them.
 
Spats McGee said:
The Great .22 Drought of 2008 to about 2016 meant I spent a lot of time hunting for .22LR, finding very little, and shooting even less. I certainly don't want to jinx things, but both Wal-Mart and Academy Sports around here have had plentiful supplies, at least by Great .22 Drought standards. I know that a bunch of folks just quit shooting .22s, because they couldn't find ammo. When they did, it was at ridiculous prices. I horse-traded into a couple of new .22s back in December and have dug out my trusty 10/22. I've said on several different forums that I've rediscovered the .22.

Am I the only one who had almost forgotten how much fun .22s are? Anybody else dragging out .22s that you haven't shot in years?
Click to expand...

I love .22s. Almost half of my meager gun collection are rimfires.

Just a few months ago I added a Bearcat Shopkeeper to my collection because it is a .22. I've been shooting everything from Colibris to High Velocity ammo through it in the last few months. :cool:
 
I wonder if the shortage, and with it drop for 22lr firearm demand had anything to do with Ruger dropping the Standard model, IMHO the best consumer grade target pistol ever made. I want to see the face of the hoarders when the find out 22lr doesn't age well, or when everyone else figures it out, and people offer them 1c per round.
 
mjsdwash said:
I wonder if the shortage, and with it drop for 22lr firearm demand had anything to do with Ruger dropping the Standard model, IMHO the best consumer grade target pistol ever made. I want to see the face of the hoarders when the find out 22lr doesn't age well, or when everyone else figures it out, and people offer them 1c per round.
Click to expand...

Hmmm? Ruger still makes a Standard in MK IV trim. https://ruger.com/products/markIVStandard/models.html
 
I always make a point of bringing a box of ammo and a rifle to my parent's house when I visit. They have a rabbit problem and while my step dad does good work with his 22-250 they don't mind if I take a few walks on the farm rifle in tow. I was just telling a friend earlier today I need to start buying a box or two of .22 every time I pick up ammo for any other gun.
 
I am in the habit of buying a box or three of .22/.22 WMR every payday since it has returned to the shelves. Sometimes it is a bulk boxes at WM, sometimes it is an add on to a on line order, sometimes it is a Brick or so at the LGS. I had been doing this for many years before after getting squeezed out in a local drought in the 70's. I still had enough .22 that if the dems had won I could have still shot what I wanted for at least 8 more years before slowing down. Still restocking that back up before prices jump again is always prudent. I own many .22 firearms and did not change my behavior much other than take more time reloading, testing, and shooting some 32 long/38 SPL ammo as it was as cheap to shoot as replacing the then expensive .22 ammo I could have shot instead. Yep primers and rimfire are the things to make sure you have plenty of these days I think. YMMV
 
Until the era of The Great Shortage, I think most of us were spoiled by how cheap you could buy .22 ammunition. It was not uncommon to find bricks of quality .22 rimfires for well under ten bucks. Of course, I can also remember paying .29 per gallon for gasoline-and complaining about it. o_O
 
We weren't spoiled paying under $10 a brick. The ammo companies just weren't as greedy as they are now. Inflation didn't rise THAT fast. They suddenly found themselves in the position where people would quite literally pay anything they wanted. And then we had all the clowns cleaning out Walmart as soon as they got a shipment in (literally, the clerks at WAlmart told me that they would bring it out at 0730 and at 0745 it was all gone - and it was the same guys every week) and selling it at gunshows for REALLY stupid prices. And people kept buying it. What they are cranking out now is way overpriced and the quality is horrible. I doubt if I will ever buy rimfire ammo again. The last 500 round brick I bought had 100 rounds of complete duds in it and the rounds that would fire sounded like they had different powder charges in every round. I'm probably going to trade all my rimfire guns off for something I can load quality ammo for. It's really a shame.
 
Last edited:
Drail said:
What they are cranking out now is way overpriced and the quality is horrible. I doubt if I will ever buy rimfire ammo again. The last 500 round brick I bought had 100 rounds of complete duds in it and the rounds that would fire sounded like they had different powder charges in every round. I'm probably going to trade all my rimfire guns off for something I can load quality ammo for. It's really a shame.
Click to expand...

I have a whole lot better luck than that with a brick of ammo. But I admit that I shy away from the loose bulk packs that only have 300 rounds of so in it. I favor ammo that comes in boxes of 50 or 100 whether it is packaged into a larger brick or not.
 
When the Great Obama Shortage started all of the factories went to 24/7 production. They pushed those plants HARD to produce massive quantities and that was when I started seeing quality control go down the drain. Apparently it is now the current standard.
 
I was always able to find ammo. Just not cheap bulk ammo. And to be honest when I started shooting the target ammo I have no interest in going back to the cheap stuff. I find it more satisfying to shoot fewer rounds and be able to hit 3" targets at 200 yards than just making a lot noise shooting 6" targets at 25 yards.
 
Spats McGee

The Not So Great .22 Drought never really affected me all that much. I already had plenty on hand (always picked up a brick or a bulk pack every time I went to Walmart), and usually took at least two or three .22s with me every time I went to the range. Typically a bulk pack of ammo would last us the range visit with quite a few rounds left over for the next time.
 
I’ve bought a few rimfires in the past few years, three Henry’s (1 a WMR) and a couple of Rugers (1 a WMR). I live for shooting them, and for bringing my son along and teaching him how to shoot as well.

I also had ammo enough to last me and some friends through the Obamascare, but I also have bought a lot of both LR and WNR in dinks and dunks since it has returned.

Stay safe!
 
Funny, I was recently thinking about this (how .22s can be so much fun to shoot) after my daughter and went out to the woods and shot a few hundred rounds through my 10-22 TD (it'd been forever since I took out any .22) ... she had a blast (only rifles she'd ever shot previously were my ARs and a lever action Marlin .30-30), and I was reminded that while shooting the big boomers and making big holes can be fun too, plinking with a .22 is where most of us started and can be ever so satisfying. Ran by Wal-Mart and picked up another 1000 rounds of Stingers and Mini-Mags ...
 
George P said:
Took my 10/22.17-4 and RWS .177 to the range yesterday; lots of fun with all three. Air rifle pellets are even cheaper.
Click to expand...
I also bought a pellet gun during the drought, a Ruger Impact in .22. Haven't gotten to shoot it as much as I'd like, but I like it so far.
MedWheeler said:
I love .22LR shooting. An all-day activity after which you barely feel anything except pleasure and relaxation, and you didn't spend much. What I get bored with, though, is paper-target shooting, and that's all I can do around here.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it really is very relaxing. And it was so nice to shoot ~300 rounds and figure that I'd only spent about $15 in ammo.
SwampWolf said:
Until the era of The Great Shortage, I think most of us were spoiled by how cheap you could buy .22 ammunition. . . . .
Click to expand...
I must also admit to also being spoiled by simple availability. As a product of 1980s Small Town Life, I didn't really stock up on .22 for a long time, because I just figured I would always be able to just grab a box at Wal-Mart on the way to the range. Clearly, I was wrong. Never again, though.
jmr40 said:
I was always able to find ammo. Just not cheap bulk ammo. And to be honest when I started shooting the target ammo I have no interest in going back to the cheap stuff. I find it more satisfying to shoot fewer rounds and be able to hit 3" targets at 200 yards than just making a lot noise shooting 6" targets at 25 yards.
Click to expand...
I'd like to try out some more precision .22 shooting, but I have to admit that I'm a bulk pack plinker at heart. I'm perfectly content to spend an afternoon killing tin cans out in a pasture.
Old Dog said:
Funny, I was recently thinking about this (how .22s can be so much fun to shoot) after my daughter and went out to the woods and shot a few hundred rounds through my 10-22 TD (it'd been forever since I took out any .22) ... she had a blast (only rifles she'd ever shot previously were my ARs and a lever action Marlin .30-30), and I was reminded that while shooting the big boomers and making big holes can be fun too, plinking with a .22 is where most of us started and can be ever so satisfying. Ran by Wal-Mart and picked up another 1000 rounds of Stingers and Mini-Mags ...
Click to expand...
Yes, it can. I don't remember any more how much .22 I gave away during the drought, but I don't think I ever turned away anyone who wanted to teach their children to shoot. Had a couple of buddies in that position, and I didn't want them to have to pay scalpers' prices.
 
The panic buying didn't affect me much since I had a stockpile already. I slowed down some but still gave away some ammo to those who were short. Now I'm building it back up to what I consider a reasonable level along with powder and primers for reloading. There will be another shortage at some point and those who don't prepare for it will be griping again. It wasn't caused by the manufacturers. It was caused by the people who panicked and the scalpers that seized the opportunity. If people hadn't tried to stockpile all at once or paid the crazy prices the scalpers would have gone away.
 
Old Dog

I have to admit I'm a bit of an enabler whenever I take my daughter to the range. She has her Beretta Neos and while she's busy blazing away through a bulk pack of Federal Auto Match, I'm loading magazines for her as fast as I can (probably shouldn't have bought so many of them but they are so well made, easy to load, and I got them for such a great price that I couldn't resist)!
 
Thomas Mayberry said:
The panic buying didn't affect me much since I had a stockpile already. I slowed down some but still gave away some ammo to those who were short. Now I'm building it back up to what I consider a reasonable level along with powder and primers for reloading. There will be another shortage at some point and those who don't prepare for it will be griping again. It wasn't caused by the manufacturers. It was caused by the people who panicked and the scalpers that seized the opportunity. If people hadn't tried to stockpile all at once or paid the crazy prices the scalpers would have gone away.
Click to expand...
That’s pretty much the way things were for me. I did slow down on shooting 22’s as much as I had prior to the shortage.
But what I found was people were dumping their 22’s at the Pawn Shops. I was able to pick up some nice 22 rifles. I was able to pick up an unfired Marlin heavy barreled bolt action from a guy for $150, still in the box, about three years ago. It’s still in the box today. I think I’ll pick up a scope for it and go have some fun.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

T
  • Locked
$99 22's - any good?
Replies
15
Views
949
Daniel964
D
M
  • Locked
Am I the only one?
2
Replies
26
Views
3K
MountainPeak
M
webrx
  • Locked
I think Covid has changed my range trips
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
4570Tom
4
F
  • Locked
How Much Ammo Do You Really Need?
2 3
Replies
68
Views
3K
taliv
T
P
  • Locked
Does no one else search for perfection?!
2 3
Replies
73
Views
3K
TCU
T
Back
Top