Ammo price

[kerreckt]

So you'll buy from them instead of their competitor, that's why. And that's how it works. It's not rocket surgery or some great consipiracy. It's simple supply and demand.

I know I was buying a brick (500 rounds) of .22LR for about $15.00 before the "big shortage". Please let me know when competition together with supply and demand brings it back to these prices.

 

[kerreckt]

Our food is better and healthier than it's ever been.

Please share with me the sources of this statement. Hopefully, an independent study i.e. one not funding by the food/chemical industries. I won't continue this because it is unfair to the OP to hijack his post.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

I know I was buying a brick (500 rounds) of .22LR for about $15.00 before the "big shortage". Please let me know when competition together with supply and demand brings it back to these prices.

Maybe it will get back there. Maybe it won't. It depends on how much ammo manufacturers are willing to produce at various price points and how much consumers are willing to buy at various price points. That is supply and demand.

 

[Rule3]

What country do you live in? We've discussed gas coming down to levels not seen in a long time. We have ARs that can be purchased for <$500 when not too ong ago they were $1500+. All the calibers of ammo are coming back to near pre-panic prices. The housing bubble burst. I can go on but I won't waste the bandwidth.

Our food is better and healthier than it's ever been. Our average lifetime has grown by many years. We do have meds but they help maintain our health where previously we died. We have more comforts and gadgets than ever with more on the way. I don't know where you live but we live pretty well when you look at our history. Maybe you don't live in the USA so I may be off base but I don't know what you expect if you do live here. More welfare? Free ammo? What?

But how much does a AK cost now (to keep it about guns)

What pre panic price for ammo, still pretty damn expensive??

How much is a "cheap" car?? (yes they have Bluetooth and cameras now)

 

[kerreckt]

Maybe it will get back there. Maybe it won't. It depends on how much ammo manufacturers are willing to produce at various price points and how much consumers are willing to buy at various price points. That is supply and demand.

Actually, supply and demand has nothing to do with producing at a "price point". It is the availability and demand of the buyers for the product produced that determines price. This is how it should work in a free unencumbered marketplace. All I am sure of is that demand is quite high and limited production will keep prices high. That is without considering the impact of regulation(s).

 

[Cannibul]

I am curious about the new polymer bullets on the market. I can't imagine the cost being more than the present process of making bullets. If the bullets perform then we may be in for a pleasant surprise a short way down the road even if it is for range use.

It's a lot more complicated and slower to make that polymer bullet than it is to swage lead wire.

I had a lot of .22LR ammo stored up 8 years ago when the shortage started. I bought a lot on sale because like primers theories were starting to inch up. I would love to say I saw it coming but I didn't, I was just being cheep. When I found a sale I bought several bricks, not just one because I wanted to save money.

Now, the problem is, even though I still have a lot of .22 ammo I'm afraid to shoot a lot of it because I still don't know when I can replace it. It's almost as bad as not having the ammo. Almost but if course not as bad lol.

I know the feeling. Yesterday while working in the shop I found a ammo can full of CCI Mini Mags. I added them to the shelf and started counting. Just shy of 20k rounds of Mini Mag, and almost 40k total of .22 LR.

After the 2008 shortage I wised up and started buying .22 LR anytime I found it at a decent price. I was living in Portland at the time and Bi-Mart would run Mini Mags on sale for ~$5/100. Coming home from work I drove past two stores. I'd pick up the limit (500) at each store. Doesn't take long to get the stock built up even when you're shooting it.

When I realized that it was possible that .22 LR could be scarce and/ or unavailable, I began to buy the stuff when it was available - I was willing to pay the inflated price but not the obnoxious price (I passed that up). Over time, I realized that I had accumulated about 7k rounds; based on my shooting habits, that is about five lifetimes for me. I stopped buying about two years ago; my supply is now comfortable (way past comfortable is more like it) - I now see it on the retail shelves and that is good. There are probably lots of shooters like me who's appetite is way past satisfied and are out of the market (at least for a while). I think that the supply will go up and the price will come down but I do not think that the "good ole days" of super cheap .22 will return. Kind of like gasoline, we now think that a $1.95 per gallon is a bargain. Good shooting.

We paid $1.83 for gas the other day. Best price this year was $1.47. That's a lot less expensive than it's been in a LONG time. Sure it used to be $0.39 but the minimum wage was under $2 an hour. Inflation adjusted gas is pretty cheap right now.

Walmart's price on Mini Mags is just under $7/100 now. Walmart never fell into the hype and charged what the market would bear. That's why it's been so scarce on their shelves. My wife and I were out and about on Friday last week and Academy and Atwood's had plenty of .22 LR on the shelves. I picked up 1000 subsonic rounds for $0.06 per round. Not CCI but good ammo nevertheless.

If you;re a shooter and you're smart you'll start stocking up on rimfire ammo once it's commonplace again. There will be another shortage and it might last even longer that this one which has been going on now for almost 4 years. The 2008 shortage lasted about 18 months.

 

[Cannibul]

I know I was buying a brick (500 rounds) of .22LR for about $15.00 before the "big shortage". Please let me know when competition together with supply and demand brings it back to these prices.

What time frame do you consider "the big shortage"? What .22 ammo were you getting for $0.03 a round?

 

[kerreckt]

What time frame do you consider "the big shortage"? What .22 ammo were you getting for $0.03 a round?

I bought 5000 Blazer standard velocity 40gr.LR for $125.00 in 2010. These are my preferred .22LR because they work well in all my semi-autos and I cannot remember having one fail to fire.

 

[huntsman]

Walmart's price on Mini Mags is just under $7/100

I just got a Black Friday flyer from LGS and their price is $7.99/100, local Wally didn't have any in stock a month ago.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

In 2007 .22 LR ammo was still available and did not cost a lot. Normal price was $9.99/500-525 rounds. On sale you could get a brick for $7.99 and a super sale was as low as $5.99/brick but that was rare.

I have not seen a 525 round or 550 round box in years but I have seen some fairly new Winchester .22s in a double 500 found me box.

Now days the manufacturers are making the boxes,smaller like they did to SD handgun ammo to make it seem the prices are not that high. Winchester White Box .22LR ammo was available in a 555 round box but now you can only find them in 333 round or 222 round boxes, and only rarely.

Something is very wrong here. It's just not possible to have no .22LR ammo on the shelf when ~20 Million rounds a day are being produced. (4 Million from CCI alone)

 

[kingmt]

If you;re a shooter and you're smart you'll start stocking up on rimfire ammo once it's commonplace again. There will be another shortage and it might last even longer that this one which has been going on now for almost 4 years. The 2008 shortage lasted about 18 months.

We are still seeing the shortage from 2008. There is over priced 22LR but Walmart's shelf is still usually empty. At least pistol ammo is in the shelf again. My sister is in GA & says she can't get 380ACP.

 

[Nature Boy]

I have a theory. Considering manufactures of ammo (and fire arms of the "black variety") may have been following conventional wisdom regarding the recent election, they might have been anticipating a 2 month surge in demand for a couple of months. These manufactures might have increased their inventories to profit from that demand. Since the results were contrary to what was forecasted, the demand hasn't materialized and they have too much inventory. We're also coming to year end where most companies start to care more about cash flow.

Bottom line: they need cash and have too much of it tied up in inventory. Time to have some sales. They'll start to test the water with small discounts but the closer we get to December the more the cash crunch mandates a liquidation of inventory and bigger price reductions.

 

[Cannibul]

In 2007 .22 LR ammo was still available and did not cost a lot. Normal price was $9.99/500-525 rounds. On sale you could get a brick for $7.99 and a super sale was as low as $5.99/brick but that was rare.

I have not seen a 525 round or 550 round box in years but I have seen some fairly new Winchester .22s in a double 500 found me box.

Now days the manufacturers are making the boxes,smaller like they did to SD handgun ammo to make it seem the prices are not that high. Winchester White Box .22LR ammo was available in a 555 round box but now you can only find them in 333 round or 222 round boxes, and only rarely.

Something is very wrong here. It's just not possible to have no .22LR ammo on the shelf when ~20 Million rounds a day are being produced. (4 Million from CCI alone)

Just over a penny per round? I don't remember those prices since the '80's. Mini Mags at the local level were $4.49.

Academy had 525 round packs of Thunderbolts today.

Let's break it down. The normal supply chain, when everything is working right, for .22 LR ammo is about 30-45 days supply in the chain. Right now let's say there's 20 million rounds being made per day. There's ~3465 Walmart Supercenters.

That's 5772 rounds per Walmart per day. Just over a case. That's JUST Walmart stores. Doesn't count all the other places that sell .22 LR. There's somewhere around 130,000 FFL holders out there. Let's say half of them have an actual store. That's 65,000. So that 20 million rounds per day equals 308 rounds of .22 LR per dealer per day.

Now do you have any questions about where all those rounds are going?

I have a theory. Considering manufactures of ammo (and fire arms of the "black variety") may have been following conventional wisdom regarding the recent election, they might have been anticipating a 2 month surge in demand for a couple of months. These manufactures might have increased their inventories to profit from that demand. Since the results were contrary to what was forecasted, the demand hasn't materialized and they have too much inventory. We're also coming to year end where most companies start to care more about cash flow.

Bottom line: they need cash and have too much of it tied up in inventory. Time to have some sales. They'll start to test the water with small discounts but the closer we get to December the more the cash crunch mandates a liquidation of inventory and bigger price reductions.

The manufacturers of .22 LR aren't sitting on it. It gets made it gets shipped.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Just over a penny per round? I don't remember those prices since the '80's. Mini Mags at the local level were $4.49.

Academy had 525 round packs of Thunderbolts today.

Let's break it down. The normal supply chain, when everything is working right, for .22 LR ammo is about 30-45 days supply in the chain. Right now let's say there's 20 million rounds being made per day. There's ~3465 Walmart Supercenters.

That's 5772 rounds per Walmart per day. Just over a case. That's JUST Walmart stores. Doesn't count all the other places that sell .22 LR. There's somewhere around 130,000 FFL holders out there. Let's say half of them have an actual store. That's 65,000. So that 20 million rounds per day equals 308 rounds of .22 LR per dealer per day.

Now do you have any questions about where all those rounds are going?




The manufacturers of .22 LR aren't sitting on it. It gets made it gets shipped.

You can rationalize all you want but talking down to me is wrong. Remember, I did say Per Day... I also didn't say a manufacturer was sitting on the ammo, it's who might be buying it and keeping it out of circulation that bothers me.

As for the ammo prices, Dick's Sportingoods had sales. Just before everything went nuts centerfire ammo was also on sale. You had to buy the case and I got Remington 115gr FMJ 9mm ammo for $42.99/case, Remington 130gr FMJ .38 Special for $44.99/case and 230gr 45 Auto ball ammo for either $49.99/case or $51.99/case, I can't remember exactly.

 

[kingmt]

You run into deals every so often. I'm not usually the one but the other day I got Remington 40S&W for 12 cents & 45ACP 10 cents a bang.

The same in 9mm was 36 cents. Go figure.

 

[Cannibul]

You can rationalize all you want but talking down to me is wrong. Remember, I did say Per Day... I also didn't say a manufacturer was sitting on the ammo, it's who might be buying it and keeping it out of circulation that bothers me.

As for the ammo prices, Dick's Sportingoods had sales. Just before everything went nuts centerfire ammo was also on sale. You had to buy the case and I got Remington 115gr FMJ 9mm ammo for $42.99/case, Remington 130gr FMJ .38 Special for $44.99/case and 230gr 45 Auto ball ammo for either $49.99/case or $51.99/case, I can't remember exactly.

Per CASE? 1000 rounds? I wasn't talking down to you. I was showing why there's not a lot of .22 sitting around everywhere, even though it's pretty common to see it sitting around in stores other than Walmart right now.

Hit two LGS and an Academy yesterday and all were loaded with .22 ammo.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Per CASE? 1000 rounds? I wasn't talking down to you. I was showing why there's not a lot of .22 sitting around everywhere, even though it's pretty common to see it sitting around in stores other than Walmart right now.

Hit two LGS and an Academy yesterday and all were loaded with .22 ammo.

A case is 10 boxes of 50 so no, not 1000 rounds but half that. That is on the Remington site. Still, $4.29/50 rounds is excellent and was a time where I would never think to load for the 9mm.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

come on guys, y'all all know the gubmint is buying up all the .22LR just to keep it out of our hands

 

[Big7]

Just happy I have plenty either way. I may be a little short on my "favorite" powders but I have
substitutes plenty good enough for hunting and PD.

Plenty of cases, bullets and primers, along with cans of mil-surp.

1 full can of "various" .22 from Stingers on down to junk, along with another half can of just Stingers and Yellow-jackets.

I made MY run in 07' when things started looking up for bummer'. Glad I hoarded them then. Imagine what it
would be like if billary' had won.

 

[kingmt]

come on guys, y'all all know the gubmint is buying up all the .22LR just to keep it out of our hands

I seen they actually did contract a huge number of them. It's been years do I don't remember that number but I know I was a little dumbfounded.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

There you have it, boys! Confirmed. The goobermint contracted a huge number some years back and now we can't get no twinny toos.

 

[hdwhit]

Aka 3006 wrote:
I read a interesting article about 22 long rifle ammo price.

Do you have a link to the article? Or a citation if it was in a published source?

What was the author's rationale for saying 22LR prices would fall into the 4 cent range?

 

[Swampman]

I am curious about the new polymer bullets on the market. I can't imagine the cost being more than the present process of making bullets. If the bullets perform then we may be in for a pleasant surprise a short way down the road even if it is for range use.

Unless you're talking about jacket material, the only new "polymer" bullets that I'm aware of use copper powder in a polymer matrix.

Copper is much more expensive than lead.

 

[larryh1108]

Unless you're talking about jacket material, the only new "polymer" bullets that I'm aware of use copper powder in a polymer matrix.

Copper is much more expensive than lead.

Yes, that's the one. Cost is a bit higher right now but as with all new products, cost comes down as supply and demand increases as well as competition joining the party. These bullets seem to have an impact on our future ammo.

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2015/10/23/tested-the-polycase-arx-bullet/

 

[Nature Boy]

The Lake City 420 round, M855, stripper clip, ammo can package has kind of been my barometer for ammo prices. Just saw it for $185. That's the cheapest I've seen in 4-5 years